I’m back! Anybody still there?

I had every intention of keeping up with this blog after we got home from Vietnam, but you can see how well that worked out: it’s been over 3 months since my last post. As you might have guessed, I got caught up in the swirl of life and work and just never made it back here.

First there were the amoebas to deal with. OK, so I”m not really sure what that bug was that I caught, but I refer to the critters as the amoebas anyway. It gave me a break after Hue, but then came back with a vengance in Hanoi and stayed with me for a week or so at home. Good for weight loss, not so good for gathering nutrients from food and having energy.

Then there was an unexpected trip to visit a friend who just needed a friend to be there. Unplanned, yes, but good nonetheless to spend time with an old friend and see a new city.

And, finally, the quarter started and that was that.

Now that I’m on break, I’m going to try to post a bit more here, both a combo of pics from and posts about Vietnam and some of the more local adventures we’ve had since returning home.

Argh

While we were in Vietnam, we had our pictures burned onto cd when our camera filled up. By the end of the trrip, we had 3 cds, plus an almost full camera. Great, right?

Well, it seems that the first of those cds has a virus on it. A really nasty one, actually. I’ve been freaked out for a day or so trying to figure out what to do about the virus, which isn’t easy since I’m not very good at dealing with the technical backend of computers. Finally, I put Huckleberry on the case, who figured out that the virus came from the cd and is not on my hard drive. Good news for my computer! She’s re-running a full scan to make sure it’s all clear, but so far, so good.

The bad news? How am I supposed to get our pictures if the cd is infected? Hopefully, Huckleberry figure it out. Until then, pictures from the trip are on delay.

Home again

When last I wrote, I was feeling the pull of home, but hoping to enjoy the last days of our trip, which we mostly managed to do.

We did several day trips to sites near Hanoi. What I learned is that Hanoi tour operators will drive you 2-3 hours out of the city, give you about 15 minutes to visit the actual attraction, feed you lunch, and then drive you 2-3 hours back to the city, driving at terrifying speeds to beat the rush hour traffic. I’m exagerating, but only slightly. Sometimes you get 30 minutes to visit the attraction.

After that, we headed to Halong Bay–another 3 hour bus trip. I was feeling pretty miserable most of the way there, but, eventually, our boat set down anchor in a cove and we jumped off to go swimming in the bay. The next day, we kayaked and swam in the morning, then sailed to other parts of the bay, swam some more, ate lunch, and then headed back to the cove for another night at sea. We headed back to Hanoi on the third day, and spent the next day and a half doing final shopping and visiting the Vietnam Ethnology Museum, which is a must see. We also got a foot massage in Hanoi, which actually includes a full body massage; that had to have been the most violent massage I’ve ever had–I thought she was going to twist my head off–but it was certainly a cultural experience.

On the 1st, we flew to Hong Kong, which I think is a good transitional city on the way back to the US. As I commented on FB, it’s like New York, only everything’s in Chinese with English sub-titles. Still Asian-y (the Circle K serves Chinese noodles and dumplings), but very, very Western (we saw Starbucks and 7-11s everywhere). We saw not a single motorbike or cyclo and rarely heard a horn honking.

We spent the 2nd taking in some sights: saw the Reunification Flag Raising Cermony, took the tram up to the top of Victoria Peak, and took a ferry across Victoria Harbor. We didn’t see as much as we would have liked, though, because I felt terrible all day: dizzy, weak, slightly nauseous, and downright exhausted. I’ve been dealing with “stomach issues” for the last week, and I think that plus the late night before got to me.

Finally, back to the airport to check in, watch movies on the plane, and land in California before we took off from Hong Kong. We crossed the International Date Line, so we took off from Hong Kong around 4:30 pm on the 2nd and landed in California at 1:30 pm on the 2nd. Kind of like having a do-over for the second part of the day.

We had another short flight to our home airport, where friends picked us up, took us to dinner, and then, finally, home.

On the last day in Hanoi, as we were heading back to our hotel from the ethnology museum, I got a reminder that, as much as I felt like I’d seen and done enought, I’d only scratched the surface of Vietnam. As we rode through the city in our taxi, we passed a city park where a group of men were watching a cock fight. A cock fight! Right there in the middle of the city! I only caught a glimpse of it–I think I had to take a few seconds to process the visuals, by which point we were well past the scene–which is pretty much how I feel about Vietnam.

So, even though we’re home now, I’m going to keep posting about our travels here. I’ll include pictures in posts from now on, and I’m going to try to write more reflectively–less a catalogue of our travels and more of an analysis of what I’ve learned.

For now, it’s time to start sorting through the mail and figuring out why the cable doesn’t work: I need to catch up on Mad Men!

In which I look a gift horse in the mouth

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m starting to feel ready to get back to the real world. My real world, that is. Yesterday, as we were lounging in our hotel room on our last day in Sapa, I started to miss work. What is that about? Traveling for such a long time is great, but there’s a point at which I start to feel useless and unproductive and I miss the routines and comforts of my daily life at home. I miss waking up in my own home, cooking my own food, being able to drive myself wherever I want to go when I want to go. Of course, I don’t miss the general crappiness that is California right now–heat, smog, and furloughs!–but I’ll have to deal with it sooner or later.

That said, I’m definitely enjoying the time we have left here. We still have a week in Vietnam, and a lot more to see and do.

At the moment, we’re hanging out in our hotel lobby, waiting for our room to be ready for us. We took the night train from Lao Cai back to Hanoi, arriving here at 5 am. After we dropped our bags at our hotel (we’re staying in the same place we stayed in our first pass through Hanoi), we headed to Hoan Kiem Lake to check out the early morning exercise crowd. We walked around the lake twice, observing as locals and a few tourists ran, walked, stretched, played badminton, and did tai chi and aerobics. We kept meaning to get up early for this on our first visit, but we never quite made it out of bed in time. We then headed to a lakeside restaurant for breakfast and reading, and now we’re back here, waiting. I’m playing around on the internet while Huckleberry sleeps in the chair next to me and a man is getting a haircut in the alley outside the hotel.

We’ll be here for 3 days this time, but we’re going to do some day trips out of the city, first to the Perfume Pagoda, then to Tam Coc, which is kind of like Halong Bay but on land. Whatever that means. Next, a three day trip to Halong Bay where we’ll get to kayak and swim before a final pass through Hanoi before we head back to the States via Hong Kong.

Oh, Huckleberry’s awake now and wants to check her email, so I suppose I’ll end this kind of pointless post here.

Yet another catch-up post

I’ve been neglecting this little blog, I know, but I’m still traipsing around Vietnam. Every time I think the trip is almost over, I realize we still have weeks to go. I blame the lack of posting on a combo of factors, but mainly it has to do with the fact that I don’t often have longer chunks of time to write posts. We often have internet access in the hotel lobbies, but the computers are either more public than I’d like for longer writing sessions or other people are waiting for computers.

 

I have mentally composed some longer, more narrative posts, but I’ll have to wait until I get home to actually write them. For now, it’s another catch up post.

 

Last I wrote, I think we were in Hue and I was getting over a stomach bug. We flew from Hue to Saigon, a flight that ended up sucking up most of a day because of flight delays. The next day, Huckleberry and I went on a one-day tour of the Mekong Delta. It was nice to get a glimpse of the place, but I ended up feeling like the tour guide was shuttling us from one buying opportunity to the next. First it was honey and tea, then it was coconut candy, then it was lunch, etc, etc. I don’t think we learned all that much about the place, its history, or the people who lived/live there. Ah, well.

 

The next day, we flew off with the larger group–10 of us–to Cambodia for a lightening quick tour. Everyone else had only a few days left before flying back to the States, hence the rush. We started in Siem Reap, which is much more tranquil and quiet than any place we’d been in Vietnam. We all needed a break from the incessant honking of Vietnam traffic. After lunch, we went on a boat tour of one of the floating villages near the Tonle Sap Lake, which was incredible. Our tour guide, who was awesome grew up on another of Cambodia’s floating villages, so he was able to tell us a lot of stories about life on the rivers and canals. The next day, we toured Angkor, starting with Angkor Tom, then another temple that I can’t remember the name of but is the one with all the roots growing over it (and was featured in the Angelina Jolie movie whose title I also can’t remember) and then finally Angkor Wat. Hot, hot day, but our tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable and seemingly indefatigable.

 

The next morning, we boarded a boat headed for Phnom Penh, a five-six hour trip across the Tonle Sap Lake and down a river to the city. We met our new tour guide for lunch, and he took us on an even faster tour of the city (the rest of the group had to fly back to Saigon that night). We visited the Palace, the National Museum, and the Killing Fields, all much too quickly. I have to say, I was ill-at-ease for most of our time in Phnom Penh. Between the all-too-recent history of the Khmer Rouge and the on-going corruption and oppression of the current government, I just couldn’t enjoy myself in the city. Our tour guide was a small child when his family was driven out of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge and he told his story of living through the labor camps and trying to piece together a life in the war’s aftermath. He was very open about talking about the current government on the bus, but when someone asked him a question about the Khmer Rouge when we were off the bus, he was visibly nervous about answering in public. Seeing how nervous he was set me on edge, and I couldn’t shake that feeling for the rest of our stay.

 

After we dropped the rest of the group at the airport, Huckleberry and I went back to our hotel and then ventured out on our own to find dinner. We ended up having a really nice experience at the place we finally found–the staff often gathered around to watch us, especially me, eat, checking to see my reactions ot the food, I suppose? The next day, we found a tuk tuk driver and went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, aka S21. This was a former high school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a detention/interrogation center. Prisoners who were taken here eventually ended up in the killing field we’d visited the day before. Then, for a bit of cognitive dissonance, we asked our tuk tuk driver to take us to the Russian Market, so called because it’s where the Russians used to shop, for a bit of browsing. Finally, we headed back to our hotel with the same tuk tuk driver–he stayed with us all day–to pick up our bags and head to the airport. All in all, it was too short a trip. I think I’d feel better about Phnom Penh if we had longer to visit and get a feel for the place.

 

We landed next in Hanoi, where we spent two days wandering the Old Quarter and doing a lot of comparison shopping for our Halong Bay tour. We were both also feeling a bit off from the cold that Huckleberry picked up last week and thoughtfully passed on to me. It turns out that I love the feel of Hanoi, even if it is far busier and more fast paced than it once used to be. We did eventually book our tour, as well as our train tickets and hotel for Sapa, which is where we are now.

 

Sapa is in the far north of Vietnam, not all that far from China. It’s up in the mountains and the weather is much cooler and the air much cleaner. Aside from the gorgeous landscape, most people come to Sapa to visit nearby villages of hill tribes–the Hmong, Thai, Dzao, Tay, and other ethnic minority groups that the French called Montagnards. A lot of the minority women, especially Hmong, come to Sapa to sell their crafts. What they actually do is follow tourists around relentlessly, but somehow I’ve enjoyed my encounters with them so far. Many of them speak very good English, so we can actually have a conversation beyond, “You buy from me,” and “no, thank you.”

 

At one point on our first day here, I was surrounded by 6 or 7 women, all wanting me to buy. When I kept refusing–I wanted to browse more before buying, they proposed that Huckleberry and I go with them the next day to visit several of the surrounding villages and have lunch with them in their village. We think that they’ve found out the routes that many of the tour operators around here use and are trying to cut out the middleman. After meeting with one such tour operator to find out what their prices are, I’m on the Hmong’s side. The tour operator was a complete asshole, and there’s no way I’d book with him. Huckleberry and I decided to meet with the women the next morning to clarify the details of the day before we committed to the trip for sure. 

 

As it turned out, we didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Huckleberry had told one of the women where we were staying, so when we came down from our room in the morning for breakfast, they were waiting outside the hotel for us. They waited while we ate, and then we were off on one of our more intersting adventures of our trip so far…but I’ll wait for another post to describe that–it deserves its own post.

 

***

 

From this point on, our itinerary is pretty set. We’ll be in Sapa for several more days, then back to Hanoi via overnight train for 3 more days. After that, we’re going on a 3 day tour of Halong Bay–spurging for a bit of luxury at the end of our trip–and then two more days in Hanoi before we head back to the States. Where I will collapse into an exhausted heap upon arriving in our apartment.

Bound to happen

My liberal ways with ice and random bits of fresh vegetables finally caught up with me in Hue. My solo day ended with me scurrying back to the hotel room after dinner (no gory details, I promise). After I crawled into bed and waited for Huckleberry to return, I started to realize that I had a fever. Once again, traveling with a horde of doctors packing their own private pharmacies came to my rescue: the next morning, one of them produced a packet of antibiotics, which I have been taking religiously since then.

 

I spent all day Sunday in the hotel room working my way back to health. The morning had its rough moments, but mostly Huckleberry and I watched tv and napped the day away. At some point in the afternoon, we ventured out for a walk around the block. Well, I think we intended to go further, but by the time we’d browsed a couple of shops, and fended off more than a few shopkeepers, I’d had enough. That evening, I was craving some comfort food, so Huckleberry brought a take-out pizza back to the room for dinner. Not sure it was the best thing for me, but it didn’t seem to hurt.

 

On Monday, we started to get back into the groove. We spent the morning visiting Huckleberry’s parent’s repsective villages near Hue. I’ll have to write another post about that later, but the villages aren’t places they lived for any significant periods of time, though both lived in the villages for short periods of time circa 1945, when WWII and the French made living in Hue too dangerous for most. Rather, these are the villages where their families have ancestor worship houses, which is what we visited. Later in the afternoon, after a rest in the hotel room, Huckleberry and I ventured out to the Dong Ba market and then sat at an outdoor cafe along the Perfume River, chatting and looking over photos…and then laughing about the giant dead rat I noticed in the dirt a few feet from our table. After we moved to a new table, two cafe staff came over to bury the rat.

 

Today, we headed back to Saigon, where the motorbikes continue to mesmerize me. I could sit for hours watching them go by, amazing over what people in Saigon manage to transport on their scooters. Tomorrow, Huckleberry and I will do a one-day tour of the Mekong Delta–My Tho and Ben Tre. It’s much shorter than we would have liked, but we stayed in Hue for longer than we’d planned. On Thursday, we head to Cambodia for a quick (3 days, I think) tour of Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Ankor Wat. We’ll be back with Huckleberry’s family for that trip.

 

From there, we part ways with the rest of Huckleberry’s family and fly directly to Hanoi; we’ll be on our own in the north for the rest of our stay. We’re planning on spending ~5 in Sapa and using that as a base for exploring the smaller villages in the area. We also want to do a two-day tour of Ha Long Bay (staying overnight on a boat and doing some kayaking). And perhaps a visit to Haiphong, which Lonely Planet claims is what Hanoi was like 10 years ago. In between these trips, we’ll likely spend a day or so in Hanoi, exploring the city in installments…or just sitting in cafes drinking ca phe without the ice.

The Prudish American

My solo day is almost over, but has gone well so far. After my last post, I hung out in the hotel room for a while longer, finishing the David Baldacci book that I’ve been reading and watching the made-for-tv movie (I think) “Into Thin Air,” which makes for the second Mt. Everest themed movie I’ve seen on this trip, while doing jumping jacks and stretches.

I finally ventured out into Hue around 11:30, walking back to the Citadel and to the Forbidden Purple City where I roamed around for an hour or so. Hue apparently has money from South Korea to do restoration work, so there’s a lot of that going on. Parts of the Forbidden City are marvelously restored, parts are being worked on now, and parts are gone entirely. Hue was hit particularly hard by the Tet Offensive in 1968–it was the longest held city–so the scars, both human and architectural, are still apparent. During our walk in the neighborhood where Huckleberry’s father grew up yesterday, every neighbor we talked to had lost someone during the Tet Offensive. The Viet Cong had marched thousands of adult males out of the city and shot them or buried them alive. Several of the buildings in the Forbidden City were heavily damaged in 68, as well as in an early battle in 1947 during an earlier phase of the war.

After browsing, I found a little outdoor cafe in the Forbidden City and stopped there for my break. I ordered a ca phe den da, which is black coffee with ice, sweetened with just a little bit of sugar. I got that instead of ca phe sua da, which is sweetened with condensed milk, since the ca phe sua da tends to be incredibly sweet here. Oh, and I also got some oreos in lieu of lunch. I spent an hour or so there enjoying the treat while catching up on my journal writing, then browsed another part of the Forbidden City before walking back to the hotel.

I managed not to be harassed too much by cyclo drivers and vendors. Walking alone means that you’re much more likely to be solicited for services or goods. I find that kind of annoying–I like hands-off customer service, which is exceedingly rare, if not impossible, to find in Vietnam. Oh well.

After a quick rest in the hotel room, I head two doors down for my massage, which is where my cultural experience of the day really began. Several in our group went there for foot massages the other day, but I kind of forgot to ask them how it was. I decided to splurge and get a full massage in addition to a foot massage. For $15 US total, I could certainly afford it. As soon as I was ushered into the massage room, I sort of regreted the splurge.

The room couldn’t have been bigger than 5 feet by 12 feet. Inside was a small massage table covered by a faded lavender bed cover and a pillow with a matching sham, hooks for clothes, and a wall-mounted fan blowing down on the table. There was no sheet for me to lay under, so I just sat on the bed waiting for my masseuse to arrive. I’m kind of modest, to say the least, and I didn’t intend to lie naked, uncovered, on the bed in a room that adjoined such a busy hallway. After much confusion, I managed to pantomime my need for a towel or sheet of some sort, which the masseuse provided. She then stood in the room expectantly, waiting for me to undress. Pantomime didn’t really help here, but thankfully I manged to dig out “you go” (chi di) from my limited vocabulary and she did leave long enough for me to undress. I decided, after another glance at the bedspread, not to take off my underwear. I figured the masseuse wouldn’t like this (indeed, she thought it bizarre), but I wasn’t confident that the table covering got changed between clients. On they stayed.

Thankfully, we got massages at the resort near Nha Trang last week, so I was expecting the masseuse to climb onto the bed and straddle me for the massage. Overall, it was a good massage–my back had been aching and now that feels much better–but under the circumstances I wasn’t quite as blissed out as I usually am during a massage. Any time I had to change position was a bit of a challenge, since my masseuse’s English seemed to be limited to “you,” “finish,” and “tip.” I am afraid I gave her a very small tip, since I wasn’t expecting that as part of the exchange. Tipping isn’t customary in most circumstances in Vietnam, so I only had really large bills and one 5000 dong bill, which is what she got. At the end of the massage, she waited for me to redress for just a minute, and then remembered that I’m a silly foreigner who likes privacy and left for just a minute while I got redressed.

From there, I was escorted to the foot massage room, where I sat on a sort of chaise lounge with a massage pad (kind of like what you might find in a Sharper Image store) for twenty minutes or so. My masseure finally came in and got started. He spoke more English than my masseuse, enough for us to establish our ages, our names, and where we’re from. We also established that I’m married (though I left out the to a woman part) and I don’t have children. I think he tried to ask me what I’d seen in Hue, but I don’t know any of the Vietnamese names for what I’ve seen and he doesn’t know any of the English names. I also think I established that my friends are from Hue, but I’m not entirely sure. I did use some of my Vietnamese, answering questions in Vietnamese whenever possible, but eventually we both realized that we’d reached the limits of our respective vocabularies and were mostly silent after that. The foot massage was worth the extra stay, and by the end I’d planned out what to say to communicate to him that I needed to break my 100,000 dong bill in order to tip him.

As I left the hotel, a foreign couple (Brits maybe?) was checking out the sign and asked for a review. I did tell them about the slight sketchiness, but recommended the foot massage. I’m not sure, but I think they passed.

Now I’m headed back to my room for a shower, which I think is in order, before the rest of the group comes back. I’m pretty hungry now (turns out oreos and ca phe den da aren’t enough for lunch) so I may spoil dinner by going to the restaurant next door for an appetizer if folks aren’t back by the time I’m out of my shower.

Solo for a day

I’m on my own in Hue today while the rest of our group heads out for a day long tour of the DMZ, a couple of hours north of here. I opted out of the trip for a couple of reasons, but mainly it’s because I haven’t been feeling well for the past few days–I’ve been having a low-grade headache and nausea on and off since we got to Hue. One of the physicians in our group (there are 3 practicing doctors and one retired doctor in our group) speculated that all the stressors I’m experiencing–all the new sights, noises (incessant honking!), smells, and foods; the fatigue of traveling from place to place constantly; and the fatigue of being in a big group all the time (I’m a natural introvert and can only take this kind of togetherness for so long before melting down)–have all added up and are causing the headaches. The prospect of a tour hour van ride to the DMZ and then multiple stops throughout the day–piling in and out of the van to see remnants of the American War–just did not appeal to me right now. Maybe we’ll go back on our next trip to Vietnam.

Yesterday, I chilled out in the hotel room for a few hours while Huckleberry ran errands to book upcoming travel reservations and download photos from our camera. I also started popping the pills that the doctor gave me and took them throughout the day to keep the headache at bay. In the afternoon, we ate a lunch prepared by Huckleberry’s cousins at the house where her mother grew up, inside the walls of Hue’s imperial Citadel. After lunch, we climbed the Citadel wall and explored parts of the Citadel that most people don’t get to see. On top of the wall, between the outer and inner walls, there’s an urban vegetable farm growing. There are a lot of such gardens tucked into public spaces in Hue–apparently the government is encouraging them for both personal and commercial purposes. We walked through the farm to the nearest watch tower, which has recently been restored, and enjoyed the view of Hue while Huckleberry’s mother sang a famous song about Hue.

After climbing down the wall, we borrowed two of the cousins’ bikes and pedaled around the Citadel. We didn’t stop to tour the Forbidden City section–for that, we would have had to have parked the bikes and we didn’t have locks. Instead, we just meandered through the neighborhoods, enjoying seeing the city at a slower pace. Lots of little kids greeted us–mostly me, since I’m the more obvious foreigner–with waves and “hellos” and one man on a motor bike helpfully slowed down to ride along side me and cheer me up a small bridge that we were crossing. We returned the bikes and then walked back to the hotel along the Perfume River, a walk that ended up taking almost an hour, and then we headed out for dinner with the group at the Vietnamese equivalent of Medieval Times. By the end of the day, I’d managed to get rid of the headache for good, though I decided that an extra day of relaxation wouldn’t hurt.

I tend to enjoy these outings with Huckleberry more than the full group excursions (there are 11 of us total, including 3 kids from 6 to 16 years old) because they’re usually quieter, we can move at our own pace, and we can take whatever diversions we want to take. There are, of course, advantages to traveling in a large group (cheaper to rent our own drivers and vans, etc) and with family (homecooked meals and insider access, etc). Even so, I need a break every once in a while to recalibrate.

So, today, the group piled onto the bus just before 7 while I lingered in the hotel room. I’ve now had breakfast at the hotel and am comtemplating my plans for the day. I’ll wander over to see the parts of the Citadel that we didn’t go into yesterday. While I walk I’ll be keeping my eyes out for a cafe to sit in for a while to drink some ca phe sua da and catch up on my journal writing. And I’ll almost definitely go next door to the hotel for a massage. I’ll probably be ready for Huckleberry to come back long before she does, but that’s OK.

Vietnam Update

We’ve been in Vietnam for over a week, but we’ve mostly been away from the computer or, when we were in a hotel with internet access, too busy or too tired to bother logging on. So let me see if I can catch you up in a relatively brief post. (By the way, I’ll do a bunch more posts with photos when we’re back in the US–I just have no way to easily get photos from my camera to the computer until then).

OK, so after two days in Saigon, we left on Thurs, July 30 for a day long bus trip to Dalat, the mountain resort town developed by the French but also used as the site for Emperor Bao Dai’s summer palace, which might just be the least palatial palace I’ve ever been do. Art deco just does not read as palatial to me. Anyway, we spent part of the 10 hour bus ride sampling fruit from road side stands; so far, mangosteen (mang cut in Vietnamese), rambutan (chom chom), and another fruit called bon bon (not quite sure about the spelling on that one) are my favorites, but I also liked the custard apple (mang cau) and longon (nhan). For the record, I have eaten some durian (sau rieng); the taste is OK, but I can’t take the texture. The road up to Dalat is sometimes bumpy–lots of stretches of gravel roads strewn with potholes–but I enjoyed watching Saigon fade away as we headed into the cool mountains.

The next day, toured Dalat, first visiting the above-mentioned unpalatial summer palace. Remind me to post pictures of some of the garden art there–there was a very creepy rabbit there that must surely have been added in more recent years. Next we headed to the Truc Lam Thien Vien Pagoda, where we were met by a monk who is friends of Huckleberry’s parents. We were taken to meet with the abbot who founded the pagoda, as well as one in Hue, and toured the grounds of the pagoda, some of which is still being built. After that, we rode two person roller coasters (called “Coasterbobs”) down a hill to see a waterfall; for those of you who watch the Amazing Race, they were the same kind of coasters used in the Russia leg of the most recent season. I was less than pleased that we weren’t allowed to put our seat belts on for the ride up. Finally, we visited the Hang Nha Crazy House, a little taste of Gaudi in Vietnam, then lunch, then swung by the market to buy coffee and tea. Finally, in late afternoon, we left Dalat to head to Nha Trang. The drive out of Dalat took us past terraced hillsides with coffee, tea, and other crops growing in clay dirt as red as any you’d find in Georgia–gorgeous scenery. Huckleberry and I would have loved to have stayed longer in Dalat, but for this part of the trip we’re traveling with her family, so we’re not in charge of the itinerary.

We spent the next day and a half in Nha Trang visiting some sites from Huckberry’s life: the military hospital where she was born, the house where her family lived, the post office where she wandered off from her mother and walked home (stopping to sing to some soldiers on the beach along the way), and the spot on the beach from which her family launched their escape boats in 1976. We also lounged on the beach and swam, because that’s what one does in a beach town. On Saturday, we headed north about 45 minutes to a resort in Doclet, where we spent the better part of Saturday and Sunday. The beach there is much quieter and calmer, though there are millions of tiny jelly fish in the water than make swimming for too long unpleasant. Huckleberry wasn’t feeling well on Saturday–a combination of dehydration and motion sickness–but she rebounded on Sunday enough to enjoy a massage at the resort spa and to lounge around by the pool. The entire time we were there, there was a huge swarm of dragonflies hovering over the resort, which was pretty spectacular.

Sunday evening, we headed back to Nha Trang to catch our overnight sleeping bus to Hoi An. Now, I’ve done plenty of overnight buses in Mexico, but they’re nothing compared to this bus. The chairs lay all the way back–or sit up, if you like–and are stacked bunk-bed style. The driver yells at boarding passengers to remove their shoes–he even slapped one person in our group on the butt when she didn’t understand what he wanted–then yelled, smoked, and honked his way up Highway 1. Oh, and he also liked to turn the AC off. Luckily, we got a new driver after the midnight bathroom break, so the AC stayed on more consistently and the yelling and honking abated somewhat (though the smoking continued). The drivers picked up friends along the way, who then slept on the floor in between paying customers. I like the concept of sleeping buses–being able to recline more fully and stretch out my legs is definitely a plus–but I think I’ll head for the back of the bus next time. Even with all of the commotion, I slept fairly well, thanks in part to the 40 laps I swam at the hotel pool and the two benadryl I took when we boarded, and arrived in Hoi An relatively intact.

So far in Hoi An we’ve roamed the town a bit and most of us are now back at the hotel to cool off and wait for the heat to abate a little before heading back out. From what I’ve seen so far, Hoi An has wonderful architecture and history and is a charming city, but it’s also one giant tourist trap. Huckleberry speculated that the town survives largely off of tourists and all the shopping that they do here (Hoi An is known particularly for it’s fabrics, especially silk), so it’s impossible to wander the city without constantly having to shake off vendors hawking fruit, fans, or candies or shop owners trying to entice you into their stores to buy scarves, bags, or art.

We’ll be here through the night, then we spent tomorrow in Da Nang and then head to Hue for the next few days. After Hue, Huckleberry and I will head back to Saigon on our own while the rest of the group goes to Hanoi (we need to check in with the jeweler making our wedding rings). We’ll also do a two day tour of the Mekong Delta, and then the rest of the group rejoins us in Saigon and we all depart for a too-short visit to Cambodia. From there, we’ll fly to Hanoi and spend time there, as well as in Halong Bay, Sapa, and Haiphong. For now, it’s time to go check on Huckleberry, who’s napping in our air conditioned room, to see if she wants any lunch before we head back out into the heat.

Saigon Impressions

For whatever reason, Huckleberry and I agree that Saigon reminds us of Mexico City: the noise, the traffic, the mix of shabby and chic, the way the cities seem to sprawl chaotic, the architectural variety, etc. We’ve been to Mexico City a couple of times, but have never enjoyed our visits there too much, so much so that we now plan our trips to Mexico in ways that minimize time in Mex City (we think we need a friend with local  connections to show us around).

But we like Saigon. I’m not sure why that is–that the cities can be so similar, and yet we have such different reactions.

Well, actually, we do have some theories. One is that we’re traveling with family who know their way around the city. Yesterday, we were with family all day: visiting Huckleberry’s brother-in-law’s aunt and hanging out in District 1 near the Ben Thanh market (where Huckleberry’s mother helped us shop for jade for our wedding rings, which we’ll pick up next week). Yesterday, we went back to District 1 on our own, but we weren’t as overwhelmed by the place as we normally are in Mexico City, in part because we’d had a taste of it the day before. (Huckleberry’s also been here a few times before, but she’s never negotiated the city without family).

I also think the motorbikes are mesmerizing in a way that the VW Bug taxis of Mexico City are not. I could sit at a sidewalk cafe and watch them for hours. In fact, we did just that today for a break between propagandistic museums. Watching what people will carry on motorbikes is endlessly entertaining: so far we’ve seen mini refridgerators, gas tanks, water barrels, five-foot wide panes of glass, stacks of paintings, and all manner of construction tools, including ladders, wheel barrows, and generators.

Of course, I watch the motorbikes in a very different way when we cross the street. Common wisdom has it that, to cross the street, you simply need to walk forward at a steady pace while making eye contact with drivers as much as possible. If you keep at a steady pace, they’ll swerve around you. That has proven largely true of motorbikes, though less true of cars–they’ll run you down, steady pace or not. I took some video of traffic from the traffic circle across from Ben Thanh Market today to capture the volume and noise of the traffic; will have to post that when we get back to the US.

Other random notes about Saigon:

• We read in the guidebook about weasel coffee and thought we’d try that at Ben Thanh Market. Weasel coffee is made from coffee beans that have first been fed to weasels and then reharvested from their poop. Of course, when we saw the weasel coffee at the market today, I chickened out, much as Huckleberry always chickens out when confronted with the roasted crickets at markets in Mexico.
• The ca phe sua day (iced Vietnamese coffee) here is much sweeter and stronger than I’ve ever had in the US. That didn’t stop us from having two cups today.
• Sidewalks are not always for walking. We went for a brisk walk this morning in the area where we’re staying in District 7 and found it a bit challenging because the sidewalks are often claimed by the building occupants for motorbike parking or other uses. We eventually gave up and just walked in the street.
• Huckleberry and I have largely abandoned the ice embargo. Theoretically, we shouldn’t be drinking ice unless we know it comes from clean water. In reality, we gave that up pretty quickly, at least in Saigon. We’ve had quite a few iced drinks so far (see above re: ca phe sua da), and so far, so good. We’re also not supposed to eat uncooked vegetables or leafy greens unless we know they were washed in clean water, but Huckleberry couldn’t stand not throwing some herbs in her pho tonight. We figured that the broth would cook away any bacteria that might be on there.

Tomorrow, we leave early in the morning for Da Lat, where we’ll stay for one night. Then we’ll spend a couple of nights Nha Trang, then a night in Hoi An, and then a few nights in Hue. After that, we’ll part ways with Huckleberry’s family, but our plans are still in flux. We’ll work our way back to Saigon, perhaps by way of Nha Trang (no such thing as too much time at the beach), where we have to check in with the jeweler who’s making our wedding rings to check the sizing. We’ll head to the Mekong Delta, though for how long we don’t know, and then when Huckleberry’s family gets back to Saigon we’ll all go to Cambodia. At least, that’s the plan for now: things change on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.

For now, I think it’s time for us to head back to our hotel: Huckleberry is napping while I type and I’m starting to feel sleepy myself.