We
arrived in Hue, Vietnam's capital, and only had one day to wander
around this little city. We visited a famous pagoda, beautifully
situated on top of a hill, surrounded by water. The grounds contained
gorgeous temples, an ancient tower and an old Austin mini. Yes, an
Austin mini. It sits on display, because a now famous monk drove it to
Saigon 40 years ago, parked outside of a government building and set
himself on fire to protest religious oppression. I guess that's one way
to do it. As the sun was setting, all the child monks gathered in one
of the temples and started clanging a gong while chanting. The sound
was so beautiful and haunting, we stood for ages listening.
From
Hue to Hoi An. I know, they all sound the same. We still get mixed up
too. Now, what is Hoi An famous for? Well... its hundreds, no,
thousands of tailor shops situated pretty much everywhere you go. These
tailors will make anything you could possibly imagine, made to fit like
a glove and for dirt cheap prices. Unfortunately, we arrived just in
time for Tet (New Year). Oh Tet! How it plagued us so. We were warned
that everything would be shutting down for ten days, so thought Hoi An
would be a nice place to hang out because of its beaches. We also
wanted to get clothing made, but soon realized that 95% of the shops
were closed for the holiday. On top of that, prices flew up everywhere
because hardly anywhere was open and supplies were limited. Whatever
didn't work out for us there, the excuse was Tet, whether or not that
was actually the reason. I must admit, it was a confusing few days.
We'd walk into a shop that was clearly open, and the whole family would
be sitting on the floor eating, which is not unusual, but would
announce they were closed. In Asia, we'll walk into a store at any time
of day, and we will almost certainly walk right into a family meal
being eaten right on the shop floor, leaving us feeling like we're
constantly interrupting their family time, just because we need to buy
toilet paper. So it was hit and miss until Ian and I found a couple
tailors who would make our things. In the end we each got a couple
Italian cashmere and wool suits done for under $100 each! We're not
exactly sure where we're going to wear them, but gosh, they are
beautiful.
Our second day there we got up while it was still
dark out, with our friends Scott and Reinira , we hopped on motorbikes
and drove the hour to My Son to see the sunrise. Well, we missed
sunrise but spent the morning wandering around the ancient temple ruins
dating back to the 8th century! Hard to believe that something that old
can still exist!
That afternoon we went to China Beach, made
famous from the T.V. series in the 80's. No, I don't remember it
either. But it is a beautiful beach, and one of the few that haven't
been turned into a garbage dump. It is shocking how environmentally
careless people are here, although we figure that if animals and humans
don't even have rights in this country, the environment doesn't stand a
chance. Everyone just throws everything everywhere! We'd be on the most
beautiful, secluded hike and be stepping over garbage the whole way, or
on a beach and actually have to clear a spot on the sand from empty
bottles and wrappers. It made us so angry how they're destroying such a
gorgeous country and they just don't care! So, we were enjoying our day
on China Beach and because of Tet everything on the beach was closed,
of course. Out of no where a security guard from a resort down the
beach spotted us and walked over to demand money for parking our bikes
by the closed restaurant we were in front of. We stared at him in
disbelief since the restaurant we were parked by had nothing to do with
the resort he was from. When he became more demanding about giving him
money, that would obviously go straight into his pocket, disgusted, we
packed up our things and left. Another beautiful day ended off with
harassment from a local. What else is new?
Things got worse
when I got sick, and in Asia when you get sick, you get really sick. We
came to the conclusion that I'd contracted hook worm (Nice.), which is
extremely common in Vietnam and can be picked up from anything, so my
chances were pretty good. Just another casualty of Vietnam. Can this
country get any better?! Fortunately, I got better just in time for New
Years eve. We went out with Scott and Reinira and watched some
hilarious live dance shows that weren't actually supposed to be funny.
We then watched the longest fireworks display any of us had ever seen,
not because there were a lot of fireworks, they were very small, in
fact. After each display, it was almost like they'd have to reload, so
six different times, what seemed to be the last firework would go off,
then silence, everyone would cheer, the crowd would start to disperse,
then suddenly they would start going off again. Six times. By the end
we were killing ourselves laughing.
After six days in Hoi An,
the longest we had stayed anywhere, it was time to leave. We went to
the bus station and sat across the road having something to eat while
we waited. Our bus pulled up and everyone started putting their bags
on. We still had five minutes so we went back to get our food packed
up, when all of a sudden our bus took off! Ian ran over and what we
found out later had happened, was they decided to switch buses, so
unloaded everyone and their bags back off the bus. Since we had stepped
away, our bags remained on that bus! Ian took off like lightening! He
actually jumped onto the back of some random man's motorbike and
yelled, "Follow that bus!" So he did. He and Ian flew through four sets
of lights before Ian jumped off and ran in front of the bus to stop it.
And yes, this is a true story. It could have ended horribly, but Ian
saved the day! He's grinning right now, reading this. Oh the excitement!
