Thursday 10 February 2005

Week 103, Day 685

Before I go on, I forgot to mention the last rant that I ran into two girls I used to go to school with when we stopped on the way to our trip to Ha Long Bay in Northern Vietnam. For those that are interested, they were Simone Bazak and Prue Clarke! It was really weird as I hadn't run into anyone I knew up until then, and people from school were the last ones I expected to see. But it was nice, especially when they said they had also run into Faye recently. Small world.

Trains in Vietnam are frantic, manic and smelly. On our overnight trip to Hue from Hanoi, we happened to get the rudest, evilest train conductor who didn't speak a word of English and managed to send us into the wrong cabin when we had been in the correct one when we directed ourselves there. That meant that we ended up with two others (an Irish couple, who were very nice) when we should have been in a compartment on our own, and the Swedish couple ended up in there instead. Grrr arrr. Still, I know the train was better than taking a bus but Vietnamese trains compared to those in Thailand leave a lot to be desired. To top it off, the Vietnamese rip you off with the tickets charging you $35 instead of the $20 it should cost you. Normally I don't mind paying more as a traveller but that difference is just a slap in the face!

Hue brough its interesting events. We only stayed one night. On the train while in Hanoi we had been approached by a hotel tout for a new one in Hue who repeated the same things about the hotel over and over, and anytime you tried to speed him up by jumping in and saying what he was about to say, he would reply, 'One moment please' and keep on going. In the end, he assured us that if we gave him our names, we would get a free lift to the hotel but there was no obligation upon arrival to stay there. Finding the situation amusing, Alex listed his name as Alex Danger, which is what was written on the whiteboard when we arrived. The hotel was nicer than anywhere we'd stayed at and after a bit of haggling, we got a massive luxiourious room for only $10. Not bad.

The main thing to see in Hue is a Citadel, in which there is a series of buildings from the late 19th Century built by the king, using the Forbidden Purple City in China as its influence. Some of the buildings were impressive but a lot have suffered a lot of damange from US bombs. We were also constantly harrassed by cyclo drivers who could take no for an answer, and would follow us for a few streets before realising that we really didn't want a ride with them. This didn't prepare us for the chaos that was the market near by. Being the only tourists in there really didn't help. We walked in, went to the second floor to check out the clothes stalls when suddenly all these Vietnamese women grabbed us by the arms and chanted, "Madame/Mister, comes see my store. I have nice clothes" and they just didn't give up. We narrowly escaped dodging between the masses of Vietnamese people and running back down the stairs.

Hoi An was our next stop and we decided on taking a bus there. Like Laos, I was too scared to look out the window to see where we going, especially up the mountains. The drivers here really have no idea what the word 'rule' means, and nor do they follow them. Hoi An is extremely touristy but not in a horrible way. It's not only one of the older cities in Vietnam, it boasts millions of tailor stores that zip up a suit for you in less than 4 hours after being measured. I loved Hoi An - great food, great atmosphere and cute stores. It took us three nights to discover the trendy bar end of town. One place had 2 for 1 drinks where you could challenge your drinking partner to Chess, Backgammon, or play games on the computer set up on the bar, while listening to some trendy but decent bar music.

We settled into the typical backpacker routine and sourced out some tailors to make us clothes. In under US$150 we managed to get the following made: Two courderoy jackets & trousers(for both of us), a long woolen jacket (me), a courderoy skirt (er, me) and 5 shirts. Looking back, should have bought more, but I'll be prepared for next time.

We rushed to Ho Chi Minh City, anticipating the New Year Festival (Tet). Took the train down again, and this time ended up with a really lovely Western Australian couple, Dimitri and Nibella. The 19-hour journey felt shorter due to the swapping of travelling stories, the many card games and the drinking of local Dalat wine (as bought by Dim) out of cut-off plastic bottles as we had no glasses.

Ho Chi Mihn is just another city but the biggest surprise had to be the lack of being hassled by passing cyclo and moto drivers. The group of us decided to take a taxi together and ended up with the craziest Vietnamese man we've encounted yet. He was nice enough to inform us that our pronunciation of Chuc Mung Nam Moi (Happy New Year in Vietnamese) was actually 'Happy Fifty Thousand!', and followed it with a Vietnamese lesson. Not long after, he got on to the subject of music with Alex and started singing a Vietnamese version of 'Hey Jude'. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if it weren't for the fact that something I had eaten on the train the night before had my stomach in knots.

The day saw us visit the Reunification Palace - built in the early 1960's and impecablly kept, it looks like a pad that James Bond might have had in the '70s. However, apart from the political stories behind its building, it's not as impressive as The Lonely Planet makes out. What IS worth a view is the War Remnants Museum (formally The Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes). Nothing can describe the feelings that immerse you when walking looking at the photos of dismembered humans, burned bodies, deformed children (due to Agent Orange) and grotesque pictures of war. There are even jars with foetuses affected by Agent Orange which can make a grown man cry. The hardest thing about the museum is learning the cruelty so many innocent victims had to endure, not to mention those of generations to come, who have been born with defects decades after the war. It makes you wonder how man can even think that war is a good solution.

On a brighter note, the last two days have been spent in a city called Can Tho on the Mekong Delta down south. We arrived the day before the New Year so everyone was in a fantastic mood. We didn't get hassled once and everyone was chanting Chuc Mung Nam Moi, or waving 'Hello' at us. It was a lot less touristy too as I think many decided to stay in Ho Chi Mihn instead. Going there around this time was the best decision we've made. The guesthouse we had booked into, had had a confusion over the rooms which left us no space, but the owner was lovely and booked us into a hotel around the corner. We paid the same price for a room that would normally accomodate four people! We had it really good.

Like our NYE, the Vietnamese were out in droves, and headed to the river where there were boats with dragons and music. There were places dotted around the park that you could stand in front to take your NY 2005 picture, a la the way the Americans do at their proms. Most places for drinks were closed so we followed the Vietnamese up a main road and stopped at a cocktail place for a few and were pleased to find we were the only Westerners there. On we went up the road to the central park where they had a multitude of dancers, boy-bands and pop artists performing. Fed up with laughing at the cheesy dance-moves, we went back to the river to wait for the fireworks. They were more impressive than I expected.

The NY celebrations do not end there. It seems that everyone gets 'happy' on beer, rice wine or banana wine on NY day. Brilliant! We had booked an expensive boat trip along the river. Normally you go to see the floating markets, but as they are not on at this time, the driver, Han, took us first to his sister's place for a few drinks. We were introduced to her children, a 10-year old girl and 3 year old boy, and then given food, sweets and drinks. The little boy was so cute but scared of us, so we gave him our 'Starburst' lolly-pop which he enjoyed. Han's brother-in-law returned from drinking in quite a merry state and brought out the banana wine. It is tradition to share shots with people, so how could we refuse? We were also given some traditional Vietnamese NY food which was a plate of duck eggs, dried shrimp and pickled onions, sprinkled with sugar. Bizarre, but not too bad. Feeling merry ourselves, we took a walk through the village, lead by the little girl and her friend (apparantly, only the women are meant to walk around while the men sit and get drunk, but Alex convinced Han that he wanted to go). We got a lot of attention from the villagers and were invited to talk with one of them who spoke good english. Turns out he was the brother of the woman who owned the hotel we were staying at. When we returned, we gave the three children some 'lucky' money and left.

Next was Han's house. It was just the three of us and Han whips out his Karaoke set-up, telling us he is big on that. He put on some 'American' karaoke and invited us to sing, but we refused and guzzled down our beer with ice (they have no refridgeration, so they buy big ice-blocks on a daily basis) instead. Eventually, the local teenagers (all 16) joined us after already enjoying drinks elsewhere. One of the girls, Moun, took a liking to me (she said I was a pretty) and made me drink more and hand-fed me different items of Vietnamese treats that Han had layed out for us. She then proceeded to find a bottle of pink nail-polish and did my nails. She was very drunk at the time. Meanwhile, the two boys that had joined us pulled out some rice wine and invited us to shots. We couldn't refuse at first but they were so potent I had to stop a little while after. It impressed me that that's all the boys were drinking. They have some guts! We took the boat back to the pier, all feeling warm and merry. A fantastic second New Year for us!

Back in Ho Chi Mihn City now, ending our whirlwind trip through Vietnam. And only a little over 2 weeks left until the fun ends. *sigh*

x
Vanessa