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Since our last update we have stayed in: Cat Ba Island, Vietnam |
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Halong Bay We took a 3 day two night trip to the Unesco World Heritage Site on the east coast of Vietnam about 4 hours by bus from Hanoi. After the bus ride, we boarded a boat for the 5 hour cruise through turquoise waters to Cat Ba Island, zigzagging our way through an amazing collections of majestic islands that jut straight up out of the water - some as small as 10-20 feet in diameter, and 100 ft. high. It was one of the most stunning places that we have visited, even with the haze that is prevalent during the winter months. At one point a small boat tied up along side of us, and a woman and her son started pulling out large, blue-green fresh crabs to sell to the people on the boat. They looked delicious, but we had just had lunch and had to decline. Our full day on Cat Ba Island was spent doing a 14 km hike through the jungle. On our way to the hike, we stopped at a huge cave that was converted to a hospital during the American War. It had many large 20X30 ft. concrete walled rooms on five levels that housed up to 30 patients each. A shaft rose from the top level up to the top of the mountain where people could be lowered from helicopters.
The dense jungle reminded us of the war movies. As part of the hike we climbed up and down 4 steep hills, ending with a walk through a wide valley covered with rice paddies. We dined at the small village there before taking a boat back to our hotel. The whole trip including all ground and boat transportation, meals for 3 days, and 2 nights in a brand new year old hotel was an incredible $31 each. During the trip, we were able to talk to both American Vietnamese, many back for the first time since the war, as well as their Vietnamese relatives. It was interesting to hear their impressions of the war. Many of the Vietnamese (especially from the South) are reluctant to comment about the time after the Americans left except to say that things are much better now. Hoi An After our trip to Halong Bay, we returned to Hanoi for a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda, a sacred pilgramage site on the Perfume River. It was a beautiful and peaceful boat ride, but once we started climbing the mountain, the Tet crowds were almost unbearable. We caught the 18 hour Reunification Express train to Danang. The train was very comfortable, with four person soft sleepers. We lucked
out with good roomates; David and Sarah from north of London, who were on their way overland to Cambodia. We spent the trip sharing travel tales until they got off the train in Hue, 3 hours before Danang. We retrieved our bikes in Danang and rode 30 km past the T.V. famous China beach and Marble Mountain to the small town of Hoi An. Hoi An is a sleepy riverside town that is cute, quaint, and on the edge of being overrun by tourists. The upside of it being a big tourist destination is the large variety of good restaurants, many with nice views of the river. We had fresh eel one night and ate at the excellent French restaurant Cafe 55 three times. Hoi An also has hundreds of tailors that make custom cheap clothes. Maria had a silk jacket, blouse, and slacks custom tailored overnight for $39. (no hemming required!!!) A nice beach is a quick 5 km ride away with all the beach ammenities (food, drink, fresh pineapple, massage, pedicure, manicure whateveryouwanticure).
Cycling National Highway 1 After 4 days in Hoi An, we hopped on the bikes and pedaled for four days down Highway 1, the main and only highway (and we use the term loosely) from Hanoi to Saigon, 1700 km to the south. It is actually a two lane wide road with no center line and a steady stream of bikes, motorscooters, trucks and buses, which swayed precariously down the road while dangerously overloaded and undermaintained, trying to avoid the occasional ox cart and hand truck. There are almost no cars since they are too expensive for most families. Our routine was to be on the road by 6:00 AM, but within 4 hours the tropical heat and sun became intense. We were also unpleasantly surprised with a unseasonable headwind. The noise on the road was ear shattering due to the load horns (Ford had to design special extra loud horns for the Vietnamese market). After a while we became accustomed to the blaring, and became one with the chaos of the road.
We were often pedaling among an entire school's worth of kids all shouting "hello" and "what's your name"? Children seemed to pour out of every house that we passed, running towards us screaming with joy and shouting "hello" - we felt like royalty in a big parade. Cycles passed with baskets of chickens, ducks, or pigs on the back. Bicycles hauling 4 ft. blocks of ice were common in the morning (refrigerators are rare). The side of the road was often lined with drying rice, sheets of rice paper, ginger-like herbs, and occasionally, fish before shipment to market. Freshly slaughtered meat sat in the sun for sale. Cycle repair shops and girls selling gasoline in liter glass bottles were also common. It was rare to go more than a kilometer without passing a drink stand, vegatable stand, or restaurant. We ate Pho (a delecious noodle soup) for breakfast at stands on the side of the road, and lunched on baguettes and fruit. Ordering was easy since they typically prepare only one item but paying was much more difficult than we imagined. There were people everywhere which made going to the bathroom discreetly all but impossible; we did our best and lived with the curious eyes. Unfortunately hotels along the route are rare, requiring careful planning. Our last day we rode 117 km before reaching our destination and decided it was time for the beach.
Nha Trang Nha Trang is Vietnam's most developed beach, a beautiful 3 mile stretch of clean sand with a number of islands just off shore. We spent our first two days relaxing at the beach and exploring the town. One day we took the requisite party boat out for snorkeling - lots of fish and great coral. The food prepared on the boat was outstanding. In the afternoon, they served seven types of fruit including dragon fruit (a kiwi looking inside with white flesh and black seeds), and jack fruit, with a similar odor to durian. Entertainment included games, songs in three languages and a painful but sincere rendition of "Yesterday". They also provided a floating bar where we sampled home made fortified wine that was suprisingly drinkable. All in all a great day. Saigon The rains came to Nha Trang and we decided to high tail it on the train to Saigon. We arrived at 4:00 AM two hours early, and were able to watch the city come alive. People were doing Tai Chi, jogging, jumping rope, and playing badmitton in front of the beautiful collonial style city hall. After talking to people, we expected Saigon to be crazy, but found it to be much less hectic than Bangkok, with traffic closer to that of a big U.S. city. The main annoyance was the persistant cyclo drivers. Many of them were well educated doctors, teachers, etc. before they were sent to re-education camps after the American's left. Stripped of a legal right to work or own property, they live on their cyclos and hustle for food money by hauling people around the city. The city has a wide variety of excellent restaurants, which we did our best to sample in our short time there, lots of French, Italian, Indian, and of course, Vietnamese. We went to the Reunification Palace, the last building to fall in Saigon, and to the War Remnants Museum. The spacious grounds contained captured American planes, tanks, and weapons. Inside is a very one sided account of the war attrocities, and it is very graphic. Many pictures of people showing the effect of the different types of bombs (napalm, phosperous, etc.), and photos of American G.I.'s grinning while holding up mutilated bodies. There was also a display of fetuses deformed by their mother's exposure to Agent Orange. Despite the obvious bias, it was a gruesome and sad reminder of the tragedies of war.
Mekond Delta We left Saigon on a two day tour of the Mekong Delta. We traveled by small boat along the shallow canals where we visited floating markets, a brick factory where the senior workers earn $3/day, and a rice paper factory where the pay is $1/day. It was weird to photograph them with a camera worth over a year's pay to them. We spent the night in Can Tho where we sampled snake wine and cobra, that tasted surprising like.......eel, much chewier than the poultry you were thinking of. We both passed on the field rats, although when we saw them in the open air markets they looked very similar to chicken breasts. Maybe some of our chicken dishes........ We left our boat, walked along one of the rural canals, crossed a one pole "monkey bridge", and Maria had a chance to use the local toilet, which consists of two planks and waist high rattan walls on three sides suspended over a fish pond (a Vietnamese version of fish food). The old woman who lived there just gaped open mouthed as she peered through the trees at Maria. Our 30 day visa was expiring and we had to leave Vietnam and return to Thailand. Overall, we were pleasantly suprised with Vietnam. We didn't encounter any of the police shakedowns and other hassles that were undoubtably much more common two years previously when our guide book was published. The people were extremely friendly, without any obvious trace of resentment left from the war. The food was delicious, with great curries and fresh vegetables. It is also the most photogenic country we have ever visited. The rice fields, conical hats, water buffalos, and smiling children made for great photo ops. We could easily have stayed longer.
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Kanchanaburi We had a spare week before meeting our friend Anne and Meagan in Chaing Mai, so we hopped on the train to Kanchanaburi, home of the "Bridge Over the River Kwai". 16,000 P.O.W.'s died building the "death railway" for the Japanese during WWII, with the bridge a small part of that endeavor. The Japanese engineers had projected the railway to take 5 years to build, but they prisoners were forces to complete it in just 16 months. In addition to the POW's, over 100,000 locals died due to lack of food, exhaustion, and disease. We payed our respects at a beautifully maintained war cemetary with rows and rows of graves; most men had died in their early 20's. Our simple bungalow sat right over the river. Unfortunately, our peace was shattered by an all night concert with loud music and wailing singers. Although it was over a half mile away, it sounded like it was right outside our rattan walls. Bleary eyed, we mounted our bikes early and headed north towards the main rail line to Chaing Mai.
Northern Thailand After 2 days we reached Lopburi in time to catch the 7:00PM train to Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, our train kept being delayed, and we ended up sleeping in the train station on stone benches until we finally departed at 5:30 AM. It felt great to finally arrive at the Galere Guest House where we had stayed 13 years ago. It has since been upgraded, and is a fantastic place right on the river. Anne and Meagan joined us the next day, and we took a tuk-tuk to an elephant camp for the annual elephant day, where 72 elephants were brought down and fed in front of the crowd. It was wonderful to be at a non-tourist event and see hill tribe families come down for the show. Unlike the safety conscience Americans, the Thais allowed spectators to walk among the elephants and feed them. Only one person was crushed to death (just kidding).
We rented a jeep for a week and toured the mountains north west of Chiang Mai near the Burmese border. We stayed in a lazy town called Pai where the highlight was an elephant ride. Maria and Meagan chose to ride their elephant bareback without a handler. Once in the river, the guide instructed the elephant to kneel down and submerge its head in the water, dumping them into the muddy river. Now Maria's latest paranoia is that she has contracted deadly liver flukes. Stay tuned for the next paranoia. The Thais in the north still use slash and burn style farming, which created a constant haze over the mountains.
At one point, fires were smouldering all around us and it felt like we were on a Mad Max set. We also visited Chaing Rai to the north, a sleepier and less charming version of Chiang Mai. Chaing Mai is a fun city to explore and much more accessible than Bangkok. It is also a shoppers paradise selling clothes, handicrafts, lacquerware, leather, silk, jade, silver and custom solid teak furniture. We bought our share of souveniers which Anne graciously offered to carry home for us, replacing the 4 bottles of California wine and Czech beer that she brought for us.
This afternoon a tropical thunderstorm erupted bringing torrents of rain, and sending hundreds of American cockroaches scurrying out of the sewers onto the sidewalks (memories of the ICU). If the rains stop we will begin a 4-5 day bike ride tomorrow to the border crossing into Laos. Till the next update, Lar Gorn |
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