Hanoi & Ha-Long Bay

Days 94-97

I am writing this post from the departures hall of Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand and it is safe to say that our trip is now well and truly over as we are on a stopover on our way home. We spent the last few days in Hanoi, were we couldn’t eke out enough time to do it justice and cruising among the limestone cliffs of Ha-Long Bay, which was great but the weather was awful.

We arrived in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on a flight from Da Nang on Sunday (25^th) afternoon. My perception of Hanoi is of roads filled with scooters and motorbikes, the stories we were hearing from other tourists fed into that picture and our drive from the airport definitely succeeded in fulfilling my perception. The scooters were everywhere, weaving in and out of traffic and crossing junctions in an endless stream seemingly ignorant to any rules. Although it was quickly apparent that the most important rule of the road is that size matters in Vietnam and they made plenty of room for our taxi. Pedestrians don’t enjoy the same privilege to cars as we were to find out on our walk around the centre of the city. Crossing a busy road involves walking out into the oncoming torrent of scooters and allowing them to weave around as you inch across the road. You definitely need your wits about you, but our introduction to road crossing on this trip was Connaught Place in Delhi which was much worse. Hanoi’s scooters seem to have a general flow and obey the same logic, where as Indian roads involve many vehicles travelling at many different speeds in a chaotic weaving jumble that is much more unpredictable, scary and dangerous. 

Hanoi was overcast and a little chilly as we fought our way through the Old Quarter where we saw our first signs of Christmas; a few hotels had decorated trees donning their foyers. It is something that has been completely absent on our travels to date and these few sparse signs of Christmas feel inadequate as I can imagine the streets at home already full of lights and the Christmas music on the radio We reached our destination of the evening, St Jospeh’s Cathedral close to the Hoan Kiem Lake. Built in 1886 its looks like a mini version of Notre Dame in Paris, but you couldn’t mistake it for the Parisian version as it is painted a rather mundane white on the inside, but the real giveaway was the Vietnamese mass going on inside. Vietnam has 5.5 million Catholics thanks to the French missionaries who brought it here in the 19^th century. With only 7% of the population Catholic, the French missionaries weren’t as successful in converting them from Buddhism as they were converting the Vietnamese language to a Roman alphabet. This was extremely useful in a country where English is not widely spoken as it it gives you a chance at pronouncing the words unlike in most other Asian countries, which use their own alphabet, only recognisable to us as bizarre scribbles.  

It was back to the hotel early as we had another early start for our overnight excursion to Ha-Long Bay the following day. After a 4 hour bus ride on Monday (26^th Nov) morning we made it to the Ha-Long Bay from Hanoi and we were soon on our junk boat. No, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds! The junk boats ferry the tourists around the sights of the bay and it was actually pretty nice and roomy for a boat and the food and service of the staff on board was excellent. The weather wasn’t as accommodating though, it was cold, windy and raining. We spent a wet weekend in Donegal back in July and the weather wasn’t dissimilar. 

Ha-Long Bay is a series of 3000 islands close to the Chinese border which protrude directly out of the sea in great limestone cliffs. The karst scenery is similar to what we have been seeing throughout SE Asia, but nowhere is as dramatic or as beautiful as Ha-Long Bay. The legend to their formation goes that a family of dragons protecting Vietnam spat out jewels into the sea, which turned into rocks and smashed the ships of the invaders. Science tells us that they were formed over millions of years through complicated movements of the sea floor, volcanic activity and weathering. After a tour of a seriously overcrowded cave on one of the island my wife and I decided to reestablish our rather fractious sea kayaking partnership.  We paddled and bickered our way around a floating village in the Bay, some of whose inhabitants apparently have never been on land, and many actually get sick from being on stable ground. We spent the night drinking the boats overpriced canned beer with the other guests, most of who also seemed to have conflicting ideas about the direction, speed and paddling pattern with their partners on their kayaks. Sea kayaking might be great fun, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it as a great activity for team building.

Tuesday (29^th Nov) morning had better weather and we climbed to the top of one of the islands for a better view. It was a short, but steep climb to the top and the bird’s eye view of the bay was well worth it. We could see hundreds of the islands sticking up out of the sea and they seemed to go on forever. Soon enough we were back on the boat for lunch and sailing back to the shore. 

I was impressed with the efficiency of the cruise. We boarded the boat at 12:30pm and disembarked at 12:00, we had two meals on both days and all the time the service was superb. But as soon as we got off there was another boat load of tourists coming on board for the staff to repeat the whole procedure, most likely 7 days a week. For me, it typified the hard working “get on with it” attitude of the Vietnamese. They seem to work all hours and always be in a hurry to do it, without complaining. This attitude has no doubt played a huge role in Vietnam’s recent rapid development, hopefully an improvement in the infrastructure is their next target.

It was soon back to Hanoi and despite being our third visit to the city we had little time to explore it further, but we did get a chance for a street stall barbeque, which was delicious. Overall Vietnamese food has been better than most in the region narrowly shading Thai food but lagging Malaysian, however we can get into that later when we present the awards for our trip.

Our flight home involves a rather irritating 14 hour layover in Bangkok, but at least it presents me with this opportunity to write the penultimate post. The last post will be a joint effort with my wife making her debut on the blog. That of course isn’t strictly true as her efforts in proofing my posts have been magnificent. She has turned my error strewn posts into something readable for my faithful readers who I would also like to thank for spending the time to follow us on travels.

So Goodbye from the road at least, I hope to get the final post up in the next few days.

Hoi-An

Days 92-94

We are now flying our way back North to Hanoi for the final few days of our trip. Our stay in Hoi-An was brief, which is unfortunate as its relaxed vibe makes it the type of place that deserves a longer visit to allow you to slip into its mode. But that’s in an ideal world, a world that would have us bounding with enthusiasm for the trip right up until the last day, but the great whirlpool that has been this trip is now draining us back on home and we are relenting to its pull.

We arrived in Hoi-An on Friday (23 Nov) in another one of those dreaded buses form Hue. Although four and a half hours was a manageable amount especially considering we know it will be the last significant bus journey we take on this trip. We got dropped off right outside of a hotel, which was a bargain. The hotel was clean, had satellite TV, a swimming pool, air-con and hot water for only $10 a night, quite possibly the best value of our trip.

Hoi-An is an old port city that was founded by the Nyguens in 1595. In its hayday it was one of the foremost ports and with trade flourishing it became a very cosmopolitan city. However the river estuary on which it stands silted up making entry to the port difficult and the traders moved to Da Nang just to the north along the coast. The result to Hoi An was that it stagnated and was left as it was with all the 19th century buildings and temples preserved.

It’s a lovely quaint and quiet place these days and most of the old buildings appear to cater for tourists. Restaurants, hotels and tailor shops line its streets, the latter of which are famous for fitting out visitors with cheap suits. We declined this along with most of the other vendors offers, which were the only fault in beautiful old Hoi-An and with three months on the tourist trail we are pretty much deaf to their cat-calls by now so it mattered little. The combination of the preserved buildings and forgotten status give the town a lovely relaxed atmosphere and we could have spent a few more days wandering its streets, recharging our batteries, but Hanoi and Ha-Long Bay were beckoning.

Our taxi right to the airport this morning (Sunday 25th Nov) was an indication of the current boom that Vietnam is going through. The coastal road between Hoi An and Da Nang is not dissimilar to PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) in California and is lined with resorts, holiday homes and golf courses. Da Nang itself is also a gleaming city, with modern buildings, new bridges and the airport that we flew out of is modern and efficient. All this modernization appears to be driven by the private sector and is in sharp contrast to the shoddily government maintained Highway 1. Perhaps a real indication of what is driving the economy of this officially communist country.

Strange as it may seem to those of you who are immersed in a daily routine, but we are at the point now where we are yearning for one. Although we are still trying to appreciate how lucky we are to be experiencing these countires, we are pretty much fed up shifting from hotel, to bus/train, getting ripped off and risking a swift bowel movement every time we have food and drink. Yes, we know it is freezing and raining in Ireland at the moment, but all we want is some familiar food and manners. Mashed potatoes, sausages, decent meat and a pint of stout are a few things that spring to mind. My standard breakfast of porridge is also near impossible to get in SE Asia, their version is a rice porridge with a few pieces of meat thrown in – Not my idea of breakfast at all. So great as this trip is, it will also be great to get back on some familiar turf.

With all that said we still have the city of Hanoi and Ha Long Bay to see before we set off for home on Wednesday. So for our last few nights we have booked into a slightly nicer place to at least try and give us a comfortable base to generate enthusiasm for both of these places that I have had a great desire to see when immersed in a routine that I now crave.  

Hue & the DMZ

Days 89-91

We have just arrived in the central Vietnamese city of Hoi-An from Hue this morning. Since we are running short on time we have been trying to squeeze as much as we can into as little time as possible so after wandering around the Imperial Palace of Hue (pronounced “way”) we followed it up with a tour of the Vietnam War’s DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) north of Hue.

I will pick up with our train trip from Sapa in the Northern Hills to Hanoi. Almost predictably it didn’t quite work out as planned; actually it didn’t work out at all. The train was fully booked and we were forced to take a sleeper bus to Hanoi. The road was twisted and bumpy and consequnetly sleep was sparse by the time we arrived in the bus station on the outskirts of Hanoi on Tuesday (20th Nov) morning. However despite the difficulties we were endeavored to continue on to Hue.  After a few bus trips between three different Hanoi bus stations, we at last found a sleeper bus that was plying its route down Highway 1 between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with Hue on route and pulling out at 8.00am we were on “our way to Hue”.

The sleeper buses have fully reclining seats on which you can lie flat out on so they are quite comfortable. This in combination with our route down the main arterial route of the country should have meant a very comfortable and quick trip, or so we thought. First problem is the road; Highway 1 is not really a Highway at all, more like just your average two lane road with a very poor surface and lots of slow moving traffic making overtaking difficult. It also appears to be impossible to go more than 30km without coming across some sort of road works. Next problem is the buses; despite looking reasonably modern from the outside they don’t seem to be capable of going more than 60km/h (mph) and the shocks don’t appear to exist either so the bus wallows its way along even the smoothest sections of the much vaunted Highway 1. The advice we had received on the journey time was about 12 hours, but we had heard as little as 11 hours and as much as 16. Experience told us 16 hours would be the most likely, but we were dumped off in central Hue at 1.30am, a full 17 and a half hours after pulling out of Hanoi!

Sitting on the banks of the Perfume River (Song Huong), Hue is the old imperial capital of Vietnam. It was established by the Nguyen dynasty and rose to prominence at the start of 19^th century ruling much of Indochina and filled the void left by the crumbling the Khmer Empire. They built their imposing Citadel and Forbidden city within on the north bank of the river in 1804 and changed the name of the city from Phu Xuan to Hue, thus becoming the capital of Vietnam. With the arrival of the French in 1858, the tried and tested colonial method of retaining a monarch to rule the local populace while the colonial masters received the economic benefits of the region’s trade was employed, so the Nguyens were allowed to stay in their palace and rule by the French. The Nguyens downfall when it came, lay not with the foreigners, but within the city itself when Hue’s most famous son Ho Chi Minh starting resisting imperialist rule under the flag of Communism. The royal days of rule in Vietnam were numbered and they abdicated in 1945 and the capital was moved to Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh city) in the south. In the war years Hue and the Citadel were also the scene of a bloody battle during the Tet offensive in 1968 and much of the palace and its grounds were destroyed by American bombs. The citizens of the city also endured a tough time during this period as thousands deemed to be Southern sympathisers were killed in a wholesale slaughter by the occupying NVA (North Vietnamese Army).

From our hotel on the south bank on Wednesday (21st Nov)  we wandered across the river towards the Citadel. The Citadel is a huge fort and Inside lies the Imperial enclosure which is also surrounded by a huge brick wall and moat. Within this enclosure is the royal residence full of palaces, temples, gardens canals and of course the Forbidden Purple City where the emperor spent his days. A fair bit of imagination is required for the Purple City as much of it was destroyed and overgrown. Although never fear the restorers are here! The whole area is now a hive of activity with people, cutting, fixing, hammering and painting the enclosure back to its former grandeur. At the end of the war, the Communist government decided that it was a feudal relic and left the ruins to be swallowed by the vegetation. But soon they saw the benefits from a growing tourism industry and this coupled with little encouragement from neighbouring governments, they are now keen on restoring the former building and grounds. And they would appear to be making a pretty good job of it so far, with the Hall of Supreme Harmony being the most impressive piece of restoration on view. 

We then went in search of a few pagodas which, had been touted as a tourist attraction but proved to be pretty disappointing. However, we came across an old market which in Asian terms is nothing special had the usual fruits, meat and trinkets on sale, but had at least one other unique product over other countries: coffee. Oh yes, the Vietnamese love their coffee and they like it strong, but this is no ordinary coffee. One day in Vietnam a man’s pet weasel ate his coffee beans. Without his morning coffee the man was getting caffeine withdrawal symptoms and when the beans passed through the weasel, in his desperation he decided to fish out the beans from the poo and make himself a cuppa. He decided that it was the tastiest coffee he ever had, so did his neighbours and soon the whole country was feeding weasels their coffee beans. So the weasel poo coffee was for sale at the market and a vendor was trying to entice me with a whiff. To be honest it smelled super strong but great, however despite the vendor instigating a bout of bargaining with me, where he halved his price without me saying a word I wasn’t tempted in the slightest!

Thursday (22nd Nov) was Thanksgiving and I thought a tour of the DMZ would be a great way to celebrate it. My wife didn’t think seeing the sights of a war where America was defeated and roundly criticised for their methods of warfare was the best way to celebrate the festival. However time was of the essence in this trip and we couldn’t wait another day, so my long suffering (yes, after only a year and half she is long suffering!) and I were off to the DMZ. Like many people of my age, much of my knowledge of the Vietnam War is based around Vietnam War films, many of which have been become part of our popular youth culture. Completely aware that the War was not just about the banter and relationships of young men set in a Purple Haze to the Soundtrack of the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix and that some fierce fighting and terrible atrocities took place, I was keen to see some of the sights. So we took off on our packed tour bus for the DMZ.

After the French defeat in Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam was divided along the 17^th parallel with the communist government in the North and a capitalist president, Ngo Dinh Diem in the South. President Diem, who was backed by the West, was a stubborn and unpopular leader and refused to hold elections, which would have undoubtedly reunified Vietnam under a communist government. The area around the Ben Hai river became the dividing line between the two administrations and the north started opposing the south by establishing and supplying a Southern Guerilla Communist movement, the VC (Viet Cong). The NVA attempted an invasion in 1964 and fearing the domino effect, America stepped in on behalf of the southern government to oppose both the NVA and the VC. After initially appearing to stabilise the south, the 1968 Tet offensive turned the war on its head. The NVA and VC initially made huge advances but they couldn’t hold their ground and the US force actually regained all lost territory. However by this time the propaganda war had already been lost and many Americans were questioning the point of their involvement. Soon America was reducing their involvement and in 1973 they withdrew completely. Without the American support the days of the Southern Government were numbered and it all ended in 1975 when the Northern tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace. Vietnam was once again reunited under Communist Rule.

Our tour took us around the sights and battlefields of the DMZ, which was the area around the former border that saw a lot of action during the war.  The tour was long with a lot of driving between the various sights including the Ho Chi Minh trail and cemeteries but the highlight was the Khe Sanh Combat base and the Vinh Moc tunnels. Khe San was an American base high in the mountains close to the Laos border. It was initially supplied by road, but this was cut off by the NVA, so it could only be supplied by air.  It then came under fierce attack from the NVA and was besieged for 5 months. It had all the making of another Dien Bien Phu, but the American army put in massive resources into reopening the supply road and managed to lift the siege. As this occurred, however the Tet offensive was triggered and with American resources concentrating on Khe Sanh siege, the cities in the South were under defended and many easily came under temporary communist control. After the Tet offensive, the Khe Sanh Base was immediately forgot about by both sides and both American and NVA force left the area by the summer of 1968. At the base today there is a museum with a comically biased portrayal of the battle as some sort of glorious victory for the NVA. There are also restored American bunkers, tanks, helicopters and even a supply plane, it was quite interesting although being part of a tour group we had less than an hour to look around. It was soon back on the bus on the road again.

The Vinh Moc tunnels were built by the villagers as air raid shelters from American bombs. The village lying just across the border in the North was bombed relentlessly by America as it was supplying an Anti-Aircraft battery disrupting American missions to Hanoi. There is a huge network of tunnels, the deepest going down 15 metres to protect from the American drilling bombs. We got to walk through the tiny tunnels where the villagers spent up to five days continuously continuing life as normal, equipping the tunnels with a school and even a maternity room. It was certainly a testament to the resilience of the villagers that they stayed on in such conditions but apparently the military tunnels south of Ho Chi Minh City are even smaller and the soldiers of the VC spent much longer underground.

Once the tour was over, we were back in Hue for Thanksgiving dinner. No of course not a real one, we had to make do with pumpkin soup and a burger! The beer is cheap super cheap in Hue, costing nothing. Yes, nothing! Our hotel was giving out free beer during happy hour, 6 glasses I had, absolutely free! Beat that!

Today we made our way further south to the old port city of Hoi An and because my wife could not stomach another 17+ hour bus journey lurching our way along Highway1 we will fly from here to Hanoi in two days time. Where along with the capital’s sights, we still have to squeeze in a tour of the world famous Halong Bay!

Sapa

Days 86-88

It is freezing here in Sapa, high up in the Tonkinese Alps. We haven’t felt cold like it since last spring in Ireland and its surely a taste of things to come when we go home in a little over a week now. Thankfully before, we will descend along the Red River valley back to the warmth to the Vietnamese capital Hanoi and hopefully onto Hue in central Vietnam.

The journey from Dien Bien Phu on Saturday (17^th Nov) took 9 hours and the road were probably the worst yet, although thankfully our bus wasn’t packed to rafters full of cargo and people. The roads were absolutely shocking missing proper surfacing for large parts along the way, but our driver was forceful with the bus through the mud and made short work of it. The scenery at least was the most spectacular yet. Unlike on the Lao side of these mountains, where the valleys and forest look impenetrable, the hill tribes in Vietnam have made little of the vegetation and terrain and proceeded to use it for cultivation. There are plantations of fruit trees, but overwhelmingly rice is the main occupier of these slopes.  The rice had been harvested so the paddies are not lush green of the postcards, but a light brown from the remaining stubble; nevertheless the endless rows of rice terraces are spectacular.

Not only is the landscape interesting, but the frequent villages that we travelled through are occupied by different hill tribe people. The H'mong are the most famous of these hill tribes and are well known for the unique style of ladies dress, who I might add were only too willing to wave and pose as I snapped a photo on the way past. The H'mong occupy Vietnam, China and Laos and were well known for their loyalty to the maverick CIA operative Tony Poe from Long Beach, California. He led them in their fight against the North Vietnamese forces in the Secret War in the 1960s and was the inspiration for Colonel Kurtz in the Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now.   

My wife and I discussed that although the untouched hills in Laos are beautiful they are a bit mundane after a few hours, while the human sculpted (or scarred?) Vietnamese hills seem to continually offer something of interest to the eye. I was continually twisting my head and looking at the land and the people, my wife on the other hand was still finding the journeying tough as her stomach bug still has not passed. “This is the last bus journey we are taking like this” she declared. I hope she is right, because I think we would still be in Laos if I was as sick as she was! We only have ten days left on our trip now and we are taking the train to Hanoi so hopefully any buses in the meantime will be smooth and flat.

We arrived in Sapa and it was absolutely freezing, at least that’s how it feels after being in tropical heat for the last 3 months, it feels like Autumn in Ireland and we have had to layer up to keep out the chill. Sapa is an old French hill station built in the 1920s and 30s. It’s a lovely little place, more like an apline village than anything else. The location is very picturesque with views of the mountains towering above us and the rice terrace paddies below, the swirling cloud however makes an uninterupted view nearly impossible. The hill tribes that come down from the hills to trade and sell their wares give the town a busy, bustling vibe, especially in the markets which leave nothing to the imagination on how the meat gets from live animal to food on our plates.

Vietnam’s highest peak Fansipan (3143m/10 312ft) hovers in the clouds above the town and it so happened there was a race to the summit from Sapa. A couple of Catalans from our guesthouse who were also comrades from our epic bus ride from Laos to Dien Bien Phu entered the race, one chap came fifth and was the first foreigner. Completing the 35 km (21miles) course in an impressive 3 hours and 35minutes and got prize money of 2 million Dong for his efforts! This sounds a lot better than the conversion to US dollars of $100

As a communist country you expect Vietnam to have free public health care, free education, and good workers rights, our thoughts on this were confirmed by the declaration from the narrator in the video that we saw at the Dien Bien Phu battle museum. That video proved itself to be pure propaganda as we found out that in reality these benefits are not the case in practice at all. We got chatting to the hotel staff last night, these guys work 7 days a week with only a week off a year around Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, which I am pretty sure would be illegal in most Western capitalist countries. One of the workers also told us a story about his grandfather, who has an old war injury that he required surgery for, but the best that could get for free was a few painkillers. The family had to club together to fork out for the surgery at full price. However despite our friend's frustration about his government, another guest this morning made a comment about Vietnamese being a bunch of liars and he completely flipped. Dissatisfaction with the system there clearly is, but Nationalism still runs deep here.

Thanksgiving is a festival that I have been introduced to over the past decade as I am married to an American.  Although I have never been in America for Thanksgiving, my wife and I always celebrate in our home with friends and family. Having opted to be hobos for three months, this year we don’t have a home and we are far away from turkeys and stuffing. And even with plentiful sweet potatoes and Pumpkin soup in Vietnam, a Thanksgiving dinner will most likely be out of the question. This was something we were aware of, but it is still with heavy hearts and a bout of homesickness that this reality approaches us this Thursday. Hopefully seeing family and friends soon should alleviate all that.

The city of Hue is our most likely destination for Thanksgiving and we aim to get there by tomorrow night taking a train out of these mountains tonight to Hanoi and then on to another train to Hue through the day. It will most likely mean another 24 hours travelling, but if the journey is made in trains it will be much more manageable for our rear-ends, stomachs and patience.