Saigon, Vietnam Day 3

My poor writing will in no way capture the awesomeness of this day. Here we go!

After eating breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the meeting spot agreed upon with Sheila. Sheila is our friend we met in the park two evenings ago. I sent her an email verifying the meeting spot and everything was a go. I have to be honest. We had no idea what to expect. Two Americans in Vietman, meeting a nice girl in the park that in a few days wants to take us around the town on her motorbike. It is too bad that you hear about all the scams with travelers, but we still had to keep up our guard. We had no idea what we were in for. One guy at our hostel even told us we might be drugged and robbed.

Sheila arrived exactly on time with a giant smile. The plan was to head to her place of residence, District Four, which was just across the river, still kind of close. She made arrangements with a moped driver to take me, and she took Katherine on the back of her motorbike. This was our first time on these scary wheeled death vehicles. Surprisingly, the ride was comfortable and somewhat safe. We arrived at the big market in the district. Sheila parked her bike and the driver that took me rode off. We were now in the middle of a different world.

Sheila mentioned that the market would be something different. She wasn't joking. We saw everything imaginable! We saw every type of fish. Most of them were still alive. We saw eels, frogs, snails, turtles, intestines, hearts, brains, duck heads, livers, pig parts, cow parts, fish paste, vegetables of all kinds, and also experienced the smell to accompany those items. We just leisurely strolled through the walkways dodging mopeds, bicycles, and of course the people. At this market, we were the "freak shows." There was no doubt about that. I did not see a foreigner the entire time. When I came by with the sunglasses, Aussie hat, and blonde hair, people stared. Not just stared, but hit the person next to them to have them stare too. I got used to it. Sheila took her time and talked about everything we showed interest in. She picked up some potent high powered ginger that is unattainable in the USA for sure.

From the market, we walked down a few streets with more merchants selling their wares. There are no large department stores or Home Depots in these parts. Sheila mentioned that they tried to have those stores for a little bit, but no one would go there. By having many more small family owned stores, more people can make money and there is a greater selection. No kidding. I hate the limited Big Box store selection and lack of knowledge to help you as well. These people are working with their product and know it inside and out.

I have to mention the shrimp. The were the largest shrimp I had ever seen in my life. I don't know if they were some mutated form of the species, but they we at least 1.5 times as big as the largest ones that I have seen in the USA. I was tempted to get a giant bag and cook them right there. Sheila said that was just what she was used to and she makes it to this market every day to get fresh ingredients for her cooking at home. She said almost everybody must buy food everyday because almost nobody owns a refrigerator.

We also made a stop at the local medicine shop and pagoda. Sheila showed us the inside where you can pray and get remedies for sickness. It is all natural medicine with a lady working with shelves and shelves of ingredients. She said that the place is supported by charity and if you don't have money to pay, no problem.

Next came our minor catastrophe for the day. It goes like this:

We finished at the market. There was one moped and 2 helmets. We didn't want to get a driver for me. Katherine and Sheila took off to a restaurant. I just waited. Katherine was dropped off. Sheila came back for me. We drove for a bit and she realized she needed to get to the ATM. I waited by her moped as she went inside. Time passed. She came out and said she can't find her card. She went back to the bank to figure this out. I still waited with her moped while Katherine waited down the street not knowing what was going on. A lot more time passed. Probably a half hour. Sheila came out, and we went to the restaurant to meet Katherine. Katherine was not there. We freaked! Sheila had to talk to the men outside to see where she went. I was thinking she thought we crashed, or Sheila tried to off me, or something worse. We found Kathine upstairs. All I left her with was a tube of Chapstick. No map. No phone. No address of the hotel. Good work Garner. This all turned out fine and we sat down for lunch right at the place that was trying to help Katherine find her way back to the hotel. Katherine has a better story about how she dealt with people in District 4 in Saigon that did not speak English.

We took our sweet time eating. The conversation was amazing. Sheila has so much to say and it was very interesting to hear the ideas she had about the world. She spent time in the USA at the Grand Canyon for a few months on an exchange program and finished her bachelors degree in business. Now she is working on her MBA in hopes of helping her family's ice company. As time went by, we didn't speak of it, but we knew that this girl was something really special. The day only got better.

After lunch, we headed to the Ho Chi Minh Museum. We hired one of the men who tried to help stranded Katherine to take her on his motorbike, and I rode on Sheila's motorbike without a problem. No one got left and no one thought the other died. As a foreigner, it is kind of fun to sit around and wait as the locals stare at you and ask if you need help. Standing makes me look freaky, but sitting makes me look smaller and not as many people bother me. I would like to blend in. That might be impossible.

The museum was a full history of HCM's life with pictures and relics. Obviously, I need to read up more on the man to fully understand his long lasting impact on Vietnam. This museum gave me a good douse of info on what I already had, but going farther through will be greatly beneficial. The museum overlooked the river, which made for relaxing breaks between the rooms.

Sheila then took us to a local park for dinner. We stopped to grab some coconuts for drinks and just got the local BBQ in the park. There were children everywhere. It was very clean and plenty to do. After eating, Sheila wanted to play a few rounds on the fussball table. Of course! You don't have to twist my arm to do that! We played a few games in which all others watching thought we were a spectacle. Some young teenage girls even came up and barged their way in to play. That was fine, and kind of entertaining at the same time.

Unfortunately, after the park Sheila took back to our hotel. We had to get our bags ready for the bus trip to Cambodia the next day and put an end to an amazing time with a new friend. We had just, in the blink of an eye, made a new friend, spent the entire day with her, and now have to say goodbye until.... Who knows? This was strangely the most difficult goodbye of all our travels. I mean we have made great friends before, but this new friend would be very difficult to see again, for sure. I don't just hop to Vietnam on a plane yearly, and she doesnt do the same to the USA. We wish her the absolute best with her school and family, and that hopefully in the future, we can meet again. I just can hope for some reason she needs to go to the USA for something and we can show her our hospitality. This gal is truly something special. In just one day, I think we just saw a glimpse.

 

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Saigon, Vietnam Day 2

Today was all about the Cu Chi Tunnels. I had seen and heard about them for a long time and now I had the chance to seem them in person. Not only did I want to see what the tunnels looked like, but I wanted to feel what it was like to be in the jungle that surrounded them.

We started off in the morning with a great "free" breakfast from the hotel. It was short and sweet, but we were able to talk with some of the people going on the trip with us. There was a group of 5 from Malaysia that we talked with for a bit and had an interesting conversation. Soon thereafter, the tour guide came to the hotel to round us all up. We headed out with them through the alley to the bus stop. There was one problem. There was no bus! The tour organizer was there and told us we had options. The bus was broken, but they were offering for us to take the boat to the tunnels, or wait for the bus to be repaired. It normally costs more, but due to the circumstances, it would be no charge extra. By luck, we were off to the Cu Chi tunnels by boat.

The boat took us up the Saigon river. It was scenic to say the least. The were numerous barges carrying gravel, diesel fuel, or food. After 2 hours, we got to the tunnel beach area. We left the boat and followed the guide to the tunnel entrance.

Once again, it was a European tourist party. There were only a handful of Vietnamese. That's fine, we were used to this by now. My ears go up in groups like this trying to see who is talking about Americans, or hear what they have to say about the museums. I try not to talk and give my nationality away too quick. I know once I talk it is over, so I just listen. They might not be so loud and free with their speech when they know who is listening.

The tunnel tour was impressive. We started with a short video in one of the bunker rooms and then took a tour of the grounds. From the above ground level, you could see a few enterances and air circulation holes. Even the cooking rooms had ventilation shafts to direct smoke and heat far away. They would cook only in the morning to hopefully disperse any smoke within the morning fog to disguise it. Also, we learned that any above ground travel would be at night and traveling would occur on the river in the darkness. The Americans and South Vietnamese had a real difficult time taking over these tunnels. The tunnels were in 3 different levels, had ventillation from numerous sources, and tons of escape routes. Fire would only harden the clay tunnels and water would drain out the bottom level back to the river.

There was a giant display of the booby traps as well. Most were variations of an in-ground design, but some were hung in trees and in homes. Something I didn't not know was the steel used in the spikes came from bomb fragments of the South forces. Also, if they found unexploded bombs, they would carefully cut them apart and use the powder for munitions of their own. Creative, huh?

One thing that was quite impressive was the "tiger trap." This is a rectangular hole in the ground with a rotating lid. In the bottom, about 5 feet deep was a bed of sharp bomboo spikes. Sometimes they would coat the tips of the spikes with poison, but when they found out that the sniffer dogs were being sent in, they stopped using the poison. By doing this, they could trap the dogs, and then eat them. Our guide told us that they loved to eat German shepards, and still do. She told us where to go to eat dog meat.

We found it funny that there was a firing range on the grounds too. You could shoot various weapons of the time and pay a hefty price for it. But, if you have never fired a gun, it would be an exciting place to do it. The cafe was right next to the range, so when you sat to relax, you could hear the weapons in the background making for a full experience. Yeah!

When it was time to leave, we took the option with the bus ride back to Saigon. It got us back to town in an hour, versus the boat's two hours. Each ride was different and impressive in it's own way.

We got a quick bite for dinner at a place recommended by the hotel owner. Very nice and simple. Right by the restaurant was a music shop that a Japanese guy told me about in Nha Trang. We went in after we ate and found the coolest instruments. I was on the lookout for the jaw harp that our Japanese friend was playing, but got a few others as well. I have the names of the in Vietnamese, but am working on the English ones.

On the way back to the hotel we saw a Circle K with a lot of people out front. Unexpectedly, we came across their Grand opening party. The entire staff was there and excited to see us as we were some of their very first customers, or at least they pretended well. The store is right in the middle of the hostel/hotel area for backpackers, and they can easily charge high prices for things that should cost less. Oh well, that's the business here. We just got a few items and hot dogs. No, not real dog meat, but close to what you get in the States, but not exactly right.

After that, we just went back to the hotel, cleaned up, and got some blog work done. It was another long, tiring day. Well worth it!

 

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Saigon, Vietnam Day 1

The train brought us to Saigon rested and ready to go. We walked the 3k to the hotel like usual. No taxi needed when you have been laying for hours. Our hotel was ready for us and we just rested for an hour and headed out. The mission was the War Remnants Museum.

The museum could have a better title. Maybe, American Aggression in Vietnam Museum. There was only one sentence about the French that I could find. Oh well. This is THE museum tourists go to in Saigon. We saw people from the train, and it seemed like all the white people in Vietnam had made it to the museum too. There were a few Vietnamese and other Asians, but most were white. Outside was piled high with US military aircraft and munitions. Inside had mostly pictures, and a few smaller items. I could see this museum bothering a lot of Americans, but for us it was a great one sided depiction of the war. Yes, it was horrible, and there were acts committed that were severely wrong, but this museum showed it through one set of eyes. In a way, it should. In another way, it should not. I went inside being a open minded American with a brief history already in my head, but if you were already looking for more fuel to hate America, this was the place for it. I was more impressed with watching the other visitors reactions to the displays and pictures. They had pictures of Agent Orange victims and napalm strikes. Those hit people really hard. By visiting US military museums and watching TV myself, I had already seen most of these images. I am just afraid of the 20 something year old college students going in this museum and letting their learning end when they leave the museum. The other young travelers I have talked to know absolutely nothing about the history of Indochina and the conflict between Vietnam and the USA. To get your complete education from this one museum would be a shame. The emotional impact of the images presented in the museum is severe, but I think further research into the politics of the war would be more effective in hopefully not seeing history repeat itself.

After that, we got a bite to eat and headed back towards the hotel. We briefly walked through a huge market, and after being harassed to buy things, we got out of there quickly. Our route took us through a park right by the hotel.

My attention was caught by some men kicking what looked to be a shuttlecock in some sort of game. As we tried to watch, a few people tried to sell us the item that they were kicking. The game worked like this: Three men stood together in a line facing the other three men 10m away or so. They would kick the shuttlecock back and forth. It looked like they would get a point if someone dropped the shuttlecock or when they fired it to the other team and the other team missed the return. Kind of weird, so I took some video.

As we were watching, some people came over to talk with us. Once again, like in Istanbul, these were students at the university trying to work on their English speaking skills. Here we go! A crowd quickly gathered and my first reaction is to watch my pockets and look for a way out, but these students were the real deal. They had notepads and pens to write new words and had some very good questions to ask us. Our conversations went from person to person with some students with good skills dominating the scene. That is fine, but I was trying to share the talk to the others around. They were thankful for that and we could have talked forever. When we left we were walking along with a girl and chatted a bit. We were tired and said we had to go, but wanted to see her again, maybe at a restaurant or for coffee. So, we set up a time in 2 days to meet. It will be in the moring and she wants us to meet her and to show us her section of town. What?? This will be spectacular!

We came back to the hotel and mentioned this to the hotel owner. He said that there are a lot of scams out there with people getting drugged and their money stolen. I brought this on myself and offered my info to her. It is too bad that tourists have to be paranoid, but it makes sense. Our new friend Sheila sounds super cool and has already been to the USA. It goes without saying, we would LOVE to have a local from Saigon show us around!

Tomorrow it will be the Cu Chi tunnels and then the next morning we will meet with Sheila for a tour of Saigon.

 

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Nha Trang, Vietnam Day 4

We took our time getting ready in the morning, checked out by 11am, and got on our bikes. The plan was to meander around the city, and that is what we did. Lunch was up at the local BBQ place. Once again, BBQ means that they bring a fire pit to your table and you're in charge of cooking your own food. The place was way up in the north, kind of out of the way, and we were the only non-Vietnamese. Nice. Once again, we are the "freak shows."

With nothing to do, we just headed to the beach and sat on a bench for an hour. The islands in the distance were getting hit by the waves and the water had some large swells. We were glad that today was not a diving day. The boat would be a mess. The shade of the trees was all that we needed to be comfortable with te breeze. Just relaxing.

There was a mall across the street, so we decided to go and check it out. It was like little Moscow. We we talking with Mark, from the dive shop, about all the Russians. He said that they love this place and once the word spread, they all come here. It wasn't that bad. Most of the people are Vietnamese and you sure can spot people that don't fit in. That goes for the Japanese too! Well, the mall was the shopping area for the Russians. Once again it was a place with super high-end retail stores and seemed to be over staffed. Some people were buying things, but today looked like a slow day. Just walking around and observing the Russians look at clothing cracked us up. Some of the looks in there warranted a camera, but it would have been a bad idea. That is all I need, a Vladamir running after me thinking I am a spy or something. They are very large people.

We ate at Olivias's again. When you have a good thing going, why change? Then we went back to the hotel to shower, grabbed our packs, and got a cab to the train station. Upon arriving with plenty of time, we saw that the board was showing a delay for our train. An hour and a half! Argghhhhh! We just planted it in a seat and took in the people-watching show. Katherine ventured out to the restroom and encountered about 10 rats, each about a foot long in a trash pile. When she came back to inform me, I ran out with the camera and they were gone. She said that they were the biggest rats that she had ever seen. Foiled again! There were a few impressive cockroaches running about in the lobby to make up for it.

The ride was quick and we actually slept the night through.

 

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Nha Trang, Vietnam Day 3

This was another day of deep diving. We had Marcus, from Germany, as our instructor. He gave us a wonderful pre dive briefing at the shop. It is always great to have another's take on a class. His was run like a German, if you know what i mean. To the point, no real joking, and there always are dumb questions. I still ask them anyway. Even though I know the consequenses.

Simple....deep dive, lunch, second dive.

When we got back to the shop we had lunch and took our tests. Then we rode around a little more on our bicycles. There is a really nice road that parallels the beach with plenty of coconut trees for shade. It is interesting just to watch the locals and families out to enjoy the day.

Hands down, the best Itialian food I have eaten has been at Olivia's restaurant just by our hotel. This night was our second time and it was delectable. You can just sit and people-watch some more. Every once in a while you have to shoo away the vendors selling books and cigarettes, but its really not a big deal. Some people get really mad at them and handle it in a rude way. You just have to look them in the eye and say no thank you. I think people are afraid to be stern, so they sometime flat out ignore them, which is rude as well. Just watching tourists tell them to go away is entertaining.

When we returned to the hotel the hosts came out with flowers for Katherine's birthday. What the? For real? They had known from the passport they kept, surely. I had never seen such a thing. Girls like flower on days like this? I just take them diving. Thats supposed to be romantic, I thought.

Tomorrow should be a relaxing day with a night train departure to Saigon.

 

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Nha Trang, Vietnam Day 2

After the craziness the day before, we still got our work done. The questions for the diving class were completed at breakfast. From there we headed to the dive shop. We met with Holly, who was our instructor for our dives. She is Chinese and a blast to dive with. Everything was fun and enjoyable.

The first dive was our deep dive. She had us mount stage tanks on our right side. This was another full size tank in addition to our main on our backs. It clipped up high on your should strap on the BCD and at a lower point. A giant stride from the boat was a little tricky with the weight, but once in the water it was fine. I didn't really know it was there once we got going. We got down to depth and did a little number game to see if nitrogen narcosis was setting in. Luckily, we both did fine and from there we slowly ascended up the reef wall taking in the sights. It was only 30m, but the visibility was poor, so the darkness set in and made it eerie. Cool!

Lunch on the boat has been pleasantly similar throughout SE Asia. You get a wonderful fruit spread with tea and water. I brought along some extras to share with the group. The weird knock off Pringles were a hit. They cant seem to get BBQ flavor right. Oh well.

The second dive was a shallower fun dive. Its funny that we were taking a deep class since there is nothing to see down there. It's when you get to the 15m and shallower depths that you get the beautiful coral and fish. Going that deep is mostly for wrecks and recovery. Some operations won't take you that deep without the cert, so we thought it was a good plan.

As always, the boats out here are intriguing. The captain is a Vietnamese boatman that has obviously been out on the water too long. I always have to check the engines out on these boats and when I looked down below, the engine was practically laying in a bed of beer cans. Surely, these are cans that he found and was taking them for recycling. You bet.

We got back and had lunch with the crew. I had an interesting take on a cheeseburger. It had ground carrots and other goodness mixed in with the meat. It was almost like a spring roll chomped up into a burger and cheese. Sounds weird, but was very good.

 

 

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Nha Trang, Vietnam Day 1

This day began with a nice breakfast close to the hotel and a bike ride to the dive shop. Sounds easy, huh? Well....

Our hotel rented us bikes for $2 USD a day which was nice. The town is totally flat and bicycles make the most sense for transportation. There is a status, though, with the moped. It looks like they all want one of those noisy, smelly, expensive maintenance nightmares. When you see a dude lugging his girlie around on the back, you know what it is all about. Bikes are quiet, cheap, and efficient. Oh, but you have to pedal. Big downer.

We made it to the dive shop to hopefully get fitted for dive equipment. It was 9:30 am when we arrived and the day was young. We would be diving the next day, so getting this fitting and paperwork done the day before is always a good idea. The shop owner, Mark, was there to help us and a few people in the office. The boat was out for the day, so we had the place to ourselves. The paperwork took only a few minutes and the fitting was easy. Then, Mark invited us to a beverage in the neighboring restaurant. This is where it became entertaining... We left at 6:00pm. Oops!

Mark is a very interesting guy. A little shorter than me, Irish, thick accent, in his 40's, light red hair, traveled the world, and is full of stories. We immediately hit it off when he mentioned living in Vegas and in Southern Utah. He has done work in Greece and in Asia as well. He now has a Chinese wife that is a gem. (The next day, she would be our dive instructor.) After one tasty beverage, came another. Some Malaysian concoction, remaining nameless. We joked for a while and heard about the dive business and opportunities that have arisen for him as well as what its like to do work in a foreign country. He does a bit of commercial work in neighboring harbors and that treats him very, very well. I found it interesting that in the States, he also had Native American foster children. What a tough guy! That would be some patience for sure. I think he said he had 4 to top it off. (More Malaysian beverage).

Time went by. I showed him photos on the iPad from the Thailand part of the trip. Of course, as a diver showing another diver stuff like this, that conversation by itself lasted over an hour. (Malaysian, yes please.) We traded stories about the nudibranch, cameras, lights, strobes, environment, and more. By this time, we had missed lunch. I wasn't really hungary. My stomach was full.

Oh no! Mark had a fit when he found out it would be Katherine's birthday on our second day of diving. And, he did not like it that I had already hit 102 dives and she would make her 100th dive on her birthday as well. In diving, this is the perfect party storm. Yes it was. (You know what kept coming to the table.)

Now we are super hydrated. He came up with a plan. He wanted Katherine to take the deep class for free in celebration and I would just do fun dives and sit out. Deep Diver is another certification allowing you to officially go to 130 feet. We have already dove this deep before, but some dive operations are anal about having the actual certification. A free class sounded like a great idea, and it was. But, I knew Katherine would not go for me not getting it too, since it would throw our training out of whack. We dive together all the time and taking classes together makes advancing easier. We would work on that tomorrow.

(We noticed plastic and aluminum get recycled here. Someone will make some coin with what's on the table.) Now it was coming up on dinner and there was no plan. We had to read the Deep Diver book that night to be ready for the class in the morning, so we had to ease out of there. That was not easy. We had now made a good friend and there was just WAY too much to talk about. Diving with this guy's company was going to be a treat!

We said goodbye and got on our bikes in search of some grub. The sun had pretty much set and we had no idea where to go. Also, riding the streets here is a death wish by itself. We cruised with traffic and against it. Cruised sidewalks, and rang our bells in delight of the lack of order. Somehow, we got back to our hotel area and got some dinner, and lots of water! There are consequences that come from hanging out with a friendly Irishman.

By 10pm we had the book read and the questions completed. I knew I would have to pay for the class, but that was fine. I just had to break it to Mark that I was going to crush his plan to stick it to me by treating Katherine on her birthday.

 

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Hue to Nha Trang

Today was a 12 hour day train along the coast. The scenery was nice, but the AC in the train is another story. Some people just don't get how AC works. If you leave the doors open between cars, you are going to let the heat in. Easy as that! Also the smokers go into the connecting sections and never close the doors. You might as well smoke in the cabins. Dahrrrrrr! There was also a mean little boy sitting in front of me, maybe 2 years old. I could tell from eye contact and body motions that he would a be a little problem. He winged a juice box across the train at the ladies sitting next to me with no remorse. Mom? Well, she did nothing.

He was also fascinated with flipping the head covers on the seats back over to us in the back. I let it go for a while, but then had the idea to flip them back at him. Nice. Good job Garner! Now he is pissed and will keep doing it over and over. As I write, he is also trying to type on the iPad from between the seats. I guess i should switch to the present tense, since this is all happening right now. Let me get a pic of him.

Oh yeah, I think he messed his pants too by the smell in here.

To take my mind off things, I am listening to my favorite music as I type. That would be Cuban music from the Buena Vista Social Club. Somehow, I can't ease this pain. Writing is helping, a little. Well, now he just jacked himself on the window and is crying his eyes out. I hope he doesn't take his anger out on me or the iPad. Now he is roaming the aisle, finger in mouth. From the looks of things, there is not a clean thing around here. Should I just hose him down in antibacterial hand wash? From the food poisoning or E. Coli we have been fighting, you gotta do something. Geeeeeze! Take him to the bathroom, he smells horrible.

As I write, the entire car is filled with Vietnamese people. We are the only white people, and for sure the only Americans on the whole train. Besides being unaware of their trash and the door shutting, they are very nice. The ladies next to me, you know the ones that got hit by the juice box, offered me some fruit. I kindly declined. My stomach is still not right and might take weeks to recover at this pace. The food cart keeps coming up that aisle selling what is pretty much street food. The little monster in front of me having a tantrum.

Wait!!! He stopped. The "end all" child soother has caught his attention. No, not a sucking pacifier. The TV. This might get better.

Nope, that lasted 1 minute. Now he is blowing his puke smell at me and playing with the head things again. Oh! And hitting my iPad. I am just waiting for the juice box.

I put the iPad away for a few minutes and now he has just peed on Katherine's foot. Great! Mom is doing nothing about it. Katherine has gone to the bathroom to wash her leg and sandal. Lovely! Now I think he is breast feeding. Can this get any better? This doesn't look like a wild beast from the forest, but just another city rider on the train. Yup, I looked. Breast feeding. Go ahead and load him up for another round of urine, maybe he will puke.

Katherine is now standing in the aisle and we have 6 more hours on this train.

Wait! The train has just stopped. Mom just spit a huge one on the ground and is rubbing it in with her foot. Little animal has his toy car and the ladies across from me are watching this all. The mom/son are getting off at this stop. The seat is soaked, lugey is on the floor and they are leaving. Nice, but who will take their seats? Will the ladies help notify someone?

No. No help. I tried to tell the next people boarding that the seat had a problem. The ladies just sat there. Surely we can find something to clean this up so the other lady and daughter don't have to sit in it. Nope. Squish!

Now for all of you that are thinking, "he doesn't have children, and doesn't know what it's like." I don't think you can call this normal. I am just stating what has been done on the train and presenting our situation. I think we might have just found a nominee for "mother of the year."

Things got a little better. The sun went down and the train cooled off. There was even a James Bond movie on the TV. I was now "soothed."

We arrived at the train station and walked to the hotel. They were waiting for us and walked us up to a lovely room. This was a long day.

 

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Hue, Vietnam

This stop was not quite a whole day. We arrived in the morning on the night train from Hanoi by 10am. Then we walked to the hotel, took a shower and laid around for a little bit. We went back out to check out the sunset and get dinner. Our choice for dinner was the DMZ, or demilitarized zone, restaurant. Kinda funny since we were chilling around the 17th parallel. It looked like a place to get safe food. I didn't want to take chances. The train to Nha Trang in the morning was at 8am, so we had to get to bed early and stay on track. I hate to stay somewhere just for one night, but this time it had to happen like this. Hostel owners don't like to clean a room for someone staying one night, and with the town being so interesting, I really felt like a few days here would have been nice. Oh well.

During our walk through Hue, we came across some fascinating stuff. We saw pet fish for sale on the back of carts. There were numerous tuk tuk drivers wanting to take you for a couples ride through the town. Being cramped up in the train for as long as we had, walking seemed like the best idea. There was a giant Co-op market store that we cruised through just to get a few items for the next day's ride to Nha Trang. The sunset was beautiful. Probably the best that I had seen this summer. As I was trying to get a photo of it from a bridge, there were some tuk tuk drivers wanting our money. Then they saw, and thought, I was taking pictures of them. The one man screamed and pointed his finget at me. Whoops. I just smiled and acted like nothing happened.

We got a good restful sleep that night, which would be needed for the long train ride the next morning.

 

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Hanoi to Hue

 

Not much happened this day except for getting caught up on vacation work. Blog entries and post cards had to be finished and we found a cool movie station on the television. Some crazy titles we saw were: The Ambushers, Wonderwoman, Faster, Universal Soldier the Return, Frankenfish, and The Lovely Bones. We were in and out of the room, so that looks like a lot of time. It was. It was good to recharge our batteries and organize a few things.

The hostel crew took us to the train station. This was interesting since Hoi wanted to carry our bags AND be sure we got on the correct train. In our cabin, when he said bye and wanted to leave, I told him to hang on. "I have something in my bag for you." He said if its money, he does not want to take it. I handed him 2 US two dollar bills and said that they are good luck. They were from my unfolded collection, so I said, "Keep them nice, and thanks a lot. You guys are amazing."

We were now on the train in a 4 person sleeper. The Vientamese ladies below invited others into their beds. Other family members that is. We heard That you might have a whole family in the cabin with you on these overnight trains, and we pretty much did. Well, they were quiet, nice, and did not smell. So life was good. We slept well even with the bumpy track and fast train driver.

In the morning, we still had some time to kill on the train. The family below was eating and brought a whole feast with them. Just when I thought there was way too many of them in there, I thought I should go out into the hall to get a break. That's when the mother offerd us some of their food. How could I resist? We ate some mix of rice and corn, meat product?, and fresh cut dragon fruit. Yummy! They ended up being quite nice and the daughter only spoke fragments of English. It didn't matter, we understood each other well enough.

When we arrived at the station in Hue, it was just a 3k walk to the hostel. The place is very nice. And once again, the hostel crew took our bags for us, offered water and fruit, and showed us our room. The room had fresh flowers and was very clean. This Vietnamese hospitality is unreal.

 

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Halong Bay Day 3 to Hanoi

We still had some sites to see this morning. First was breakfast and then we were off to the Surprising Cave. We took the small boat to the entrance and climbed up a lot of stairs to the opening. It was your typical limestone cave, but out here in a bay like this, it was special. There were 3 main rooms and the last one was HUGE! All were lit with colored lights for a nice effect. Unlike most caves I have been inside, this one was not cool in temperature. It was just as hot as the outside air. The air must be able to circulate to flush out the cool. Too bad. I was looking for a little relief. I guess I should look elsewhere. There is no cool air to be found.

 

On our way to the cave we saw another fishing village. Yesterday, after a few hours with our guide, we asked her where she was from. She told us that she grew up in a local floating fishing village and has a 10 month old baby boy. She likes the mainland, but her husband is a fisherman. Chlidren in the villages do not go to school past 10 years old, if at all, so she would rather live on the mainland so her child can get an education. She also mentioned she does not swim. The boys are taught to swim, but not the women. She said that she is now trying, but it will take some time. I would bet, in my opinion, it would be to keep the women on the floating islands and not swim away. Maybe so?

After the cave, we went back to the main boat for lunch and a return cruise back to Halong City. We boarded the minibus and had a 3.5 hour ride back to Hanoi. We had to get cleaned up because we had water puppet theater tickets! We surely had to see what this hype was all about.

 

The water puppets in Hanoi are not like anything in the world. We sat in a theater of about 300. Up front was a stage made of water and room for musicians on the left. All the music was authentic Vientamese which added an extra flair to the performance. The puppets are controlled from a stick under the water that goes behind the screen to the operator. You rarely saw the stick and it took me a few minutes to see how they were being controlled. The performance was done in 9 movements all telling stories about the lives of Vietnamese peasants. Hopefully, some pictures will do it justice.

One thing that stuck out from the orchestra concert and the dancing in Laos was the cameras. All the tourists in the audience had cameras and were not afraid to use them. Strobes, autofocus lights, red eye emitters, and the like were all game. I had a bald guy in front of me and every time the strobes behind me would go off, I would get a reflection in my face of blinding light. People, please learn how to use your cameras and turn off those things if you are going to shoot in a place like this. Also, your little camera's stobe is not effective that far away. Hate to break it to you. Once I got past the camera disturbance, the show was great. I will have to find a video of them on YouTube or something since I did not want to hold my camera up in everyone's face like that.

The video below is taken from a YouTube search. You are viewing through the camera of an annoying tourist. Ha!

 

 

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