Hue - a pretty place

Tomorrow we’re leaving Hue for Da Nang to chill out for a few days on China Beach. There’s supposed to be a pretty cool place to stay there, right on the beach front, called Hao’s Place. Hopefully they’ll have space for us when we arrive. Our bus leaves at 8ish am tomorrow, and the ride is only 4ish (probably more like 5ish) hours, which won’t be too bad.

As you can probably tell, we’re a bit behind on some of the things we wanted to post (see the Hanoi food entry by Erik below). So, I guess it’s time to give an update on how much we enjoyed our time in Hue. It’s a great, beautiful, historic and low-key city with a fun night life (we watched some World Cup games at the popular DMZ Bar…  some fun games and prize-winning for us two as well) and a great atmosphere overall (despite the constant pestering of business people persistently and repeatedly asking all tourists to ‘eat here now’ and to ‘ride moto – one hour’ etc. etc.). Erik just said: “I love it here” and I feel the same.

On our first day here we visited the Citadel, a large old section of Hue that was the original city (it’s actually a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site). It is huge and we couldn’t walk the whole thing but what we saw was stunning. The old city was set up in the exact layout as China’s Forbidden City and with the same architectural style. Sadly, most of the buildings were destroyed by bombing during the American War (aka the Vietnam War), but what remains has been restored very well.

On day two we did a fantastic tour of the Demilitarized Zone, where North and South Vietnam were divided. We had a great guide who was a Vietnamese War veteran (he fought for the south – so we’re guessing he was/is not a Communist supporter but we didn’t outright ask him). We got to see Con Tien Firebase (a former American bunker where you could still see remnants of sandbags and even the inside soft shell of a helmet), a few Vietnamese graveyards, the former border site between the North and the South (the DMZ), the Vinh Moc Tunnels (an amazing tunnel system built in Vinh, a small city in the North, which reaches 23 meters deep – the people of the city lived in and out of the this tunnel system during the war for years and above ground you can still see the holes left behind by bombing where they haven’t yet been filled in), and an old Catholic church that was all shot up and in ruins… among other things.

Today, our third day in Hue, we visited the Tien Moc Pagoda by motorbike (Erik was driving of course), which was my favourite spot in Vietnam so far. It is a gorgeous and amazingly calm Buddhist monastery that is still in use (Erik got some great shots of the monks that you can check out on his blog). The architecture is beautiful and the history behind it is quite interesting. After our visit at the pagoda we rode around on our motorbike (got caught in the rain and got lost a few times). AND!!! For dinner we finally found a Pho place that measured up to the Golden Turtle in Toronto! Actually, it was BETTER! We haven’t been able to find the authentic stuff until tonight, which is strange since Vietnam = Pho! But just across from our hotel is a small stand surrounded by a bunch of small Rubbermaid plastic tables and seats. AND WOW! That stuff was good! Erik got beef and I got veggie (or “an chay”).

We’ll post another update soon! XOXOXO

Citadel Wall

US Helmet Shell at Con Tien Firebase

Bomb Hole

Beach outside of Vinh Moc Tunnels

Tien Mu Pagoda

FOOD!!!

The table.



No I didn't go swimming, that's sweat. But who cares, the chicken was amazing and so was the tofu. One of the tofu dishes had onions in it and it tasted kinda like a McD's cheese burger! It was good haha..



Hil eating lots of tofu! mmm...I'm excited to go back to Ha Noi at the end...I'm gonna eat everything.



Delicious mocktails at a little fancyish cafe in Ha Noi.

Hello from Hue

Hello!

Ok, quick update; we are in Hue, not Dong Hoi. After another hellish bus station experience, where our taxi driver dropped us off a block away from the hidden bus station and pointed us in the wrong direction. Luckily we were accompanied by another couple going to the same station because they gave the driver their hotel's card (they do the booking) and the driver called and figured it out. Anyway, everyone at the bus station was white and stressed. The transportation systems here are a mess. no one knows whats going on, not even the vietnamese! But theres always a sweet heart or two in there somewhere who does know and isnt trying to take advantage of you in a confusing situation.

So we got on the "sleeper bus" (HAH!!) headed south to Dong hoi. it was hot and cramped with no toilet. The "air con" that was promised was worthless and everyone was basically lying in sweat. hehe..it doesnt even bother me anymore! Once you accept the fact that you're going to be wet always and delirious most of the time, it's not so bad. But on the way we started to get a little uncomfortable with the idea of being dropped off in a small town, with no hotel booked at 4am. Not to mention, everyone else was skipping Dong Hoi and going straight to Hue. So we asked if we could skip the stop and keep going. The guy was annoyed when he finally understood us, but on we went.

Now we're in a nice hotel at a good price and Hilary's doing the laundry..IN A TUB!! (haven't seen a tub since we got here) hey, i offered. :) anyway, I think I slept for about an hour, so I don't know if this makes sense. it's 12:43pm and bedtime. But I guess we'll have to perk up and giter' done'd.

We're having a great time despite all the difficulties involved with getting around. The food is amazing and everyone is eating constantly. In Ha Noi we found a couple of really great places to eat. A small spot with mostly vietnamese eaters, where hilary's only option is noodles, but mine is Bun Cha, one of my favourate things to eat. The other place is a small street side place that does a lot of delivery to workers during the lunch hour (that's how i knew to go there. Also no white people.), and also makes a few mean tofu dishes, as well as some wonderful chicken and pork. "cheap cheap"! about $3.75US for a table full of food. Now I'm hungry.

Ok, we miss everyone and we love you's.
See you soon..ish..

E

Here's a photo or two from cat ba island...just one because it's taking too long.

Cat Ba Island and Lan Ha Bay

For the last few days we’ve been on Cat Ba Island, where we got our first taste of the South China Sea. Getting there was an adventure (especially at the bus station in Hanoi where everyone was trying to convince us to get on their bus – the wrong bus). It was about a 2-3 hour bus ride to Hai Phong, where we got on a boat for about 30 minutes to cross over to Cat Ba Island. From there, it was another half hour drive to Cat Ba Town. Once we arrived we had to grab something to eat before even thinking about finding a place to sleep (we MUST remember to bring snacks on all bus/train rides from now on). Finding a place to stay wasn’t easy, since we arrived on a Friday and didn’t book ahead - we were vacationing with Hanoians, and most of the rooms were full. So we lugged our packs around and eventually found a lovely place called Nam Duong to stay at with a view of the harbour for a decent price (after rejecting another option where we climbed 5 flights of stairs only to find that the sink was off the wall – the place was a dump and they wanted us to pay the same as at Nam Duong). The hotel owners at Nam Duong were very nice – they even gave us a free bottle of water when they saw how tired and sweaty we were (nothing is free thing in Vietnam so that was a nice gesture!).

On our first day on the island we rented a motorbike and explored the beaches, where we swam and sat in the sun for a while. We got to the beach early, before most of the tourists and Vietnamese on holiday arrived, so it was very peaceful. The second day we went on a cruise through Lan Ha Bay (rather than Ha Long Bay, the more popular tourist destination) so we were able to see the landscape with a bit less clutter. We were on a boat with about fifteen other tourists and we got to kayak around the bay and into a lagoon, hop off onto island beaches, go swimming off the boat, and (not my highlight) kayak into a bat cave (disgusting! and much worse compared to the ROM’s bat cave of my childhood – we didn’t stay in there very long). On our last evening in Cat Ba Town we had a great experience with a few local young men, who shared their rice vodka and chicken hot pot with us. They were very hospitable and fun, despite the language barrier – and they even wanted to pay for our meal (we didn’t let them)!

Yesterday we arrived back in Hanoi, where I went on a mini-shopping spree (silk skirt and a tank top… for wearing here of course J) and we stayed the night. Today we take an overnight sleeper bus south to Dong Hoi -  a small and lightly touristed city where not a lot of English is spoken – where we will try to visit the Phong Na Cave (hopefully no bats there!), relax on the beach and check out some of the war remnants.

View of Cat Ba Town

Fish Farm in Ha Long Bay

Kayaks

View from a beach in Lan Ha Bay

Lan Ha Bay

So Hannoyed!

Last night we fell asleep around 6 or 7pm. probably not a great strategy, but it had to happen. after waking up at 1:30am, we soon fell back asleep, only to wake up at 6am. Eventually we got up and went down stairs for breakfast, included in our stay price. Omlette and a fresh bun..so fresh and so soft. And french. I love bread and i was very happy to see it for brekky.

After a tasty meal made by an elderly woman in the little kitchen, we decided we would head south to the french quarter. I think we left the hotel around 9:30am? Along the way we were over charged for four doughnuts by a woman selling them on the street. they looked good and we had seen them the day before and wanted to try them. We paid $30 000dong for basically 2 timbits and 2 small crullers...$30 000= about $2.30 USD........how many timbits do you get for $2.30?? hehe anyway, not a big deal but we just felt a little taken. It's been a learning curve to figure out the converstion and to calculate it in the moment. We're nice canadians, it's hard not to assume the price is right. I mean, if we forgot our change in a tim hortons, someone would run out and give it to us...

To speed this up..We walked and found a pretty crazy little market..very back alley, lots of produce and lots of animal parts. Not enough people cooking them though...;)

After a while we did our best to head back towards "familiar" grounds. I've never had so much trouble navigating anywhere! Everything looks the same, but still you recognize when you are somewhere new. After a stop for food at a place with listed prices, we headed back to the hotel. It took us i'd say an hour to find it from only a few blocks away. We were losing our patience. Then this woman came along with fresh pineapple and basically put the carrier on hilary's shoulder and insisted I take a photo. Neither of us even had a camera out at the time. We both knew where this was going, but hell, i took out my camera and snapped one! haha...Hil was already irritable and lost, this was not a welcome gesture of robbery. Then, we switched. I took the carrier and stood there almost falling over while hil took an out of focus photo of me just to get it over with hah. Then she tried to sell us two small pineapples, sliced, for $50 000d! We talked her down to $25000...when really we should have just said no thanks in the beginning.

It's not so much the money, it IS relatively cheap for most things. But it's the constant feeling that you're being charged a different rate and don't know how to defend yourself. its kind of degrading and frustrating. It compromises my sense of entitlement as a white person. It's just not fair. :)

Ok, that's all from me. I'm going to go study the exchange rate.

LOVE!

Hello from Hanoi

Well we're here, in Hanoi! We survived our flights (really, they weren't that bad) and we had no problems getting our visa or going through customs. We got a ride to our guest house (Tung Trang I), which was a good first taste of the city's haphazard traffic and crazy honking. The guest house is run by a lovely woman who has already been very helpful. Our room is also quite lovely.

After settling in we had our first taste of street food. I wasn't too hungry so I thought I'd just go for a drink. Erik pointed at a few things on the menu (which was actually just heaps of food sitting out, ready to be dished onto plates) - shrimp, pork, tofu - and then we sat down. They brought us TWO plates of what he pointed at... so I passed the pork on to Erik and ate my rice and tofu and some shrimp too. Oh the good old language barrier - I'm sure this kind of miscommunication will happen many times over :) Also we must remember that $1 = 18,000 Vietnam Dong (because we think we were overcharged just a bit). Anyhow, it was tasty! And we got to eat sitting out on the street with the locals.

Our meal at the Hong Kong airport (Ramen noodles with pork/with Veggies) was our first non-airplane meal. It was a fast food type of thing, but delicious! Just for fun, here's what my almost fully eaten meal looked like:

It really is nice here. Loud, humid and a bit dirty - but beautiful and somehow calm despite the noise and traffic. I'm sure we'll get a better idea of the city over the next few days... and now it's time to relax.

BIG P.S. Just realized there is no facebook in Vietnam. Communism = facebook blackout.

Ha Long Bay

here's a view that brendan had. lovely.

stoopid monkey!

I will never go wherever this is. EVER!!!!