Hoi An. A department store disguised as a city.

By the way, as I write this, I notice these computers are using Windows 98 (well, the one next to me is..). I love it.

So leaving Da Nang today, we took the public yellow bus to Hoi An... Not only is it a bus, but it's also a rocketship/off road vehicle, delivery service, and tourist trap. They ushered us to the back of the bus, and all of the Vietnamese had to go and sit in the front section. Two guys were stationed at the back door, throwing people off when it was their stop, picking up packages that are to be delivered further down the road, and getting out and heaving people onto the bus so that it stops for as little time as humanly possible. When people were getting on or off the bus, one of the guys would push a button to signal the driver as soon as the passenger was on the first step, and most times the helpers had to run to catch up to the bus as it was hauling away from the "stop." Certainly a crazy experience, and I'm sure we got overcharged, but I'll pay 3 bucks to go on that bus again.

Hoi An is an old French Colony, and it shows. All of the buildings are in a French colonial style, with fun colors, beautiful design work, and this feeling like you should be holding a frilly laced parisol. Sadly, most of these buildings are filled with tailors/shoe cobblers/art galleries/commercial stores rather than people. What comes from this is that there are more tourists per square inch here than anywhere else we've seen yet (I'm sure Ha Long Bay will change that. Also, this was the place where part of Michael Caine's The Quiet American movie was filmed). I wander down the streets, and all of these stores are filled with people shopping and buying, all menus and signs are in English, and what Vietnamese authenticity there is is almost gone (along with the motorbikes, and that's not a bad thing...). But, what are you going to do..

The amount of pushy salespeople is higher than any other place I've seen so far, and everyone talks to everyone else, so it's all connected. Shops are made or destroyed by word of mouth, and the way to find good places is to talk to other travelers, and people that don't feel like ripping you off. The hotel recommends one tailor, and when I went to a different one, I was questioned on my return.

"Where did you go for the suit?"
"Um, the place you showed me. (takes out business card)"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, why?"
"You are really sure???"

It's ridiculously annoying. Everyone wants you to buy something, and even when you buy things, they want you to buy more. I intended to buy a suit. I now own a cashmere suit, 4 egyptian cotton shirts, a pair of slacks, a tie, 2 pairs of leather shoes, and a belt.

Don't get me wrong, the quality on all this stuff is top notch, and the prices I'm paying are way lower than normal tailored clothes. Everything is handmade, hand-measured, hand-adjusted... This stuff is made just for me, and supposedly it lasts. (I'm done growing, right?)

You guys know me, this really isn't me. Maybe if I was travelling with someone who wasn't such a shopper, things would be different, but I was looking in the mirror, and I really liked the way these clothes looked. Maybe I'll find reasons to wear these things now...

By the way, now that I see these things that fit me, I'm really freaking skinny. It's scary. I'm eating as much as I can, but it's not working. I have to start running again or something..

After spending more than I wanted to on clothes (and feeling a bit metrosexual... It does take a man to wear a pink shirt...), I went back to my comfort zone, local cuisine. We had a 5 course lunch because this nice lady told us in the restaurant in great English that these were all Hoi An specialties. Shrimp/crab dumpings (White Rose - amazing), fried wontons with a tomato chutney on top and pork in the middle (with fish sauce - unbelievable), a local noodle dish with pork and crispy wontons (less exciting), and beautiful flaky fried spring rolls. Fresh blended Pineapple/Mango juice. A stunning meal for 5 bucks.

This is one thing I'm loving about Vietnam. The food is amazingly cheap (It can be expensive, don't get me wrong, I payed 20 bucks for the fish that the chef showed me in Da Nang), and for the most part, very good. Nothing has been bad, and if something was just alright, chances are the meal cost less than a big mac from McDonalds... We are eating alot of street food, and going to less things you would define as "restaurants," but no matter where it is, it's good.

I wandered around a bit too, as I'm wont to do, and went to the less touristy part of town.. tons of kids waving hi to me as I passed, lots of smiles from people, and less "come in and buy please!" from the people sitting on storefronts. I stopped for a bit to eat some odd street food that a group was sitting around, got my picture taken, got made fun of in Vietnamese, the usual. This language is so much harder than Japanese to even try and pronounce. The way you emphasize any word changes its meaning, and the intonations are outside the range of my western tongue. Thus, there is a lot more frustration with interactions, and a lot less chances for me to figure out what's going on.

(On a food side note, I did have some random noodle dish at a night market in Da Nang yesterday, same kinda thing. Sit down, get offered soup, give it a try, amaze all of the locals that I'm even trying it. Probably got overcharged too..)

Because of the lack of communication, there is a real sense of "Locals over Tourists." I'm sure that everything that a tourists attempts to purchase is at least twice the actual cost, and while most people don't mind paying 2 dollars for a bowl of soup that costs 1, especially when it would cost 5-7 back home, the feeling is not a good one. The people here are nice, and helpful, but only to the extent of wanting some money. I think that is the main difference between a developing nation such as Vietnam and a modern nation like Japan. Well, that, and the ingrained sense of pride/formality that Japan has. The whole Asian concept of "saving face" isn't present at all here (at least on the streets/hotels). Giant groups of people are the norm, pushing each other at every opportunity to get ahead (getting on the plane from Saigon to Da Nang was insane, and nobody will let you off in front of them, you have to push.. just like the roads), and everything is done for the sake of making some money.

Megan has noted that we're not sure how well off/poor the people are here. Everyone seems like they have all that they need, but there are no signs of luxuries, such as Air conditioning/gadgets (aside from the everpresent cell phone)/etc..

(As I'm writing this, the desk man has just left to get some Pho. He asked me to watch the Hotel for him. Muahahaha.)

I'm sure that access to the nicer places would be very hard for travellers to get to, especially in a communist country. But even the more destitute places seem to be out of reach, or at least it's hard to tell who is in a bad way. There are no status symbols like clothes/cars (to an extent)/jewelry/etc... It may come from the fact that Vietnam has more industry and factory type work than intellectual/business type work. It's a stark contrast to a place like NYC, or even suburban Maryland, where cars/clothes are judged, and you don't see many people working in the fields or construction projects (seriously, beltway construction is nothing...).

The idea of the Market really interests me, as well as the abundant street culture. Everything is done on the street, from buying/selling/eating/laundry/construction (sidewalks are piled with rubble/materials all over the place), and the contrast really gets me.

Oh well, another post for random thinking, I guess...

Danang is a bit freaky

So we get off of the airplane in Da Nang (after seeing a lady at the Saigon airport sweeping the tarmac with a broom...and taking a bus from the terminal to the plane about 50 meters), and instead of dealing with a taxi service, find a taxi driver to take us to our airport.  "5 Dollars!" he says, and then proceeds to chat with us about Vietnam, restaurants to eat at, things that are nice in Da Nang.  Then he says "we're here!"  Wrong street, wrong hotel.

"This isn't our hotel!"
"It's very nice!"
"We have a reservation! The street isn't even right!"
"Oh, That street!  I thought you said this street!"

So he drives us to the street where our hotel is on, and then proceeds to drive past it, by about 4 blocks.  We keep asking "Why are you driving so far?"  "You passed the hotel!"  and he just basically ignored us.  I'm glad we set a fixed price, because he was intent on just driving around the city until he was done... it was nuts.

The hotel we're staying at didn't even know about the reservation, and we had to boot up the computer to get onto my email so that the receptionist (who didn't speak any English) could see the reservation.  This city isn't really growing on me..

The room is nice, but everything is falling apart (I'm not expecting the ritz, but it's funny to see so many holes in everything, hooks in the bathroom that are broken, yet the towels are craftily folded so that the hotel's logo is fully created with two towels.. not to mention the nice tea service in the hotel lobby...), but it was a place to sleep, and we were tired.

Today we relaxed a bit, slept in a tad, and went to the beach.  It was not crowded at all, and we spent an hour in the waves, with only an old Vietnamese guy who kept trying to get us to dive through the waves (Fine for me, Megan is scared of salt water in her eyes/nose).  After getting nice and sun-burnt, we walked to a restaurant for some seafood.  These nice restaurants with amazing views lined the beach, and it was hard to decide where to go, so when we saw an American biker who was walking out of one, we asked her.  It seemed like she organized bike tours of Vietnam, and came to this restaurant every 2 weeks.  Good enough for us...

So, we walked in, and were immediately ushered to her group's table, and food was placed in front of us without any questions!  They thought we were part of their group, and only by some interesting discussion we were able to separate and order our own thing... So we're sitting at a white tableclothed restaurant, with beachfront views, where fresh fish (the chef brought my grouper out to me still flapping so I could see it) was being served for not cheap (at least in Vietnam), and the waitress comes over and brings us a plate of corn-nuts.  Don't get me wrong.  I like corn-nuts, but it seemed a bit out of place...

The meal was great, and we then tried to go to a waterpark talked about in the Lonely Planet.  We take a taxi there, and the driver stops, and says "Waterpark closed."  However, it sounded like "waderbarge close."  We then tried to do some translating, figure out what he was saying (I'm glad I bought that mini-dictionary now), and it turns out that this was the waterpark, and it was being worked on... So back to the hotel, where we got showered, and are going to relax before the next big section of the trip.

So, Paul keeps asking me about this pass.. Hai Van, which was mentioned on Top Gear as being one of the most beautiful roads on Earth.  We were sitting at our guest house in Saigon, waiting for a taxi to the airport, and these Aussies came in, talking about their trip in the center of Vietnam.  We asked them about it, since that was where we were headed, and they told us they rented motorbikes and went from Hue to Hoi An (we're going the opposite way in a few days), because this drive was one of the most spectacular on Earth.. some pass or another. 

"Um, was that the one mentioned on Top Gear?"
"Yeah! You heard about it too?  It was something special alright!"
"Interesting..."

So, after some thinking, reworking, planning, I think that we're going to rent scooters, and drive the 5 hours from Hoi An to Hue with a guide, so that we too can experience this place, and have a nice fun day trip over this place in Vietnam which will make half of you want to curse me (louder than you already are). 

Don't worry Paul, Chris, Ben, Ben, Vikas, and anyone else who may enjoy Top Gear.  I'll take pictures...

=)

Cu Chi Tunnels

Another day, another tour.

That being said, the tours have been fun and informative, if you get around the bus thing.  Today we were in the front seat of the bus for a 2 hour ride from Saigon to the Cu Chi tunnels, a 50km network of tunnels used by the Viet Cong to escape bombings and trap Americans. 

Being in the front of the bus was awesome, as we saw firsthand how crazy it gets.  People that our bus driver was cutting off gave him dirty looks and shouts, but he was as calm as can be.  Even our tour guide (who called himself John Wayne) said we had a good driver, with 20 years of experience. 

Before getting to the tunnels, we stopped off at this amazing workshop for handicapped Vietnamese, where they spent all day creating lacquer ware and beautiful art pieces from mother-of-pearl and egg shells, and all natural lacquer.  A tourist stop indeed, but the work was beautiful, and even if something shady was going on (John Wayne said that we should donate money to them in addition to buying, because the government takes half of their income) it seems like such a good cause.

The tunnels were a sight to behold.  There was a trail displaying the various traps and guerrilla fighting techniques used by the Viet Cong in the war, and John Wayne was extremely knowledgeable, having spent 2 years in the army digging tunnels and studying this stuff (and being a tour guide there 6 days a week).  He told us how some of the information in Lonely Planet was wrong (LP says that people would live underground for weeks at a time, eating and sleeping there... after being inside, "you only want to go in for 5 minutes!"  Apparently it was propagated by the government for tourism reasons).  We crawled through an 100 meter section of cramped, dirt ridden tunnels, and it was stunning what people would go through, and how intricate they were.  The opportunity was there to shoot guns of all sizes, including some heavy duty machine guns, but I didn't really want to glorify something like that here...  Lastly, we saw a short "documentary" on the "heroic efforts of Cu Chi guerrilla soldiers, common peace-loving countryfolk who were awarded many heroic medals for killing Americans.  The video also talked about the nonstop "barrage of bombing from Washington DC".  It was a pretty piece of propaganda.  One of the Canadians that we had met on the Mekong trip was with us, and it seemed like she took the film to heart as a documentary.  I realize, and accept that we did some nasty things to the country and the people, but to accept a propaganda film as truth?  A bit scary, if you ask me.

I did learn, however, that between her, myself, and an Irish guy we were talking to, not much was known about the specifics of the Vietnam war.  I knew the most about it, from the minimal amount of studying that we did in school, as well as my own readings.  But it surprises me how few people actually know about the war, its causes, and what happened during it.  Something I definitely want to rectify when I get home, and can sit in an air-conditioned room and read.

On the bus ride back, it started pouring (first rain we've seen here so far), and almost as if by magic, all of the people on scooters/bikes were under ponchos.  We hadn't seen anyone put any on, but there they were.  And just as suddenly, all of the vendors along the street were selling them.  Magic, I tell you!

Oh well, a bit of relaxation, and then a flight to the center of the country.  Danang, here we come!

PS.  What is going on with all the shootings?  I heard about the one at the Texas army base before we left (insane!), but every few days there seems to be another one?  Oy!

Mekong Delta, or How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bus.

So,

A two day, one night tour of the Mekong Delta (at least part of it), mostly by boat.  That's what the brochure says. 

We wake up at 6:15 to be ready by 7AM to get picked up.  We drive around the city on a bus, picking up people, and get dropped off at the dock, to wait for the rest of the group.  We get on a boat, meet our Guide (who never tells us his name, and not until the end of the tour did we actually get to know him... "Like the Marine Corps," our German friends remark), and take a 3 hour boat ride down to a set of islands on the Mekong river (Called the 9 Dragon river in Vietnamese, apparently Mekong is only for tourists..).  The first day, the "tour" elements consist of:

-A honey plant making honey from Longan Trees (Like lychee, amazing honey!)
-A "traditional" fruit plate and music performance (There were some Chinese tourists with us, they tipped, the band played Chinese songs, they started singing, clapping and dancing!)
-A really cool Sampan Boat ride (small, paddle propelled rowboats... awesome!  Old ladies hauling ass down a tiny canal.  Every artery that can be traveled upon is like a major highway for these people!)
-Lunch at an island restaurant (I got the local specialty, of course, fried whole fish, with rice paper/stuff to wrap with.  They even showed me how to wrap the rice paper!  I stopped the lady when she kept wanting to wrap for us...)
-A coconut candy making factory, where "famous" candy was being made!  (doesn't sound too asian...hrm)

The boat ride was cool (well, hot really), as everyone was waving to us as we passed them, and the boat driver was weaving in and out like it was the main roads in Saigon!  Also, tons of dirt got hauled in both directions, apparently for construction purposes... I didn't see many sand brick houses...?

After all of these, we were dropped off at a bus terminal, and then subjected to a 4 hour bus ride to go 100 km.  The villages and towns were cool to look at, and there were vestiges of Communist rule (it's still communist, but you can't really tell in the city so much), but when we waited an hour (on a bus with no bathroom!) to get onto a ferry (People were selling stuff to us on the bus, we had beer from a local store hand delivered!), and finally getting to our "100 star" hotel, as the tour guide said... "And tomorrow, we will see these things, and go on a 6 hour bus ride back to Saigon."

Apparently, most tours in Southeast Asia are like this.  We made friends with some Germans who have been traveling for a while, a Canadian couple, and a guy traveling from Fairfax, VA!  You spend more time on a bus than you do actually seeing things.  Such is life.

After a dinner with our German friends (they each got salad and a cheeseburger.  We had to teach them what a banh mi was, and why to get pho), we slept, because at 6:20AM they were knocking at our door. "GOOD MORNING!"

We stored Banh Mi in the fridge, so this was breakfast.  We walked to a boat, where we went to the largest floating market in Vietnam.  These were cool.  Tons of boats, advertising there wares by long bamboo poles sticking in the air, with what they were selling hanging off of them.  It was a wholesale market, so we couldn't really buy stuff, but it was cool to see the interactions, the huge amounts of produce being transferred, the little boats with pho making kits and random food selling to the bigger boats, and of course, the little kids on boats trying to sell drinks to the tourists.  We took a little paddle boat in 2 groups through the market, and even though we were past the peak time (it gets hot, so they start early), it was still bustling, and very interesting.  Probably the first time we really didn't get paid much attention.

Next, we went to a rice noodle factory, and this was awesome.  I kinda knew how the process went, but to see it was great.  They make a rice paper by steaming a rice liquid on silk, and drying it in the sun, and then they cut it into noodles for consumption.  A long process, but one I wouldn't mind trying sometime.  Sadly, the fresher they are, the less time they last, so nothing I could bring to the states....

After this, we went to a rice milling factory.  Vietnam farms the largest quantity of rice in Southeast Asia, but they can't sell it for much because the quality is lower than other countries.  So most of it is for internal use only.  I'm sure most of the rice gets processed in larger factories now, but going to a working rice factory was very interesting.  The whole place was covered in rice bran, and there were tons upon tons of rice in sacks, waiting to be shipped somewhere.  Of course, being Vietnam, the health/safety attributes of the factory weren't exactly passable, but I'm sure the product was delicious in it's own way.  A lot of the rice seems to be the "broken" variety, which is created when polishing the husk (brown) off of the rice breaks the whole grain into pieces.  It becomes more starchy (sticky) this way, but is considered a lower quality.

This ended the "tour" part.  We went back to where we were staying, Can Tho, and had lunch at "my uncle's restaurant" (the guide said, as the restaurant was next to a giant statue of Uncle Ho Chi Minh).  I started my crazy adventure, and had Snake Satay.  It was good, not much for flavor, but a hearty texture.  It definitely takes on whatever flavors it's with.  (Side note: the guide told me where to get dog in Saigon, but I wasn't up for two new dishes in one day... I'll be back). 

The long bus ride back wasn't too unbearable, but the guide came and sat in the back, and we really got to chatting.  He was asking me English questions ("I want to understand the difference between: Hotel, Motel, Inn" - I thought it was a reference to that rap song...), and I asked about stuff I was interested in (food, communist government, his life). 

Fun Fact: the slang term for policemen in Vietnam is 'Yellow Monkey'

Back in Saigon today, tomorrow Cu Chi tunnels and a flight to the center of the country.  I'm tired of typing.  Good night.

One day in Saigon...

But before I get to that, we did have a full day in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), which involved a whole lot of walking around.  And it was hot.  Fires of hell hot, with 200% humidity.  Good thing a 1.5L bottle of water is 50 cents...


We saw Notre Dame, which is modeled after the cathedral in France (attended part of a service in there for the hell of it... as it was Sunday.  A little girl was wearing a t-shirt that said "Girls make better Ninjas."  How awesome is that?), along with a whole lot of french colonial architecture styled houses (yay run-on sentences!).  It's interesting seeing the french influence on this culture.  You hear about it, but just like everything else in this country, it's totally different to actually see.  After walking around, having lots of ice cream and cold fruit juice (and water, of course), we came to the Museum for American War Atrocities (Local name, not official).  Remember when I was talking about Hiroshima being an intense museum?  This one was like a low budget version, but just as terrible.  Once you get past all of the military vehicles outside, you're confronted with two floors of photos from the war, portraying nothing but death, decay, destruction, remnants of agent orange and other dioxin attacks, and stories of how we were pretty messed up towards this country.  I can understand from a tactical perspective why Hiroshima would have happened.  It was a war, we wanted to end it, and we weren't really sure what we were doing.

The American War, as it's called over here, was completely different (of course, this is according to the Vietnamese.  If you want an American perspective, try and get the war covered in Public Schools, because I never went over it in more than a cursory manner).  We basically went in for a multitude of bad reasons, and then used this war to test all sorts of new/deadly stuff, not to mention clearcut a nation or completely massacre untold amounts of innocent people.  The worst part, to me, wasn't the actual war, but the fact that there are still unknown amounts of landmines, toxins, and other bad stuff still littering the landscape, and while we are donating money to get rid of this stuff, the lasting effects on people that had nothing to do with the war are horrendous.  After seeing the museum, you start to notice the people in the street that have one leg, or have fused fingers, or other things.  Who knows if it is a result of the war, but seeing it definitely touches you...

We also tried to find a noodle shop that was the headquarters of the Viet Cong during the war, and due to bad directions, we walked 20 minutes down a street in the sweltering heat to a tiny shop when we didn't even want pho to begin with.  So, we took a motorbike back to the hostel.

In the last post, I was talking about how crazy it looks.  It's just as crazy being on one.  Those guys are nuts, and even though you're not going very fast, the feeling is unique.  So much so, we're thinking of renting one and doing some driving of our own... One of those things you have to try, I can't put it into words.

We got back, took a nap, and then went out for dinner (I get to choose most of the food places, which is good for me...) at this little family food place that had amazing quail, pork stuffed tofu, chicken, among other things.  The food is turning out amazing so far (of course). 

The people here are very nice, similar to Japan, but much more motivated by money.  I guess it makes sense, because it is more of a developing nation.  If you have a few Dong, you can pretty much get anything.  People will follow you across the street to sell you things, try and shake your hand just to get your attention, and haggling is very much the norm, something I have to get better at...

Mekong delta next up...