Hoi An and Saigon

After Sapa, Pat and I prepared ourselves for a long train ride and a much warmer climate than we had been experiencing in the south. We were taking one train to Hanoi from the border town of Lao Cai *an hour away by bus from Sapa) and from Hanoi we were catching another train allllll the way below the old DMZ line to the small city of Hoi An. Why go to Hoi An? For the culture, sure, but mostly we were going for some tailor made- cheaper than you can get in Canada-custom fit clothes. Like every other foreigner in Hoi An.

So our first task was to hop the bus from Sapa to Lao Cai. There are busses everywhere in Sapa so it should be easy, right? No.

We got on a bus, no problem there. And the bus driver knew we had a train to catch, he did. And we proceeded to drive in a circle around the town of Sapa until we picked up more passengers. I went from nervous to frightful to furious in a mere forty minutes. Finally, after the ten thousandth loop around the small town, we raised our voices a smidgen. Then we got one more passenger and the bus driver made us get out and get on another bus which had more people. I nervously checked the clock: it read 7:40 AM. Our train was due to leave at 9. And it was still an hour to drive to the train station. Ugh.

So we were finally on our way, packed tightly in a slightly falling apart mini bus, and I cursed the fact that there were no guard rails down the winding, one lane road. When we arrived in Lao Cai, we ran to the train station, scared to death that we had missed our train, and were met by three people: one girl behind the counter who had no idea what I was going on about, an older woman who kept saying "It's ok, it's ok" and a frowning younger man who kept replying "NOT ok, NOT ok". Apparently they didn't recognise the ticket I had. The man phoned the number on our ticket and remained frowning. The older woman kept reassuring us that everything was ok and we had not missed our train, and the girl behind the counter continued to chew her gum sullenly.

Finally the man said "Ok, ok" and exchanged our first ticket for a proper train ticket. The woman told us their wasn't any food on the train and took Pat to a place where he could get a baguette. While Pat was gone, I profusely thanked the man, who I assumed worked for the train station, for helping us.

"Ah, no problem", he frowned.

Then he said: "Are you going to give me something for my trouble?"

I was taken aback. I said "What?"

He said, "You know, I don't work here, I am just working for myself. Give me some money for what I did".

Not knowing what else to say, I replied "My boyfriend has all the money".

When Patrick got back, I whispered that the guy wanted money from us. Pat, who was hurrying me to the train, told me to forget about it, he was a jerk and he scared us when he shouldn't have. We started to run for the train and the guy trailed after us:

"Hey! What about me?!"

I replied that he never informed us about his "business" beforehand and he wasn't getting a cent. And my faith in humanity was shaken.

I told Pat that at least the older woman was kind to us. Patrick replied sarcastically, "Yeah. She made me go to her store to buy food. She didn't work for the train station either".

How depressing.

The train ride was very uncomfortable. Apparently when the Vietnamese say you booked a "hard seat" they literally mean a wooden bench. For about 11 hours. My bum's faith in humanity was shaken that day, as well. But the locals on the bus were great fun. They would just take our stuff without asking, looking through our books, playing with our playing cards, looking at the pictures on our postcards and laughing. It's like we were all old friends. A man who sold tea would sit down next to us and say we were like his children. That was sweet.

When we finally arrived in Hanoi we had a few hours to kill. I suggested that, if the hard seats were really that hard, then the hard sleepers would probably be absolute hell, as that is what we planned to sleep on en route to Hoi An (our train left at 11 and was due to arrive the next day around noon). We tried to get some soft sleepers but to no avail, and we ate a fattening meal at Lotteria (Korea's version of McDonald's, spread all around Asia) and had a beer at what appeared to be an upscale brothel. Finally we boarded our train and discovered, to our delight, that the hard sleepers actually have cushioning. Excellent. I fell asleep immediately.

The next day, after training through some beautiful seaside landscapes, we arrived in the city of Danang (a bus ride away from Hoi An). We forgot what the weather in the rest of Southeast Asia was like: unbearably hot! We didn't want to pay 10 American dollars to get to Hoi An by car, so we opted for the public bus, which we were told was only 10,000 dong (75 cents) per person. When we got on the bus, the ticket man demanded 50,000 dong from us. We said no, and he kicked us off at the following stop. We waited for the next bus, and they didn't try to overcharge us (although I handed her 10,000 dong extra, just in case).

We arrived in Hoi An and Pat found a great place with a pool and cable for just 12 bucks a night. Yay. We spent the next two days having fitting after fitting, picking out fabrics and eating clay pot pork with rice. Then we took the train once again on our way to Saigon!

Note: the dude on our bus back to Danang tried to overcharge us as well, but luckily I still had our tickets from the last bus that clearly said "10,000 dong from Hoi An to Danang". The ticket guy knew he was had, and to make him appear that he had not lost face we stayed quiet and simply handed him our fare. It's important for Asians never to lose face.

On the train to Saigon, I got cheated twice more by a guy that a) tried to show us to our car (which was clearly number four. I can count.) and then demanded money for helping us and b) a guy who served us a meal on the train and never gave me back my change, shaking his head and smiling and then quickly walking away. I mean, none of this would have cost us much, but it was the principle of the whole thing that made me very angry!

We arrived in Saigon at around 6 AM. We found a taxi that was honest and he took us to the backpacker district where we found some good accomodation. Pat wanted to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels, where the Vietnamese hid from the Americans during the "American War", as they call it, but I was tired and found that we had Discovery Travel and Living included in our cable. Hmmm, tunnels, or all of my favourite cooking shows that I haven't seen in ages? Easy!

Pat went to tht tunnels and had a great time, while I ate a great breakfast and watched Anthony Bourdain... and had a great time. When he got back we went to the War Museum, which was a sobering experience with very graphic images (but was surpisingly neutral in it's content! They talked about how both sides were affected by the war, not just the Vietnamese) and then proceeded to have some of the best ice cream I've had in three months before heading back. We left the next day on a bus bound for Phnom Penh, which is a mere six hour drive from Saigon. Goodbye, Vietnam! You're a wonderful country with some people that infuriate me, but I have no hard feelings.



The mean streets of Saigon.

Pat in his new suit, a la Toto Tailors in Hoi An.

Me, trying to sleep on the sleeper train to Danang. The view was too nice to nap, though.

The sandwich stand that dreams are made of... Pate Baguettes! Thank God they have them in Cambodia, too!

Outside the War Museum in Saigon.

Peace paintings by the children of Saigon: The War Museum

Clearly the Cu Chi Tunnels were not made with Patrick in mind.

Who keeps these darn bombs lying around?!

A typical Cu Chi Tunnel room. Uncle Ho: you the man.

Pat is like a kid in a candy store.

Images of victims of the "American War".

I wouldn't want to be a victim of these guy. Would you?

I got softhearted on some kid that looked like my brother Rory and bought this dragonfly that defies gravity. See how it rests on my glasses?

My new winter coat.

Sapa made me Cheat on my Island

After Halong Bay, we didn't want to waste any time in Hanoi before heading straight to the former hill station town of Sapa, which is located in Northern Vietnam (extremely close to the Chinese border). Like the rest of Vietnam, Sapa was under the control of the French for quite a long time and the buildings in the town of Sapa are very French in style. Combine this with the looming mountains that surround the town and the vast sheet of impenetrable fog that rolls in at around noon every day, and you can almost make yourself believe that you aren't in Vietnam at all, but have instead stumbled into some European fairy tale town in the Alps. Needless to say, I enjoyed Sapa immensely.

From Hanoi we took a night bus that would drop us off in the town of Lao Cai early in the morning. From Lao Cai it is a climbing, one lane, winding and very scary 30 kilometres to the top of the mountain and the town of Sapa. The bus was very comfortable- air conditioned, fully reclining seats, blankets and a pillow provided- but it was almost impossible for anyone to sleep because of the booming Vietnamese pop music that the driver refused to turn down for more than five minutes at a time. Not a huge deal for me, I took half a xanax and managed some shut eye. My friends and Patrick were not so lucky, and as soon as we arrived in Sapa we made for the cheapest and most comfortable beds to be found and didn't get up til noon.

The cheapest beds in town, it would turn out, were great value for the price we paid! I'm beginning to see in Vietnam that, as far as guesthouses go, you pay for exactly what you get. For 8 US dollars a night, Patrick and I got a cozy double room with the hottest shower yet (the fog chills you right to the bone in Sapa, making very hot showers necessary), a TV with cable and an amazing view of the terraced fields that line the valleys below. It was wonderful.

At lunchtime we met up with Gen and Scott, famished as we were. Scott wanted to try some special Sapa pho which is just a spiced up chili version of regular pho (Vietnamese noodle soup). We made our way through the market, past the dead carcasses of former animals, past the screamingly fresh produce and with two small hilltribe girls following us the whole way. They weren't annoying. Actually, they were well spoken and quite witty, for the little English their mother's taught them in order to sell trinkets.

"You buy something?", one would ask.

Gen and I would shake our heads and smile at them.

The little girls would smile back brilliantly and give a little laugh, knowing full well that they were already wrapped around our little fingers. It was only a matter of time before Gen or I would break down and buy one of their little silver bracelets.

They took their time, didn't rush us, but never strayed too far away. Whenever we would see them, watching us from afar, we would laugh and they would smile at us and give a knowing little wave.

We made our way to the eating area of the market, saw that all of the stalls sold the same thing, picked one at random and got some pho and fried rice for lunch. The pork was fresh and, like the other pork we would see, the skin was a bright red from whatever spices they cure it with. The woman at our stall made the best pho I have ever tasted. The cilantro was fresh and not overpowering, the rice noodles were perfectly cooked and the pork was all meat- no grit or bones top be found. The rice was delicious as well, with a sprinkling of lime juice and a garnish of cilantro. When the woman handed us the chili sauce that one gets with every Vietnamese meal, however, I misjudged the power of her homemade concoction since I'm used to putting tabasco on everything and use chili sauce instead of ketchup. I put the same amount of her chili sauce that I would normally use with regular bottled chili sauce and ended up breathing fire. But it was all good.

Of course, the little girls were waiting for us while we ate and I finally broke down, buying one bracelet from each little girl, giving them one American dollar each. No problem, since Patrick has two small neices that the bracelets will fit perfectly. The little girls were very grateful and gave Gen and I two little homemade bracelets that look like the friendship bracelets I would make as a kid. I've been wearing mine around my ankle ever since. I don't usually give in to the pressures of street vendors, but these kids were completely professional and it broke my heart a little.

We did a little hike to the top of the hill, then went back for a rest and a hot shower followed by some BBC Newsworld. We met for dinner and, just as we sat down, the power went out. We ate by candlelight and had a yummy meal of "Sapa soup" (beef and cilantro), fresh spring rolls, fried spring rolls with shrimp and apple (delicious), and, of course, a cheeseburger and fries. Gluttons or what?

The next day we woke up bright and early. Pat and I spent a fortune on train tickets to Hoi An for the next day, and Scott arranged for some scooter rentals. We spent the most amazing day driving for 35 kilometres in the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. In the heat of the moment, I even dared to say it was more beautiful than Cape Breton. That's the closest I have ever come to cheating on my island, but Sapa deserves the praise. It definitely rivaled the Cabot Trail, and we had the most awesome picnic with the most gorgeous scenery ever.

OK, Pat is hurrying me along as we have to catch a bus to Phnom Penh. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. Bye for now! Next is Hoi An.

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Our first drink of shady vodka. Monkey Island, Halong Bay.

On a lovely bike ride in Cat Ba Island, Halong Bay.

Boy with cow. Cat Ba Island.

Napping woman. Halong Bay.

Their boats were like convenience stores!

Janine and Gen, slightly mysterious looking. Outside the "Amazing Cave".

The harbour in halong City.

Selling everything, everywhere, at any time.

The other side of the cliff: Monkey Island resort (not our beach).

Our own little cove: Monkey Island

Our beach huts: Monkey Island

Cat Ba Island.

Scott on a bike. Cat Ba Island.

Me on a bike. Cat Ba Island.

Halong Bay

Amazing Cave

Amazing Cave

Our junk, as seen from Amazing Cave

Seriously; convenience stores!

Enjoying the balcony on our boat.

Halong Bay

Our guardian dragon.

After about two days in Hanoi, we were definitely ready to head off to Halong Bay, the famous World Heritage site in Northern Vietnam where the limestone cliffs shoot straight up out of the sea and you can explore vast caves. The woman who sold us the tour made it sound really great: the first day spent in a fancy room on a traditional Junk, yummy seafood on the menu, a cave to explore, kayaking and swimming followed by dinner and then chilling out- the second day would be spent on Cat Ba Island, the largest island in the bay, where we would bike, then hike, and finally bike again to a ferry that would take us to "Monkey Island" (self explanatory name, right?). On Mokey Island we would stay in some fancy bamboo huts and we could go kayaking, fishing, swimming and do lots of other fun activities. The final day would be spent travelling back to Hanoi, with a nice lunch as a final farewell.

Sounds really great, right? We thought so too, and Lonely Planet said that, as far as Halong Bay was concerned, you pay for what you get. So we didn't mind forking over 30 bucks a day since we thought we'd be travelling in class and style.

This sounds ominous, doesn't it? The truth is, our trip was fun. We had a great time. But either the woman who sold us the trip, or the tour guide who took us around, lied about almost everything that was in the itinerary. Not that it was a big deal, and not that we're complaining, but that was our first taste of the common deceptiveness many Vietnamese show towards foreigners... and there would be much more to come, but that's for another post. Bottom line: we love Vietnam. This country is amazing and we've had an amazing time. But very few people have been honest with us, and many have outright stolen from us. Can't have a rose without a few thorns, though, right?

So, at around 8 AM, we were picked up at our hotel. The hotel management gave us an icy goodbye, clearly angry that we had not booked our trip through them, and we were greeted on our mini bus by our first surprise- all of our boatmates, save for a brother/sister duo from Germany, were Vietnamese! Nothing wrong with that, of course, as we had fun meeting them and swimming with them was quite humourous, but the woman had told us we would be with other foreigners. Oh well! Not a big disappointment as foreigers can often be the worst travel buddies.

We left Hanoi and drove for about 3.5 hours until we reached Halong City- our jumping off point. Everywhere we looked there were tourists! Foreign and Vietnamese, old and young, rich and poor... you get the idea. When we saw the vast amount of Junks in the harbour waiting for their passengers we got a little overwhelmed. Which one was ours?!

It turns out, our was the super nice one that was anchored a little further away from the others. Sunchairs on the top deck, rooms on the bottom floor, dining room in the middle, and ladders going up the sides so you could just jump off the boat if you felt like a swim. We didn't really feel like swimming because it was drizzly and the climate up North was actually much chillier than we had been used to in the last few countries. It was a nice change from 35 degrees (or more) and sunny every day.

We lucked out even further when our guide told Me, Pat, Gen and Scott that our rooms were away from all the others, up on the same level as the dining room. When we got to our rooms we were very happy with what we saw: TV, mini fridge (for the booze and mix we were smuggling- way too expensive to buy drinks on the Junk!), nice big, comfy beds and lovely decor. Oh, and a nice bathroom with shampoo and soap and toothbrushes and hot water. Yay.

(Later we found out that the TV and fridge were just for show- indeed, Scott looked for his fridge's plug in and saw that it was non-existent- yet another little fib!)

We had a lovely lunch of fresh steamed prawns, cucmber salad, rice, meatballs and a nice seafood stirfry that was a bit spicy and featured cuttlefish. My fav.

Afterwards, we settled in on our communal balcony (only for us two couples, though- our rooms took up the back of the junk so, even though we got privacy to consume our illegal rice vodka, we also got the exhaust from the back of the boat's motor) and had a few drinks. Then we arrived at the cave (another point worth mentioning was that we passed by an island that we were supposed to visit but didn't. It looked fun, a bunch of Koreans were dancing and partying. When we asked our guide about why we didn't stop he said it wasn't on the itinerary. Liar!).

The cave was called "Amazing Cave". And actually, it was pretty cool. That being said, I never cared about seeing a cave and had very low expectations. But I think everyone thought it was pretty cool. Pat got some nice photos!

After the cave we went kayaking, although at this point it was raining pretty heavily and my glasses were wet and I couldn't see where we were going. It was still fun, though, and we weren't going to have another activity taken away from us! We passed by entire villages built on rafts. Puppies were tied on a short leash so they wouldn't fall in the bay and drown. Other dogs barked at us, and the locals stared us down as we glided past. We got up close to a few of the limestone islands and saw the grottos and small caves that are prevalent in the area. We had fun.

When we stopped kayaking, it had stopped raining. We were already wet, so we jumped off the boat into the bay. The guys jumped from the very top of the boat, while I was content with jumping off the first level. Poor Gen looked cold and didn't go in at all, but she got some pictures of us splashing around.

The next day, we were told that we could choose between biking and hiking. Woah... what? The woman told us we would be biking first, and then hiking, and then biking again. But our guide, as per usual, said that was "not part of the itinerary". We started to wonder why we booked a more expensive trip than other people. So we chose biking as we all had done our fair share of hiking already.

It was beautiful! I wish I had gotten a chance to spend more time on Cat Ba Island. It was eery; shrouded with mist, and very beautiful. The people in the village were quite friendly as well. It was a great bike ride along the vegetable fields and we all felt that we made the right decision, especially since, if we had hiked, we wouldn't be able to see anything by the time we made it to the top.

After our bike ride we made our way to Monkey Island, where we were promised a BBQ lunch on the beach. When we arrived, we saw a deserted (but nice) set of bamboo huts with a few poor souls holding up the fort. And no BBQ. But lunch was nice nonetheless- I REALLY like Vietnamese food! So, like I said, it was deserted. We were the only guests. Awesome! Our beach was isolated and only reached by boat, and it was a bit stormy when we arrived so we couldn't really do anything except drink some shady vodka we found at a street vendor (the boys drank first in case it made us go blind) and play cards. It was still pretty fun.

The next day we made it back to the mainland, had a really delicious lunch and went back to Hanoi. And that was the day we realized not to trust the average Vietnamese salesperson.

The End. (Next comes Sapa).