Vietnam- General Impressions and Random Thoughts by Dave

We are taking a moment to reflect...

Vietnam was good. Way better than Cambodia, although I think the Cambodian people were more friendly. Or maybe they just were more bored. Or needed our money more. Here the people that talk to you are very nice, but not like in Cambodia. The streets are much cleaner (although you would find them dirty if you never went to Cambodia). I would say that the entire country could use some paint. But it really is a nice place.

To rank where we've been- 1) Hoi An 2) Saigon 3) Can Tho 4) Chau Doc 5) Hanoi. Hanoi had the best hotel that we've stayed in, but Hoi An and Saigon were nice too. Hoi An was fun cause we bought stuff indiscriminately. Saigon was way more interesting a city than Hanoi, and it was real easy to eat there.

If you've read my posts at all, I am certainly ready to come home. I miss my dog, my bed, my clothes, tap water, credit cards, clean streets, lack of perspiration.... But besides that, Vietnam has been pretty good. I'm sure Carrie is typing that she wants to move here (hell, she wanted to move to Cambodia to teach English for a year), but I think the most I would come back for is a holiday in Hoi An or the like. I won't be taking such a long trip probably ever again, but maybe a 2 week vacation or something. If only I can be so blessed to take vacations in Vietnam for 2 weeks.

The food has probably been the biggest difference between expectations and reality. It is all good, but not like Thai food. I found myself eating a lot of Western Food just because I wasn't craving Vietnamese. Doubtful that will happen in Thailand- as much Tom Ka Ga and Pad Thai and Pad Se Ew as I can eat.

Oh- and the whole country loves brand names. Fake Lacoste, Dolce and Gabana, Nike, Puma, etc everywhere! I wonder if a real Lacoste store would do well here.

Not much else. 2.5 more weeks. It will be a relief to get home and relax for most of August (besides the economics, accounting, etc that I need to start reading).

Off to Laos...!

Halong Bay

Back on the internet! Just spent two days at a UNESCO world heritage site- Halong Bay. Google just told me that means that Halong Bay gets prestige and awareness as a site to protect for future generations to enjoy, and can be eligible for financial assistance. That is today's educational lesson.

Our bus picked us up at 8:15am (after we enjoyed some chicken pho for breakfast- that is a sort-of spicy chicken noodle soup for you unindoctrinated folk, and, for as much as we've tried to avoid eating street food, we just found out it's made at some lady's stand down the street and is the best we've had). We piled in the bus and found ourselves with some other travelers- a son and parents from Malaysia, Dave, Sandy and Gail from NYC (Dave lives in Hong Kong), and we picked up four British Doctors that just worked in New Zealand for a year (Fiona, Jane, Ellie, Tory). As you can see, we didn't talk to the Malaysians very much, but the rest of us turned out to be a very fun group.

We sat on the van-bus for 3 hours, eventually ending up in Halong Bay. We had one stop at a crafts place where we were tempted to buy, but did not since a) we have no more money and b) we might want some souvenirs in our house from Thailand as well. But, at the bay we loaded up on to our shuttle boat to take us to the cruising boat. We had heard horror stories of dilapidated boats and rats on board (if you get the cheap tours), so we went with the more expensive tour - Baitulong travels on the White Dolphin. And we were not disappointed- the White Dolphin was a very nice ship! You should have heard the British girls shout in delight when they saw there rooms- I can only imagine what types of places they were staying in before. It was a very nice room, although the shower was dimly lit and the AC wasn't cooking enough for us (but when it is this hot and you are out all day, it is never cooking enough!

Our first activity was waiting for lunch. 30 minutes after we went on board, we sat for an 8 course lunch. It started with a very traditional Vietnamese food- French Fries! No problem, Carrie had been craving them for the last 10 days. Then, in no particular order, we had clams, crab, fried fish, and a seafood salad with rice. Fruit for dessert (and maybe one or two more dishes- as with any cruise, they fed us till we dropped).

After lunch came the exploration of the Amazing Cave that was used as a film set in James Bond- Tomorrow Never Dies. Quite beautiful! Definitely inspired us (me at least) to go find some caving expedition when we are up on Boston. Outside the cave was a floating village that people live on year-round. They even have a floating bank!

After the cave, we got back to the White Dolphin for swimming and kayaking. Most of us went kayaking to another part of the bay that was used for the movie. Inside that little cove, everyone jumped out of their kayaks to go swimming. Why not? What danger could there be? Little did we know that there was a jellyfish lurking under the water with a hunger for my ankle. When it grabbed me, you've never seen me move so fast back into my kayak. I nearly flew out of the water. I guess it didn't grab me to bad, since my leg just got red under my calf, and it tingled/hurt quite a bit. But after a nap and some insect bite lotion (forgot our benadryl) and some beers, the leg didn't hurt at all!

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing on the boat, enjoying the scenery, sun, and water. Lots of people dove off the boat into the water (neither of us did). We also discovered the secret to saving money in Halong Bay. The drinks from the boat cost upwards from $2 for a small bottle of water- a far cry from the $0.40 we spent in Hanoi. But, the floating village residents use their entrepreneurial instincts and load up little row boats filled with snacks, cold water, wine and cold beer. Of course, they cost more than in Hanoi, but significantly less than the boat. Carrie got us a bottle of wine, and I got Pringles, Oreos, and some Gold Beer.

About this time, we picked up two people from Australia. They were on a 2 night cruise, as opposed to our 1 night, and had been deposited on a different boat that morning, with a plan to return to our boat (their original boat) in the afternoon. Since we were the only other couple on the boat, Lindsey and Darren became our dining buddies. Lindsey is actually American, but had been living in Australia for the last 7 years. It was fun to listen to her Australian accent go in and out. Darren would later present himself as the instigator of our midnight boat diving adventure.

Dinner was with Lindsey and Darren, and similar food. Shrimp (head on), noodles, fish and crab cakes. Good, but we didn't take as many pics since we had company.

After dinner was just drinks and hanging out, and the aforementioned diving off the boat. I overcame a my old fear of heights, and my new fear of jelly fish and jumped as well. It hurt quite a bit landing, but the fall itself was fun. Carrie amused herself mostly by laughing at me. After Ha (our tour guide) came up and told us we couldn't dive anymore (little did we know that our dives took us right past the sleeping Malaysians windows) we headed off to bed.

We woke at 7:30, and found some people already lounging and enjoying the post-sunrise sun. Some (Darren and other Dave aka Disco Dave) didn't join us until 10ish, do to the additional activities of the night before, but we won't go into those (let's just say 2 bottles of wine, bottle of tequila and 2 bottles of Vodka for 11 people). But it was a very relaxing morning in the Bay with both a full breakfast and lunch. We got back on the van-bus and headed back to Hanoi. It was a long trip on a bouncy bus with a stop at another touristy place. Carrie and I got ice cream cones that tasted like they had been frozen 5-10 years ago.

Back in Hanoi we were exhausted, but we had to head out to FedEx to send our clothes from Hoi An home. We had heard that the Vietnamese Post Office was quite difficult to use, and we didn't quite trust them, but fortunately there was DHL, UPS, and FedEx all on the same block. We carried our 25.5 kg of clothes to each one and asked them a price for the US. When that came back as $400, we decided to send them to Chris's in Singapore. Much cheaper ($173 at FedEx). We will be picking them up and checking them thru on our way back home. And if anyone from FedEx reads this- it is really ridiculous that you don't take credit cards in Hanoi. And if anyone reads this at VietBank, it is really ridiculous that you have never seen a duel signature travelers check, but I appreciate the tellers patience as I explained to her why my signature didn't match Carrie's.

We headed back to the hotel for a shower and Carrie got to watch the end of a movie that she fell asleep during the other night (The One with Jet Li and Jason Stathom. Really really bad). Then we walked out to get some eats. The thing with Hanoi is, it is really hard to eat. There are a million places that you can eat from someone cooking on the curb, but if you want an actual restaurant, you better be prepared to walk, or know where you are going in advance. Eventually we found a place called Gecko. I didn't get Vietnamese besides my spring rolls, choosing an average Hawaiian Pizza instead. I like Vietnamese, but I don't really crave it (can't wait for Thai tho). Carrie got a traditional dish, Cha Ca- more or less Vietnamese grilled fish fajitas but with rice paper instead of tortillas. It was really good, and might be our lunch today.

After dinner we went to the night market. The night market is pretty cheap and a good place to go for some cheap souvenirs, but of course, we already bought most of what we needed. So we walked around, sweated alot, and headed home. Carrie fell asleep in the middle of Ocean's 13, but I made it thru.

Breakfast this morning was Pho, and Carrie is currently getting her nails done for $2 at our hotel. They actually clean the tools, so why not. Today should be a lazy walk around day, and then check out and head to Luang Prabang in Laos. The next time you hear from us we will be at the Merry Guest House!

Hanoi, Oh boy!

So, today was our first full day in Hanoi and our first day in the old "North Vietnam". Last night was pretty unproductive after we arrived. We asked the hotel for the name of a good, reasonable restaurant nearby and ended up at Green Mango. Don't get me wrong, the food was great, ambiance wonderful and lots of airconditioning, however, reasonable price it was not. We ended up spending around $20 for Singaporean chicken and pesto fetticini with prawns which doesn't seem bad, but when you can go and spend $5 for a full meal, it's a little pricey.

We got back to the hotel and started realizing what an amazing place this is. It's called the Hanoi Boutique and Dave happened to randomly find it online. We were able to get an air-conditioned room for $25 a night. When we first got here, we were greeted by the front desk, offered a seat and they brought over a fresh plate of fruit for us and water. There is also free internet and whenever we are down here, someone brings us a glass of water, comes to talk to us, and we were just given huge pieces of dragon fruit to eat. Very friendly place where they speak English and help with Tours. Our room is brand new, clean with a separate shower and toilet, A/C and hardwood floors. It's a little loud because it's in the front of the building, but hey, we're in the city. We love it here!

Anyways, back to today. We started out our day with of course, eggs, bacon and bread. Very good though. We were greeted at 9 by our tour guides from Hanoi Kids (www.hanoikidsclub.org) Tree and Hai (sorry about the spelling). It's a program run by Hanoi students wanting to practice their English who give free tours to visitors. It was a great experience for us to be able to talk to them and ask questions about living in Vietnam. Hopefully though I didn't speak too fast for them.

We started out at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. There are a ton of rules for this place. No bags, no cameras, no sunglasses on your head, no hands in your pockets, no talking... You wait in a long line and then are shuffled through a huge marble museum, past Ho Chi Minh's body. It's a little crazy to see. It looks like he is sleeping. You just feel bad looking at this man, who wanted to be cremated, laying in a box for the entire world to come and view. Definitely a little unnerving.

Afterward, we walked by a beautiful French building which was offered up to Ho Chi Minh, but he rejected to live in a smaller habitat. Of course the original was closed, but we were able to see the stilt house he lived the rest of his life in and the smaller house he died in. Very simple. It was set in a beautiful landscape with a large fishpond and was extremely crowded!! We decided to forego the museum as we were a little museum'ed out. After we stopped by the One Pillar Pagoda which was built by a king and dedicated to Buddha for giving him a son. We were able to see many people praying as this was the first day of the lunar month.

Next stop was the Temple of literaturewhich is the oldest University in Vietnam. It is a beautiful complex with many buildings and statues of the old teachers. There are also 88 turtles which it is good luck for students if they rub all their heads. Since tomorrow is the huge country exam, many students were trying to make it by security to get their fill of luck.

Fact break: Today marks a big day for Vietnam for 2 reasons. First, although all adults are required to wear helmets, beginning today, all children under the age of 14 are required to as well (you would have thought this would be the opposite). Secondly, today marks the first day that the Vietnamese government is charging income tax on their people, although according to our guide in the Mekong, they are not sure what the money will be used for.

Ok, back to our day. Off we went to lunch which was the same as the place we had eaten in Ho Chi Minh. Only this time we had Tree and Hai to help us order. Our meal was great! Chicken wings (of course), buns filled with pork which were delicious, papaya salad with sun-dried beef, and noodles with a soup with grilled pork balls (also amazing!). We had a great lunch and then were back to the hotel to say our goodbyes.

After lunch, we rested for a bit and then headed out to the Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the Hanoi Hilton by the US pilots which were held here (including John McCain). This was originally built by the French to hold political prisoners and there were lots of pictures about how they were tortured. Most of it was raised, but a portion remains for the museum. There are also several rooms which show how humane the pilots were treated, basically calling it a home away from home. See the picture of the yellow paper showing the rules of the prison. We saw the uniform that Senator McCain was captured in as well as many pictures of their "great life" in Prison. Very interesting to see, once again, their point of view.

A quick stop was needed at Fanny's, a Vietnamese ice cream shop, where I tried chocolate chili (really interesting) and Dave had dark chocolate and salted caramel (also very good).

Quick stop back at the hotel to shower and then we were off to the Water Puppet Show. This art form was created in the mekong so that they could continue their puppet shows during the annual floods. There was a traditional Vietnamese band and although we couldn't understand a word they were saying, it ws very amusing the watch the puppets in the water and figure out our own story. Definitely a very interesting site when visiting here.

After, we took our first bike tuk-tuk ride to Hanoi Garden for dinner. This restaurant has a mix of Vietnamese/Chinese food. I got sweet corn and crab soup and Dave got Sweet Corn and Chicken soup. Then we split Chicken with garlic and chilis (absolutely delicious chinese-type meal) and then chicken fried rice. Dave had a beer and I had a glass of house wine. All for the low cost of $17.50. Love it!

Now we're here and heading off to bed. We're taking an overnight boat tomorrow through Halong Bay and we need to pack our overnight bags.

Oh, and the end of today marks our half-way point. Crazy! We have really enjoyed Vietnam and will talk more about it on our last day of blogging here. But seriously, what a beautiful, amazing country filled with the nicest people!

**Dave note** We also only have 3 more days to avoid eating DOG. Cody- we are looking out for your cousins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!