Day 91-93: Hue

I don't know what kind of travelers are in Vietnam, but after some of the transportation that Pallavi and I have taken, I'd say they are transportation pansies! We have had it with travelling through mountains. If we even hear 'mountain road,' we are looking for an alternative. That's why we didn't go and see the hill tribes in Vietnam. No more mountain roads! Well, that and overnight buses. I don't know why we are doing it to ourselves. Neither of us ever sleeps very well. We arrive at odd times in the morning. We end up spending the whole next day sleeping at wherever we are. Oh, and we are super crabby. You can only imagine the pleasantries or cold shouldered silence that occur after repetitive crabby, can't find the accommodation, why is it so far of a walk, where the hell is my coffee, god that bus was awful experiences. 

You can then understand our hesitation when, after lots of research and deciding to book our 15 hour bus to Hue, we saw all of the reviews about transportation by road, and specifically, transportation by the bus we had booked. If they were newspaper headlines, they'd read like this: "Danger ahead!" "Bus overcrowds and overbooks." "Don't say I didn't tell you so." "Never travel by road in Vietnam." And so on. 

I'd like to say that these people have no idea what they are talking about! We slept on the bus. Slept! For more than an hour. The bus had two drivers, so they weren't driving all night. The road was flat as a pancake and with minimum curves or traffic. The bus was a bit overcrowded, but nothing like we've seen. These people are backpacking pansies! 

We arrived in Hue (pronounced ha-weigh), dare I say, bright eyed and bushy tailed! We made it to our accommodation, run by this incredibly lovely limited-English speaking Vietnamese woman. We had made it south of the DMZ and we could tell! Finally, a friendly Vietnam. Everybody here was so incredibly helpful. Bicycle rickshaw drivers all helped us find our accommodation. They smile even when you say 'no thank you.' It almost makes you want to just buy from them anyway! 

Hue is a lovely town. It is a historic city with a 200 year old fortress square in the middle of it. 200 years ago, the Nguyen emperors decided they were going to make this their seat of power and build a kick ass fort. So they did. They build moat after moat after moat. Lake after lake after man-made lake. Then they build a palace with lots of layers and, to make it even better, called it 'The Forbidden Purple City.' If I was going to declare myself empress of Sarahtavia, I think I shall copy their style. I obviously have to also have a forbidden area. I guess 'No non-Empress Sarahs allowed' isn't cool enough. Only I've gotta top it off with some sort of nasty creature with a gentle soul in the moat. 

Unfortunately, in the American-Vietnam conflict, this place gotta pretty badly destroyed. Only 10 of the 60 original buildings have been restored. If the restoration is any indication, you can only imagine how amazing this place actually was. Pallavi couldn't stop taking pictures. To give you a feel for the scale, the place is 2 square kilometers big. It looks like nothing we've ever seen. 

To top it off, the people then use the palace grounds as their own personal park. Kites and roller blade rentals, hacky-sack players, and badminton and cricket matches replace tourists and photographers. Every water body has some sort of fisherman on it. Then you pass over the Perfume River, with its gorgeous mountain backdrop, and you just want to sit and lose yourself in the view for just a moment. 

This city is more our speed. We found the local coffee place where they serve the coffee to you in a cup over a tealight so you can heat it to your preference. We tried all sorts of new and interesting versions of rice noodles (did you know you could fry them like a pancake or turn them into a dumpling)? Well, you can! It was an absolutely lovely, easy, captivating, and amazing city. 

Day 89-90: Halong Bay

Halong Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site in Vietnam's northeast. It includes 1600 islands and islets, making it a sea maze of limestone pillars (called Karst). Thailand also has similar karst areas, but because of monsoon and our visa timeline, we hadn't gotten a chance to see them. Halong Bay is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places to visit in Vietnam.

We priced out doing it on our own versus going with the many popular two day, one night boat tours, and decided to go ahead and just book a tour. We booked with Golden Bay Cruises. There are many tours you can take, and we had been told you get what you pay for. We paid for the higher-end budget cruise. I know we get what we pay for but I thought a higher-end budget cruise would at least pick us up in a slightly more comfortable shuttle for our 5 hour drive up to Halong Bay.

We were 22 squished foreigners on the shuttle. No sooner did we get on the shuttle bus than I heard this American on the phone, saying "No, I just left it in the lobby while we went to breakfast and when I came back, it was gone. Please find whatever shuttle picked it up and took it to Halong Bay. I will give $50 to the person that finds my bag." He continues on and on and on for at least an hour into the squished up, cramped journey. After an hour, we met our Vietnamese tour guide who apologized for picking us up late. No apology from my countryman to the bus for making us late, since it was because of his bag that we all got late! We then had to do our introductions. We were all way too tired at 9:30 a.m. and too uncomfortable to really be that social and outgoing.

Finally, we made it to this crazy busy port filled with tourists. We board a small skip to take us towards our boat. It starts taking us to the one marked Golden Bay, until, suddenly, it turned. Wait! That's not Golden Bay. That's Halong Dragon Cruises. Yup. That's right. All of us booked with Golden Bay and got onboard Halong Dragon Cruises. Good thing it turned out alright.

We immediately segregated into our natural groups. We ended up with the slightly older Britishers & Kiwis that were the life of the party (in our heads). Then there were the college students, the Austrian game-playing loners, and the annoying Americans. The only time things went against the natural order was meal time, when all of the vegetarians had to sit segregated from the rest of us. Two Britishers from 'our group' ended up at that table (and one of them had faked being vegetarian just cause she was a bit afraid of getting sick from eating meat on the boat) and they got stuck with the annoying Americans. The annoying Americans ate nothing but fruit or something, so they told us. I'm so ashamed of my people!

The food was really good. It just kept coming and coming. Taro french fries, deep fried yummy Vietnamese chicken bites, spring rolls, tofu, fresh fish, fresh fruit, and more. Then came the keg of beer that we drank through in our attempt to keep up with the party boat. Seriously, there was a party cruise that was being sold for $100 per person. However, beer costs $0.30 here. How many beers would you have to drink to make up that cost difference? 300 is the amount we calculated. Not worth it.

We spent our keg of beer telling riddles and tongue twisters. We learned that East Londoners can't say the 'Betty Botter had some butter' tongue twister, as they can't pronounce their 't's properly.

The scenery really was beautiful. The boat slowly made it's way towards Cat Ba Island. As it carved it's path through the mist and the cloud, the karst scenery emerged like ghosts. We passed tons of small local fishing vessels and floating villages. It was absolutely beautiful.

The water was not! This area has had way too many tourists, in my opinion. There are at least 10 boats docked near Cat Ba island. That doesn't include the 6+ ferries per day, plus all of the other day trip cruises. We had a chance to get into the water and to go swimming. The water felt great. Nice and warm, but it was really mucky. We all just figured that it was just dirty water like you have in a lake. Pallavi had climbed out of the water to get her water camera, and when she came back in, she broke the news to us: there was black something all over my body when I got out of the water. That's right. Some sort of oil or dirt or whatever had covered our entire bodies. It was absolutely disgusting!

Once we finally cleaned up, disinfected our entire selves, we learned how to make spring rolls and came back in an even more crowded and cramped shuttle bus. We barely made it back to Hanoi in time for us to catch our overnight sleeper to Hue (pronounced hu-whey), but we finally made it!

I swear we must have fallen asleep as soon as the bus started moving. We are ready to be done with northern Vietnam. Next stop: Hue.

Day 88: Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh

When Ho Chi Minh died, his people did unto him as they had done to his fellow Communists Stalin and Lenin before him: they embalmed him and put his body on display in his mausoleum. It's basically modern mummification. What is there not to be fascinated by? I may be a while before I make it to Russia to see Stalin or Lenin, so I thought it'd be interesting to see Ho Chi Minh.

The catch is that his mausoleum is only open from 7:30 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. I had also read that there usually is a long line, but that it moves fast. I got up early and got ready to go, but when it came time for Pallavi to get up, she decided that it wasn't worth it just to see only Ho Chi Minh. Off I went by my lonesome. As I walked, I realized that Hanoi is a morning city. Everything seems to be alive and buzzing with interesting things in the a.m. That I was out by 8:30 a.m. meant I was a bit late. I walked past the Army Museum, past the Hanoi citadel, until I finally arrived at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. I came at it from the front, took some pictures, saw the line, and went to go and find the back of it.

I swear the line was a minimum of 1 km long. It snaked around in various forms of being covered by wood, covered by tents, and uncovered. That's alright. I had my sun umbrella for the uncovered bits. I went ahead and got in it, passed security, and stood in the throng of Vietnamese people. I figured it would take 30 minutes to an hour.

I hadn't factored in the rain.

I may have been under cover, but that mattered not! People under the covering still opened their umbrellas to prevent water from dripping in on the sides. They didn't factor in that their umbrella then dripped on the people on the inside. However, the guards managing the lines don't let people in or they don't let the line move (cause of the uncovered bits, which option it is, I'm not sure), and the line stood still. The first rain passed after 15 minutes, and, relatively dry, the line moved. Perfect. I had started to look for an escape, only to realize that once you are in this line, there isn't really any escape. The line continued moving. By this point, it's been an hour, but I'm coming around the very last turn. Of course it was time for it to rain again. Only this time, my tent covering didn't save me. Swamp in my shoes! Soaking wet pants. Good thing I put a plastic bag around my stuff and had my poor abused sun umbrella to protect me.

It's at this point I realized that the Vietnamese are line cutters. So many people with ponchos started to cut the line. After watching 50 people cut, I decided it's my turn. I haven't been waiting in this line for an hour and a half only to let these people wait for less time than me!

Finally, 30 minutes later, I made it to the mausoleum for my 90 seconds with Ho Chi Minh. Impressions? He looks just like he does on the money. Except dead and not smiling. Other than that, it's pretty amazing how they've been able to preserve his body. Every finger nail and every piece of hair is kept in perfect place. Was it worth the 90 minute wait? Maybe not. But the experience definitely was.

Went back to the hotel and used the blow dryer on my shoes. After changing hotels, we explored a bit more around the city and started to arrange our next few days. Along the way, I made Pallavi stop so I could try 'egg coffee.' That's right - it's coffee with egg in it. It was like egg nog meets coffee. It was SO good. I really think Vietnamese coffee may be my favourite coffee in the world. It's so thick. It's so creamy. It's so deceptively strong. I loved it!

All things sorted, tomorrow we head for Halong Bay in the north. 

Day 87: Hanoi Old Quarter & Hoa Lo Prison

Hanoi is a captivating city, but I found it a bit too chaotic and slightly oppressive for my taste. The older people in Hanoi behave like how my mother describes Moscovites' behavior: hardened. These are a people who, for whatever your opinion of them, have toughed it out through a lot and they don't give a s*&t. We didn't get this attitude at all from people under 35 though. People under 35 are nice and lovely. After coming from Laos, where we swear some of the nicest people on earth live, this hardened f-off attitude if you don't buy something from me attitude came as a culture shock!

The city really is quite vibrant though. Hanoi's main pulse beats in its Old Quarter. The Old Quarter is lined with 36 different streets. Each street is named Hang <insert shop type name here>. One street for silk. One street for sweets. One street for metalwork. You name it. The lanes are quite narrow and filled with scooters everywhere. I had read that it isn't pedestrian friendly and you just need to embrace the chaos. I'd embrace the chaos more if I could figure out how the hell to cross the street. I asked Pallavi what city is more chaotic: Hanoi or Old Delhi? We both agreed that Hanoi is way more chaotic, and that's saying something!

Also, unlike in other cities, it feels like the villagers don't leave the village at home when they come into the city. They walk along carrying a long bamboo pole with two large woven baskets hanging from either end. They carry this pole on one shoulder, baskets filled with various sort of produce, wearing that typical conical Vietnamese hat, and walk from restaurant to restaurant to sell their wares. Normally, you don't see villagers like this in a capital city.

The people in Hanoi also seem to really relax when they sit down at various stalls, literally on small stools on the sidewalk, to have food or a smoke. It's refreshing to watch people not rush through a meal. They also smoke their own version of a shisha meets bong meets pipe sort of thing. Apparently, it's good to smoke any time of day, at any occasion, or any meal.

We spent the day exploring the Old Quarter & decided to head towards Hoa Lo Prison. Hoa Lo Prison held John McCain and other American POWs. They called it the Hanoi Hilton. I love a good prison. I realized I've gone to quite a few. The French built this particular prison in the early 19th century, and the prison itself focuses mostly on Vietnamese communist freedom comrades and their various prison conditions, torture, and escapes up until Vietnamese Independence in the 1950s. My personal favourite prison escape story occurs when 4 women managed to dress up as visitors and leave during visiting hours. The museum had only a very small section dedicated to American POWs. It has been a while since I saw foreign propaganda (I see American propoganda all of the time!) The Vietnamese story is that the American POWs had it pretty great. The museum displays videos of the American POWs playing basketball, smoking traditional Vietnamese pipes, and playing cards. Obviously we immediately looked up the other American side of the story when we got back and read all about them blinking 'torture' in a certain sort of 'morse-like code.' Was it the most interesting prison I've ever seen? Not in terms of set-up, but definitely in terms of questionable historical interpretation.

Hanoi certainly is different. Let's see what else the city has in store for us. 

Day 84-86: Leaving Phonsavan and Arriving in Hanoi

Go figure that the day when we needed the sun to be out so we could dry our shoes that it ended up raining most of the day. Thankfully both of our shoes are designed to be 'quick dry.' 36 hours later, after being perched on top of a television in order to get some of the wall-mounted, non-adjusted fan wind, we had dry shoes and we set off for Vietnam at 6:00 a.m.

Our crossing to Vietnam wasn't nearly as smooth as our crossing into Laos despite having a super comfortable 'sleeper bus.' Do you wonder what it was like? Obviously you do! Never fear. I'll answer all of the questions I'm sure you have on our mind:

• Was it a smooth journey?
• No! The road was really mountainous and at least 2 of the passengers grabbed the bus company-provided puke bags to empty out the contents of their stomachs. 
• Did we stop for breakfast while we were in Laos? 
• Nope. Okay, we'll power through until we get Vietnamese dong and get some food at the border or something. 
• When we finally arrived at the border crossing, did we see an orderly line to go through the Laos or Vietnam immigration? 
• No! It was mad chaos. Everybody just cut in front of each other and put their passport in a pile for somebody to look at at some point. 
• Was there an orderly bus ride from the Laos immigration border to the Vietnam arrival border (as we've had in all of our other border crossings)? 
• Nope! Just a nice little 700 meter walk between the two. 
• Was there an ATM at the border for us to withdraw Vietnamese dong? 
• Nope! Okay, no money for us and no food for us at the border. That's alright. We'll make it to the next lunch stop and use the ATM there. 
• Was there an ATM at the next lunch stop for us to withdraw Vietnamese dong? 
• Nope! Okay, now I'm starving. This is a serious problem. By this point, I'm contemplating eating the Ramen noodles we've been carrying around even though Pallavi says it'll give me an upset tummy. 
• Did we end up trading Laos kip for Vietnamese dong with the only Vietnamese guy on the bus who spoke English? 
• Yes! The sweet guy came up to us and asked why we weren't eating lunch. When we said 'no money,' he sweetly said he'd buy us lunch. However, he wasn't going to our destination so we wouldn't be able to pay him back. So, we traded him kip for dong and happily grabbed some packets of cookie to take with us until we reach the city of Vinh. 
• Was there an ATM when we finally arrived in Vinh, where we stopped to change to a bus to Hanoi? 
• Yes!!!! Thankfully, the ATM wasn't too far away. Finally, money!!!!! 
• Was there an English menu or a menu with pictures next to the name when we finally got to sit down and eat a proper non-cookie meal? 
• No!!!! We had to guess and gesture to select chicken and rice to eat. First experience with Vietnamese food = not bad, but not great either. 
• Was it easy to get a bus to Hanoi without haggling? 
• Not easy, but not hard. We knew the bus should cost about 150,000 dong. The guys at the ticket counter, who are supposed to be more reputable and honest, quoted us 250,000 dong! When we went to the bus drivers, they quoted us 200,000, which, in fairness, was the listed price on the bus. After some sweet talking, we got the bus tickets for 180,000.
• Did we get dropped off in Hanoi at 4:30 a.m. at a proper bus station? 
• We did.... however, it did seem a bit questionable. I figured we'd pull into the bus station, get off, and then wait 30 minutes for the public bus to where we needed to go. Standard bus station process. Did that happen? Well, we got dropped off at the side of the road and had to walk to said bus station. Thankfully we found some other foreigners to sit with. For some reason, I feel safer sitting with other foreigners. If we are going to get lost, then we are going to get lost together!
• Did we make it to the Hanoi Old Quarter, where we wanted to find accommodation, via the public bus! 
• Yes! 
• Did we find accommodation in our budget that would let us check in before 10 a.m.? 
• We must have walked at least three kilometers to find accommodation. One hotel we liked, but was too expensive. Many of the other hotels were full. When we finally made it to the other side of this particular area to a more affordable nice-looking hotel, the guy at reception told us that even though Booking.com showed availability at a certain price, that Booking.com was wrong and we'd need to book through him at a higher price. Umm.. no! <Insert pending negative Trip Advisor review here> 
• Did we end up back at the original hotel that we had liked but was a bit on the expensive side? 
• Yup.
• Did we sleep for 7 hours after we finally checked in to our room? 
• Obviously.

What we noticed in our first chaotic Vietnamese day is that Hanoi is an interesting spectacle for sure! It's filled with colorful character, carrying all sorts of interesting things. Tons of motorcycles and scooters everywhere. The Old Quarter's streets are narrow and winding, making it slightly confusing to walk around. There are people sitting outside and smoking out of what appear to be a Vietnamese bong everywhere. Not sure what they are smoking! 

When we made it out at night, we went to the infamous Beer Corner where Vietnamese beer is the cheapest in the world at less than 25 cents per beer. As we sat at Beer Corner, where people are spilled out on milk cartons into the street, suddenly, all of the people and milk cartons were pulled inside. What happened? Police check! No sooner had the police left than the hundreds of people who had been sitting on the milk cartons on the street before were back on the street. 

And the food here is SO GOOD. I think it's also potentially among the best cups of coffee I've ever had. I'm a little wary of that whole 'weasel coffee.' According to wiki: this refers to the seeds of coffee berries once they have been eaten and defecated by the Asia palm civet. They also have 'egg coffee' here, which I am curious about. 

It is hot as here, but hopefully won't be too exhausted by the time we venture out to explore the city tomorrow. 

Day 83: Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars

Just 10 kms outside of Phonsavan lay the 1st of some 60 odd sites that contain what is called The Plain of Jars. The Plain of Jars dates to 500 BC-500 AD. It is basically acres filled with mega stone jars. These jars range from 3 feet to 7 feet high and roughly 2 to 6 feet wide. These are the only such jars that have been uncovered in all of Southeast Asia. Researchers aren't 100% sure of their purpose. The research indicates that the jars played a part of some ancient burial process.

The Plain of Jars attracted us to this area, so we wanted to make sure we saw them. But how? We could take a day tour, but that would cost us about $50 per person. Okay, so no tour. 

What about a scooter? We already did that and it worked out well. We walked up and down the street searching for an automatic scooter. No luck! We only found semi-automatic scooters. Now, it's been years since Pallavi rode a semi-automatic scooter, so I can understand her slight anxiety of having to re-learn with a passenger on board. This also isn't the kind of town with empty roads you can practice on. However, a semi-automatic scooter with a re-learning driver a better option than taking a day tour. Alright, although slight anxious, this scooter is what we'll take. 

Just when we'd found the person with the best price, when we came back the next day, the early bird had got the worm.... and we weren't early! Now we only had expensive semi-automatic scooter options. Crappity, crap, crap, crap! Retreat, retreat! 

What else could we do? Suddenly Pallavi said, well, you did read that we could bicycle there in 45 minutes. I guess we could try that. Next thing we know, we've got our bicycles and our map and our bicycling our way to the Plain of Jars. 

I was having a ball. This wasn't Sukhothai! I had a good modern mountain bicycle. The road was mostly pretty easy. The clouds were out. The air felt great. Julia Roberts can eat her heart out! Here we are, bicycling in Laos past ride paddies filled with bullocks and cattle on the road. I'm living the dream! 

Pallavi was dying. She did so well for the 1st 4 kms of our journey and then exhaustion happened. My enthusiasm must have worn her out. I believe she said something on the order of 'what on my face indicates that I'm having fun? If you had asked me to ride 20 kms in Melbourne, I would have asked if you were crazy.' That's right. This was the face of a woman who, if she doesn't die here on the road, will kill me for this bicycle journey. She didn't give up, and, I'm sure fueled with thoughts of how she'd get me and my little dog too, we slowly but surely made it there. Thank God we didn't get lost on our way! I couldn't have been happier to make it to the Plain of Jars. 

It was really cool. Cows in the fields alongside the jars. We came across a cave, which researchers believe to be an ancient crematorium, where we ran into Vietnamese guys paying tribute to the Vietkongs who had died in those caves. Guess Americans were slightly right about Vietkongs being in Laos. 

The sky was turning really dark on all sides, so we went to finish our tour of the plain before it started to rain. All of a sudden, I hear rain coming from the cave. "Quick! Put everything into the plastic baggies in the backpack and hide under the tree!" No sooner did the zipper on the bag shut than the rain started. 

Pallavi noticed a bigger tree and suggested we take cover there. We run for it. No sooner do we make it under that tree than the passing sprinkle turns into a downpour. Quickly, I reached into my bag and pulled out Kim's handy-dandy sun umbrella! Pallavi said, "Sarah, I thought you didn't want to use the sun umbrella in the rain because it may lose it's anti-sun powers." Me, "I don't care! We need something now!" "Where my rain coat?" she asked. "Crap." Out came the sun umbrella. 

However, Pallavi doesn't think we picked the right tree. Pallavi noticed when we first ran for the bigger, and closest tree, that the cattle had gone for the next big tree over. Damn! If they've gone for that tree, it has to be the best tree. It's too late now for us to run for it! The rain is too strong. The thunder kicks in and the wind picks up. If only we'd stayed in the cave! If only I'd remembered the damn raincoat!!! 

Huddled under sun umbrella, the bag securely protected, we waited. First, we felt the swamp in our shoes. We could see the pools of mud building around us. Pallavi looked down and suggested we head up the tree roots to higher ground. Then, our entire backsides got the full brunt of the storm. We just stood there, under the tree, balanced on the top of its roots, in the middle of the Plain of Jars, in a thunderstorm for 30 minutes. 

It probably wouldn't have been quite so bad if we hadn't seen the go-kart from the Tourist Information Centre come and save the men who had been in the cave! We saw it. They had to have seen us! Yet, they were too far away for us to make it to them. Ahhh. That's what we get for telling off those other tourists earlier for being too loud! 

The rain finally stopped and, soaked, we made it back to the Information Centre, regrouped, and got back on our poor bikes and made it back to town (much easier this time). 

Guess we won't be leaving for Vietnam tomorrow! Instead, we'll be letting our shoes dry. 

Day 82: Phonsavan and the Secret War

Phonsavan has a very different feel to it than the other Laos towns we have visited. It has more of the mid-size industrial meets agricultural town about it. Lonely Planet describes it as the kind of town where you expect to see tumbleweeds rolling by. However, what Lonely Planet fails to mention is that you will actually see deactivated bombs and shell-casings all over. That's right. Today we learned all about The Secret War. During the American-Vietnam conflict, both American & Vietnam signed the Geneva accord, which declared Laos a neutral country. We both didn't respect that accord.

Americans dropped A LOT of bombs on Laos, particularly in this region. Define a lot? A lot equals two million tons of bombs. That's the equivalent to one bomb every eight minutes for nine years! That's more bombs than the Allied forces dropped on Germany & Japan combined in WWII. Sometimes we dropped them because we thought there were Vietkongs. Sometimes we dropped them just because we weren't able to drop them over Vietnam and didn't want to risk landing in our bases in Thailand with bombs on board. How crap are we? I had no idea!

We took it easy today and visited the MAG (Mines Advisory Group), which shows free documentaries on how the Laos are living with this legacy. I don't remember all of the stats, but this international group sweeps and clears roughly 500 cluster bombs (bombies) per week and 100,000 bombies per year from local fields. They anticipate it will still take decades before everything is cleared. The stats on the number of Laotians killed or wounded by bombies are equally as shocking.

The bombs and shell=casings around town are just a sample of the leftovers that have been cleared.

Learn more watching the documentary that we watched (clearly it's a slanted view, but it gives good information): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HPH7grVHR0.

We're so happy we came here so that we could learn more about something Americans rarely (if ever) are taught.