To Hoi An and Beyond!

Day 5 in Vietnam we left Hue, and drove to Hoi An for a day of sight seeing before heading onto Da Nang airport to fly to Ho Chi Minh City. As we had a deadline for the day, we arranged for a car as transport. Our driver, Van, didn’t speak much English, and I have very very basic garbled aka horrendous Vietnamese at best. Luckily, the trip wasn’t an unusual request; so, despite the language barrier, we were able to stop at a lot of sights along the way.
Hi Van Pass
The drive from Hue to Hoi An took us over Hi Van Pass, or Ocean Cloud Pass if you prefer the translation. The lengthiest stops were at Lang Co Beach and Marble Mountains. (FYI: At Lang Co Beach while we were taking photos, a guy appeared out of no where and tried to sell me old/out of circulation Vietnamese coins. I declined. Then he tried to sell me a loonie. Random!)
Marble Mountains caught my interest a while ago. The Departures team ended up visiting the caves on one of the Vietnam episodes. The photos below are of some of the Buddhist shrines sculpted/carved into the mountains. Word is that the cave was used by the Viet Cong as a field hospital during the war. The photo doesn’t do the temple justice. It was as large as any fantastical cathedral, only this is a natural marble cave that has been a Buddhist shrine for centuries.

 

Marble Mountain Buddha - field hospital
Marble Mountain Buddha – field hospital

From Marble Mountains, we continued on to Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a gorgeous little place! If you have time, and want to have clothing custom made for yourself, this would be the destination. There are so many amazing design shops it is indescribable. The core of Hoi An is really small, maybe three or four streets, so it is easy to visit with just a few hours time. The Japanese covered bridge is at the far side of the historic area.

Here’s a little googled tidbit of history for you:

According to local folklore, the bridge was erected after Japan suffered a series of violent earthquakes which geomancers attributed to a restless monster lying with its head in India, tail in Japan and heart in Hoi An. The only remedy was to build a bridge whose stone piles would drive a metaphorical sword through the beast’s heart and fortuitously provide a handy passage across the muddy creek.

Inside the bridge’s narrow span are a collection of stelae and four statues, two dogs and two monkeys, which suggest that work began in the year of the monkey and ended in that of the dog. The small temple suspended above the water is a later addition dedicated to the Taoist god Tran Vo Bac De (“Emperor of the North”), a favourite of sailors as he controls wind, rain and other “evil influences”.

from: http://www.hoiantravelshow.com/japanese-covered-bridge.html

After a really long day we made it to Ho Chi Minh City.
Happy Travels,
~j

Hue: The Imperial City

Once we returned to shore from Ha Long Bay, our next destination was Hue. To get there, we flew from Hanoi, in Northern Vietnam, to Hue, in Central Vietnam. It was a nice change to leave the bustle of Hanoi for the slightly less bustling Hue It was also a fantastic break in car sickness to fly instead of drive.

Our first interaction – we were scammed by the airport shuttle that was to take us to our hotel. Vietnamese culture is to avoid answering no, but it is kind of inconvenient when the question is, “Will you take us to the hotel?” and the shuttle driver answers, “Yes.” but really means, I’ll take you to somewhere near the hotel and then say get out, and leave you to figure out the rest of the way. The rest of the passengers with us were NOT impressed.

Unfortunately, the names of the hotels are confusing , eg: Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn 1, Holiday Inn 2, Original Holiday Inn. And #1 and #3 might be across the street from each other, while the original is around the corner. You get the picture. We did find the place, but what a rainy nightmare that was.Hue is a beautiful city. We visited several temples, tombs and the Imperial City. We also did a short river boat trip on the Perfume River at the end of the day.

The Imperial City of Hue is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Construction started in 1804 during the reign of Gia Long, and was completed in 1838 under Minh Mang. The Imperial City served as the center of government and court life throughout the Nguyen Dynasty. It has been damaged by natural disasters over the years, and still has visible scars, damage, bullet holes etc, from wars in 1947 and 1968.We went to the Minh Lau – Pavilion of Light, and Khai Dinh tomb. The Khai Dinh Honour Courtyard is probably one of the most recognizable with the stone sculptures of Mandarins, soldiers, elephants and horses.
The Tu Duc tomb probably had the prettiest grounds and walk ways. When we set out for the day, I figured the sites we’d see were ancient, but most of the construction was done in the late 1800’s. For the Tu Duc tomb, construction began in 1864 and was completed in 1867.

One fantastic site for the day – the MASSIVE Buddha statue that was visible from Tu Duc Tomb. We never did get to visit it, but He fits right in with Cristo Blanco and Our Lady of the Rockies.

Buddha

Hanoi to Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay was an amazing experience, and frightening as well. Let’s start with the trip from Hanoi to Ha Long…

Rice Field Vietnam
Rice Field Vietnam
I don’t think I have ever felt that carsick in my entire life. I don’t get carsick. I don’t get sea sick. I was carsick for 3 days. The drive was about 3 hours through idyllic rice fields. Imagine a stereotypical setting with green rice fields, a woman wearing a conical hat, she’s walking along the berm between sections, and there is a water buffalo wandering around. Seriously, we saw that. Then a few minutes of the skinniest row houses and businesses, and then back to idyllic movie scene Vietnam, then back to dust bowl village of skinny row houses.
As we were driving, I noticed several tombs in the middle of the fields. The best explanation I received was that this was the burial custom. A deceased person is buried along side their home or field, with their possessions, and the alter is created to have that person ever present. As sort of an Ancestor Worship. Our driver said, “In your country, big big people with tiny grave site, in our country, tiny people with huge grave site!” He also said that all possessions of the dead person still belong to that person, so nothing is passed on to someone else lest the dead person come back and ask why you are using their stuff.

Once we arrived at the water, we met some of the people we were going to be onboard with. We met Pierre, an Australian traveling home from the UK via India and Asia. He was very interesting and passed along his Lonely Planet Vietnam to us. (We didn’t bring any guide books–too heavy! But, it was nice to have for the remainder of the trip. Just add it to the 50+ travel guides we already have.) We met a German physicist and his family, and a solo female traveler from Finland who we named Elsa, because she never did tell us her name.

You may wonder why I said the trip was frightening. A few weeks before we were set for our trip, one of the junks sank in Ha Long Bay. Passengers died because they couldn’t evacuate the boat properly in the middle of the night. New safety standards were put into place, and our room came equipped with a flashlight and a hammer to smash out the window if need be. We slept just fine aboard the boat. I don’t know the exact circumstance that caused the ship to sink, but the junk we were on appeared well maintained, and the weather and water were both calm for us.

Stay tuned for more photos from Ha Long Bay.
Happy Travels,
~j

Hello Hanoi!

Because of our scheduled trip to Ha Long Bay, we didn’t have much time to explore Hanoi. As with any metropolitan area, a day is often more than enough time before people/traffic become an issue. NOTHING can prepare someone for Vietnamese traffic! There is no way to describe it short of organized chaos. We learned the specific technique for crossing the street which was just start walking, and keep walking slow and steady, don’t change speed, and don’t stop until you get to the other side. Stepping off the curb into traffic is scary business.
Hoan Kiem Lake The Huc Bridge
Hoan Kiem Lake The Huc Bridge
Luckily, our hotel was within walking distance of everything we wanted to see for the day. We started at Hoan Kiem Lake and The Huc bridge. We managed to visit the Temple of Literature, checked out St. Joseph’s Cathedral, that was modeled after the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, saw some sights, and visited an indoor market. I did take some interesting photos along the way. The wire work was astounding. FYI: We didn’t try the Creative Oriental Craft Kingdom.

We’ve arrived?

Before we left for Asia, I was nervous traveling to a country where I couldn’t easily ask for directions or piece together some semblance of a sentence. I don’t speak Spanish well, but I knew I could muddle through some basics for when we were in Peru. But, I only know one word of Vietnamese (thank-you), and I most certainly can’t read it. When we’re traveling, I don’t generally mind getting lost, or changing plans, but our first experience at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi was a little over the top.

We landed after over 28 hours travel time. Having only carry-on, we by-passed baggage claim (FANTASTIC!), and moved on quickly to get our travel Visas at the airport. The girl behind the counter was singing Backstreet Boys and Air Supply songs the whole time she processed our passports.

It was the wee hours of the morning, and the arrivals exit was swarming with taxi drivers. Mobs of shouting taxi drivers make me freak out. It is irrational for the most part, but with no sleep, anxiety kicks in. I prefer to choose my own taxi driver rather than have someone approach me. In the irrationality, it seems safer to me to pick someone rather than be mobbed. Anyway, I couldn’t deal with it, so we sat down for a few minutes, and the lights in the airport went out, and then the exit doors locked. Yep.

Luckily we found a taxi driver that helped us find an unlocked door. We had a pre-printed address card for the hotel, but he took us to a random shop with a similar name, and tried to drop us off…in the dark…in the rain…with our stuff…in the middle of no where. We argued, and he realized we were at the wrong address. So, off we went again. He did find the hotel, and when we arrived there–it was pad locked shut.

I didn’t think it was possible to get weirder, but it did. The taxi driver phoned the hotel for us, and someone got up, from where they were sleeping on a mattress in the lobby, put some clothes on, and opened the door to check us in. Finally.

Out with the old

To say that 2011 was a rough year would be an understatement. I haven’t maintained this blog as well as intended. It almost doesn’t seem possible to write about all of the wonderful things we saw in Asia almost 9 months ago. Hopefully I’ll get everything sorted by February, and then I will be able to start on the next adventure. Planning this next trip has been a bit crazy as I haven’t really had any excess time to get organized…that, and my travel partner this time is different! This trip, I’m taking my dad to New Zealand. He has always wanted to go there, and there is no time like the present. If you want to do something, see something or someone, make it happen. FYI: You can’t get more time. Here’s hoping 2012 brings a year of great moments, memories, love and happiness.

I <3 Cambodia!

Today could be the best day of our trip so far. The day was supposed to involve a boat trip to a fishing village of Kompong Khleang, lunch, a car trip for about an hour to the Beng Mealea Temple to tour there for an hour, and then back to the hotels for 6:00pm.

We started at 6:45am with our guide, Ta, picking us up at the guesthouse we are staying at. Ta asked if we needed anything, so he took us to the market to buy bug spray which we forgot to pack. We picked up one other couple, Richard and Pauline, and headed out to the Tonle Sap Lake. Along the way we passed through the flood plain of the Tonle Sap where all of the houses are on stilts. Ta was super informative, and also really keen on giving us an authentic Cambodian experience with genuine hospitality.

We stopped to have bamboo filled with rice, coconut milk, some sugar and salt and some black beans for breakfast from a roadside “shop.” Next food experience was Lotus seeds. A woman was selling them, and Ta asked if we wanted to try them. He bought us each a pod of seeds to eat. They taste like fresh peas from the garden. We also saw some kids set up like a lemonade stand on the side of the road. We asked what they were selling, so Ta stopped and bought us some of the fruit. I don’t know how to spell the name, but they looked like yellow/orange figs that peel open to reveal a super sticky, SUPER sour apricot like fruit with several large pits. Ta bought all of the fruit from the kids. He said they were so excited.

While driving we saw a funeral procession which we followed for a while, and then we saw a wedding which guests were inviting us in to take photos. That seemed really weird to me. We saw tons of adorable little kids. They are super keen on seeing their photo on the camera. My display screen was a smudgy mess from them pointing out themselves in the photos. My God were they cute though!

And, the next random food experience-Ta asked if we had tried cashew fruit since we had been in Cambodia. The 4 of us were pretty sure he meant cashew nut, but no there is an actual fruit like an apple that grows off of the nut. He said it wasn’t really the right region, but if we saw a tree he would stop. So we did! We literally invaded some random yard to check out the tree.

The fruit looks like a cashew nut attached to a small pepper-shaped, orange-coloured apple. The fruit is kind of mushy, not crisp. It is very juicy, but at the same time it dries out your mouth-quite an odd flavour sensation really. The home owner was quite happy to have “barang” (foreigner) company. She let Ta use the fire in the kitchen to roast the cashews for us.

While they were roasting we sat in the stilt house with the woman, her daughter, her neighbour, her kids etc etc. It was pretty crazy. The neighbour was 42 years old; she has 11 kids, her oldest child was 28-her youngest 5 months! She asked Ta how many kids we have, and when I said none, she offered me the baby, because “who is going to look after me when I’m old?”

We finally ended up at Beng Mealea where we climbed through the Temple. This is one of the few unrestored “jungle” temples. FYI: there is no fricken way the tour would happen in Canada. We were able to walk on roof tops and wall tops of the crumbled temple. Loved it.

Afterwards, Ta told us about some of his other tours and projects. He dropped us downtown at about 7:15pm so we could easily find somewhere to eat dinner. He also gave us his card and said if we needed anything, help, directions, information anything, to give him a call. He also gave us a map and made sure we knew how to get back to the guesthouse. I have more about Ta, but can’t possibly fit it all in. He was an incredibly inspiring person. I’m sure I will be talking to him again some day. For sure.

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Goodbye Vietnam!

Today is our last day in HCMC. It feels like we have been in Vietnam for longer than a week. Everything is tiring-just going out here brings an onslaught of touts. People try to sell the most random stuff. Everyone in the non-food markets is pushy and grabby and really aggressive while operating under the name of good customer service. Even away from the uber-touristed streets this happens.

The food markets, while interesting, smell like Durian fruit or dried fish. Alternating between the two is enough to make even the most iron-stomached person feel sick in a short period of time.

Tonight we fly to Siem Reap. Let’s hope Siem Reap smells better than Saigon.

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