Ok ok, Naomi's pervious blogs have already filled in most of the details, so I suppose I will just comment on some of the stuff that she'd missed.
My friends Angus and Debbie visited us from Australia over the past 2 weeks (28/04 - 11/05). It's been great to see some familiar faces after 3 months on the road. Always great to have someone to go out with and just have a few drinks and relax.
Apparently according to Angus, it wasn't as big a party trip as he had initially expected. But I suppose it's great to be out of the country and see something different.
Mui Ne
Mui Ne was a seriously nice and relaxing beach. Out of all the beaches we visited over the past 3 months in SE Asia, Mui Ne was the first clean, hassle-free, safe white-sand beach. The scenery was beautiful. We got to stay in a beach-front hostel. It was perfectly located.
Dalat
I went clubbing for the first time since I left Australia. It's hard to imagine that I didn't go clubbing in KL, Saigon, and all other major cities, but I went clubbing in Dalat. But the awesome music they played in the club was just too much for Angus and I to resist.
It's funny to watch some of the locals fully getting into dancing on the dance-floor. It would have been absolutely hilarious if they danced like that in Australia. However it seemed very normal in Dalat. Afterwards I realised that many men were holding each others' waists on the dance floor, I wasn't sure whether I was at the right place. Some of the patrons were drinking vodka straight. I am not sure how these kids afforded as it was very expensive (cost around $50 for one bottle).
There also didn't seem to be an age restriction for clubbing in Dalat, or Vietnam generally. Among the patrons, there were kids who seriously looked 10 years old wandering up and down drinking beer and joking around with the security guards. We were bewildred when we saw them walking in wearing sideways caps. At one stage, they even offered to buy security guards beers. Incredible!
I also went on a 2.3km cable car by myself which oversaw the whole of Dalat city and the surroundings. The view from the cable car was absolutely stunning. Everything was so green. The buildings in the town looked like little Lego toys on the canvas of trees and hills, it was a shame that the others couldn't join me.
I had an interesting encounter with my moto-driver which made him very upset in the end. This old man did not speak much English at all, and Naomi had my phrase book, so we communicated though simple sign language which as we found out many times, could mean something different to what we both tried to convey.
I thought we agreed on 30 000 VND (equivalent of $3.50) return to the cable car, but this guy thought we agreed on 30 000 each way. Both of us were stoked at the deal that we thought we made. After the cable car, he even accompanied me to this very touristy temple place which I already visited the day before on a tour. I tried a few times to tell him that I had already been, but I failed miserably. So I just let him play as my tour guide.
After we got back to the city, I thought I wanted to be generous and gave him a 10 000 tip on top of the 30 000. He stared at the money for 5 seconds and then stared at me then started talking in Vietnamese which I obviously could not understand. He then started to use sign language to tell me that I have to pay 60 000. I thought he wanted to rip me off so we both then started to argue in sign language and broken English. It did not work!
He ended up with his head in his hands almost crying. Who can resist an old man crying on top of his moto??? I had to give him an extra 10 000 to get out of there. That was really bizarre.
Nha Trang
It rained costantly while we were in Nha Trang. Debbie, Angus and I did a boat trip out to the island and did some snorkelling. It was wet, it was cheap, it was a party boat.
I am glad that we got to meet some people etc on the boat and share some travel stories. But seriously the host and the crew were just out of control. They were either high or just drunk. Some of the crew were dancing by themselves, swearing at each other and trying to hit on some of the girls on the boat. Besides their nonsense, the scenery was nice and the snorkelling was good.
We got back around 4pm for the sleeper to Hoi An.
Hoi An
I loved Hoi An. It's such a relaxing and pretty city. It's also one of the ancient cities. It reminded me of Melaka in Malaysia - when you dig a hole in the ground, you just never know what antiques or archaeologial sites you may find.
The food was seriously superb! Banh Xeo (shrimp pancake wrapped in rice paper roll with mint, lemongrass and lettuce), Cau Lau (special rice-noodle with pork slices and bean sprout), Hoi An spring-rolls. Yum!!! I think I ate Cau Lau for like 3 days in a row.
The girls were also very happy with the place. It's THE place in Vietnam people come to get suits, dresses etc made at a very reasonable price. And high quality as well. I think Debbie spent like $200 to have a suit made and 3 silk-cotton shirts. Naomi didn't do too bad either. I am not sure whether the damage was mentioned in her previous post - but I think she got 3 dresses made plus some souvenir shirts.
I just bought a few silk ties and a rip-off Lacoste polo shirt. All at around $5 each. Bargain!
We also stayed for the monthly Lantern festival when all the lights in the city centre were turned off and replaced by countles candle-lit lanterns. There were lanterns in the river as well. It was a very pretty view from the shore.
We also visited My Son (an ancient Cham civilisation temple remains). Debbie got up at 5am to get there for the sunrise, but the rest of us slept in till 7am for the 8am pick-up. It was nice to see these ancient temples (from the 4th century). Although the majority of the sites were destroyed during the Vietnam war, it's not hard to imagine the former glory of these temples in their prime days.
On the way back, we did a river cruise during which we saw some water buffalos. It was hilarious that when the tour guide spotted the buffalos for the visitors, everyone got their camera out as soon as they can and packed to the railing of the boat to take photos of them. Yes, sadly, I was one of these people.....
Hue
Hue was the ancient capital of the Nguyen dynasty. It was also where Debbie and Angus left us.
Debbie and Angus meant to leave Hue to go back to Saigon on Sunday morning. We even had our supposedly farewell meal at this lavish restaurant that served a 7 course imperial meal on Saturday night.
It turned out that Angus missed us so much that he energetically came back to the hotel from the airport and banged on our door at 10am on Sunday morning. He blamed Jetstar for cancelling their flight to Saigon. I seriously thought I was seeing a ghost when I saw him outside the door with my hazy half-asleep eyes.
Debbie decided to take a 16 hour train from Hue so that she didn't miss her flight back to Australia. We later got a message from her that she lost her sleeper ticket which cost around $50 and had to buy a new ticket (for a seat instead of a sleeper). Poor Debbie had to endure 16 hours on the train on a normal seat in the end. I would have just gone crazy if it was me. But at least she got the flight ok I suppose.
We had lunch with Angus at this Vietnamese restaurant that was owned by a man who was deaf and therfore couldn't speak (mentioned in the Lonely Planet Guide). We were a little confused when we walked to the street that had 3-4 restaurants with very similar names all claiming that their restaurant was the one mentioned in the LP guide. Businesses in this country are seriously out of control. They make money by copying the names of famous bus companies, hotels and now even the name of the restaurant owned owned by someone who was deaf! Incredible!
We spent half a day walking around the Citadel of the former imperial palace. The palace was heavily bombed during the war. Half of the buildings were destroyed. The main meeting hall still remains intact and in perfect condition. The ceiling and the emperor's chair were all gold-plated and the hall was bigger than a tennis court. Apparently during the emperor's meeting with his mandarins, the mandarins were divided into the civil and the military sections with the most senior officials closest to the emperor.
The imperial palace itself was quite large in size. It took us 2-3 hours to visit all the halls/gardens and remaining buildings. The emperors of the past must had been pretty fit from walking from building to building.
I also spent 1 day on a tour to visit the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone). It was interesting to go inside the old Viet Cong underground tunnels at Vinh Moc and visit Khe Sanh and some well-known fighting sites.
The tunnels themselves were amazing of their own. Apparently 17 kids were born inside the tunnels. There were meeting rooms, bathrooms, 2 wells, and a hospital inside the tunnels. It was very humid and stuffy inside though. After around 15 minutes of walking inside, we were fully covered in sweat when we got out. Some sections of the tunnel smelt like cologne of human body odour. It was very refreshing. Not.
Besides some of these interesting sites, the rest of the tour was pretty boring. I think most of the people on the tour fell asleep during the tour and did not bother with the guide's commentary. Some people also didn't get off the bus to visit some sites at all because of the heat.
Hanoi
The train ride from Hue to Hanoi took 13 hours. The scenery was spectacular though. Endless expanse of rice fields, tens of massive rivers, sheer rock faces, water buffaloes and hundreds of small waterfalls. A very impressive view.
I was pleasantly surprised that half the people in our carriage were looking at me enquiringly and wanted to know about me. They must have all thought that I was Vietnamese at first then realised that I was not when they tried to talk to me or when I was talking to Naomi. It's quite normal that people stare at Naomi as she doesn't look Vietnamese. It was very weird now that I was suddenly THE celebrity in town. I liked it....
We also met this Vietnamese guy who sat opposite us and couldn't stop talking to us about anything and everything. He was either very bored and just wanted to talk to someone about Australia and Vietnam etc or he just wanted to practise his English. I think it was the latter. I think I eventually managed to yawned very widely and excused myself to the bathroom. I then came back and slept.
Hanoi is a big city. I didn't find it as attractive a city as Saigon. We pretty much spent the whole day walking around to check out tour companies for Halong Bay and Sapa. I suppose we will explore it a little more upon our return.
I think Naomi had some really bad experience on Hanoi though. I am sure she will mention it when she does her entry. Stay tuned.
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