VIETNAM
We made it! We're now in Thailand so we've been able to connect and update the Vietnam page of our site. Enjoy! Scroll below the map of Vietnam for our updates and photos.
General
Observations about Vietnam -
written by Laura
One disclaimer before you begin. Please remember that Aaron and
I have never been in a true 3rd world country before (this has
been nothing like Russia or Poland) so this has definitely affected
our experience in Vietnam. I'm sure once we've been to a place
like India or Africa, we'll think differently about our time
in Vietnam. But for the most part, its been a very challenging
month. There wasn't a week we didn't discuss leaving the next
day and flying to Thailand sooner than planned. In the end, we
lasted the full 4 weeks and saw a lot of the beautiful sites
Vietnam has to offer, as well as experienced some of the challenges.
Traffic - all laws are optional. Thing have changed with such a veangance, that people used to walking are now riding bikes, and they ride bikes the way they walked in the village. Same with motor bikes, people drive the motor bikes like bicycles, same with the cars, people drive cars like motor bikes, and you guessed it, it was the same way with the bus drivers! So in essence, people drove buses like they walked! Faulty logic is there, somewhere.
We were mostly just means for them to make money. All throughout felt like an animal on display or that the cirucus had come to town. My butt and thighs were slapped every day by someone who just couldn't believe what they saw. Aaron was a major source of attention. Everyone wanted to see his arms and admired how tall he was. After the first day of this, we both got very sick of it.
When we first arrived in Hanoi I couldn't believe the noise, confusion, and frantic energy I encountered. Our 4 year old Lonely Planet Guide describes Hanoi as "slow-paced, pleasant and even charming." This was not our experience! Needless to say, after talking with some ex-pats who have lived in Hanoi for 6 years or more, they confirmed that 4 years ago Hanoi was just that, slow and charming. Now with the increase of cars (there were hardly none 4 years ago), scooters, bikes and people, its like being in an ant colony. There are 80 million people in Vietnam, and most live in Hanoi or Saigon. This is the equivalanet to the popluation of Germany, but somehow it felt so different.
In the streets everyone lives half indoors and half outside, and the homes are built with this in mind, well, for those who have houses. There was one family living in a construction site right behind their little shelf of wares on sale. The houses have one big front room where the TV generally is, and everyone, most everyone, has a TV. We saw TV antennaes sticking up from boats on Halong Bay! So the people have their shop in front of their big room, and so we bought Sua Chua and Yo Mots right in front of the family watching Aaron's favorite Vietnamese Cop Show! Sua Chua is a delicious yogurt, far better than Yoplait, and Yo Mots is a yogurt drink, yum!
Hanoi, July
31- Aug 3 written by Aaron
The best thing about Hanoi was our hotel, the Nam Phuong Hotel.
Tai and Son took care of us, we ate at the Kangaroo Cafe next
door, and used the Internet Cafe connected to the hotel! Hanoi
is just a really big village, crowded, people living all over,
noisy, smelly, with every vehicle imaginable zooming about.
We worshipped often at the AirCon. Laura worshipped it as a God.
NorthWest
Highlands, Aug 3- Aug 10 - Written
by Laura
We got very lucky to have done this side trip. Not only was the
scenery the best in Vietnam and the weather MUCH cooler, we traveled
with two young French women who fast became great traveling compainions
and friends.
We had had enough of Hanoi and decided to start traveling in the north. We couldn't decide if we should go to Sappa in the northern mountainous area first or Halong Bay. We had checked out various tours offered by various hotels and cafes but couldn't make a decision. In the Real Darling Cafe while eating breakfast we found an adventure tour being offered. It was a 7 day 6 night jeep tour looping through the northwest passing through the cities we had heard would be good to visit. When we inqiured, we found out that two French women had already signed up were looking for two others to join them to share the cost. So for $150 we were on our way. We met with the and the guide that evening, signed up, and on Aug 3rd at 6:00am we were on our way to Bac Ha.
The Northwestern Highlands are mountainous, very remote and very beautiful. This is also the region where Vietnam's minority groups live. These people have either decended from China or Thaliand about 900 years ago. They wear distictive clothing, have their own languages and live in different styles of homes than the Vietnamese. The minority people seem to be the newest tourist attraction and we were lucky to go first to a small town, Bac Ha, that's not yet too touristed. The 8 hour drive to Bac Ha didn't get interesting (as long as you don't count the 100's of near head on collisions) until we started to climb elevation and got into the mountains. Bac Ha is 900 meters above sea level so we got a break from the humidity. Most of the north is filled with tribal people, indigenous people kind of like the Native Americans. That's how the Vietnamese saw them at any rate, and I tried to tell Cuong, our guide, that they weren't stupid by nature. I don't know if my ad hoc class in anthropolgy helped, but who knows.
The jeep trip was great! The roads were like the old four wheel logging roads that Aaron rode on as a child in Colorado! And we were on the main "highway" through the north! We saw a lot of beauty, but the part Aaron liked the best was staying in Mai Chao, a stilted house of the White Tai ethnic people. The food was great, and we were living among the rice paddies. Cuong, our guide, took Aaron to a cave nearbye. We then arrived back to the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. We found an expensive restaurant to eat some food that came all at the same time and was recognizeable!
Laura in the market, hosting her own PBS special
Laura and Aaron in the rain near the Cat Cat water falls
Laura and Cuong bargaining with a Red Hmong woman, notice the buffalo!
Aaron sampling some local cuisine with Cuong
Aaron making his way across a bridge Indiana Jones style!
Laura with the White Tai family whom we bought a knife from
Laura washing clothes White Tai style
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Halong
Bay (near Hong Gai), Aug 11- Aug 16 written
by Aaron
The French Contingent of the World Trip, Amondine and Elodie, presuaded us to go with them to Halong Bay. And guess who we saw on the bus there? Gail and Vince, the Brits we met in China! How cool is that? So Laura and Gail started in on their marathon conversation and before long we were in Halong Bay.
That day we booked a boat and toured around the rock formations. Pretty nice, but then we dove into the water, and there was nothing to see! We got to see first hand the ecocide that is hurting Viet Nam. Twenty-five years of war has really left its mark on the land, and the water. While we were on the boat, a family in their boat motored up and tried to sell us fish and shrimp.
One of the reasons we went to Halong Bay was to kayak, and so early the next day we wandered around trying to find a kayak. We found one, but it had been left out in the rain for a long time and it looked weathered. Then a motorbike taxi guy came up and he said he could hook us up with some Vietnamese boats. So we rented the boats from these two women and they came on the big boat with us out to the islands. We rowed around, and it was a lot of fun. At the end of the day, though, we decided we were going to pay the women up front their cut, and then pay the motorbike taxi guy. We also wanted to tip the women for letting us use their boats. It all turned sour. One of the women took all the money as well as the tip, and they started to fight and we got to see how money can turn neighbors against each other. There is an old saying in Vietnam, when money comes, family and friends go. It was humanity, right there. It all reminded me of John Steinbeck's, The Pearl, and how Kino's life was ripped apart by a fortune. We left Halong Bay wiser.
Laura, Amondine, Elodie in Halong Bay
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Hoi An (near Hue) Aug 17 - 20 written by Aaron
The bus ride to Hue was horrific. Yeah, it was twenty hours in a bus that had been packed full of people. There was no room for luggage, so our backpacks were put on the main aisle and people stepped over them as they left. There were no bathroom breaks, and when they were, it was just by the side of the road. The women had to band together and go with a protective screen. And to make matters worse, we had to sit in the back right on the engine which blew heat on us making it about ten million times worse. Laura and Gail rebelled when two people got off the bus. Gail put her foot by the driver and driver hit her to which Gail screamed, "Oi, bloody hell. Don't you bloody hit me!" It was a running joke for the rest of our time in Viet Nam. The bus ride was supposed to be only fifteen hours, but hey, the roads had been washed out in a flood the year before and they were rebuidling them. Five hours late, we missed our connecting bus to Hoi An, and we had to stay in Hue. Laura was enraged and she organized the other bus riders into a union, but to no avail. We did get free tickets to Hoi An, well, not free, but well, we could use our tickets the next day.
Hoi An was sweet! There were clothing shops everywhere. I got fitted for a corduroy suit, my pimp suit for when I get back, and Laura went off, buying blouse after blouse. We had ten kilos of clothes made and all for only three hundred dollars. Two suits for Aaron, a dress, a skirt, a jacket, seven blouses for Laura. It was great! Gail and Vince had to change rooms because Gail was attacked by a rat, but we had a great time at a beach near Hoi An, and we found a great Indian food in Hoi An. We also hooked up with two British girls that had been on the bus ride from hell, and so the six of us ate at the nearest Western food place, Shorty's. One night we played cards, Gin Rummy, and I won! It was my skill at card playing that won the day. And my great sense of humility.
Aaron being fitted by one of the tailors (it took 7 meters for his hip corduroy suit)
Aaron and Laura in their new clothes made by the talented Lan!
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Nha Trang, Vietnam Aug 21 - 24 written by Aaron Ritchey
Well, Nha Trang was not the beachside resort we thought. It was a huge city, hopping and jumping. We booked on a boat trip around the bay, Mama Hanh's, and when we got on the boat, these soccer hooligans, loudmouthed partying Brits, started screaming and drinking and they never stopped. We were there with Gail and Vince, and the twin Brit girls, Sarah and Lisa, and we had a good time. And the partying soccer hooligans turned out to be good guys after all. They had a floating bar, and when the guy swam up to me for this wine drinking competition, I told him I didn't drink. He turned to Laura and asked if I ever drank. She said that I had hit my quota early and he swam off. The boat ride was a lot of fun.
The next day we hung out, had dinner with Sarah and Lisa, talked politics, and we even got an invite to Lisa's wedding in September of 2001. So now we have date in England! The itinerary gets more and more interesting!
Shepherd's Pie at Shorty's (Gail, Vince, Aaron, Laura, Sarah, and Lisa)
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Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon), Aug 24 - 26 written by Aaron
Our bus ride into Ho Chi Minh City was amazing. We were a little leary about another odyssey into hell (Sarah and Lisa, the British women flew!), but we decided to try it. We told the guys in Nha Trang that if the bus ride was awful we were going to get our money back! Well, we got a minibus to ourselves, practically, and we lounged all the way to Saigon, a little chilled by the good AirCon! We were warned that Saigon was dangerous, and well, it was a little daunting. It was Hanoi on steroids, or a Vietnamese Los Angeles. There were more cars, more people, more motorbikes, more bikes, more chaos! We found a great restaurant though, and I had oregano! Oh, it was heaven. And guess who we saw there? Gail and Vince! Once more our paths crossed!
We had to leave them though because there was a friend of mine in Bangkok and he was flying out on the 28th. So we just did the tunnels of Cu-Chi. And it was amazing! The pictures you'll see are tunnels cut for tourists. The real tunnels are half the size! Half! We went through them with a Japanese family. Laura thought it was Ironic that we were seeing one of the most important battle grounds with two previous enemies, the Vietnamese and the Japanese. We watched a video after the tunnels and they kept using the phrase "American Killer Heroes". It was a little hard to take, to see the other side of the war. The Vietnamese refer to the American Invasion and the Liberation of Saigon, and we don't call it a war and its the Fall of Saigon. AFter the tunnels we went to a firing range, a dollar a bullet, and so Laura and I fired an AK-47, the most popular of the assault rifles, and an M-16, what the Americans used during the war. Laura also shot an M-9 machine gun, and all the guns were fully automatic. We only spent 60 dollars, but that was with a lot of restraint! It was odd, it was like a fast food restaurant of guns! We made the joke, "I'll take thirty rounds for the AK-47, a large fries, and a coke." When I left, I told the soldiers that were supervising the shooting that we need to stick with targets from here on out, targets, not people.
And then we left Viet Nam, flying standbye on Vietnam airlines. We got on the plane and left Vietnam behind. It was a hard place to travel in, but the experiences we had were worth the effort. I learned how to say, "Nice Buffalo" in Vietnamese and we got to see where one of the most important wars for America was fought.
Laura in the tunnels of Cu-Chi, coming up from level two
Aaron in a tunnel (remember, the real tunnels were half as big)
