VIETNAM...
A 24 hour journey on some seedy buses has landed us in
Hanoi. The ride was a little rough, although the border crossing was rather
easy. Once in Vietnam a man boarded the already crowded bus & was doing a
lousy job at concealing a machine gun under his jean jacket!! That had Ben going for a while. Was he going
to hijack the bus? Was he going to rob everybody? I was calmer, only because I had a close call
a few years back in Laos when some locals robbed a “VIP” bus but left the local
bus we were riding, alone. To Ben’s
relief, he got off the bus. It was odd
& worth mentioning.
We arrived in Hanoi first thing, checked into a hostel &
sat in a cafe with the morning fog overlooking the lake for croissants &
tea. Hanoi was the busiest city. The traffic alone stressed us out. Crossing the street is an art. As per the advice of an Irishman we met back
in China, don’t hesitate, don’t bolt, don’t dodge... Just walk very slow & steady. It is intimidating at first, but put faith in
your stride, & you should come
out unscathed on the other side! Just one
night of watching the calculated chaos from a restaurant balcony, & we were
off to quiet Cat Ba Island for Ben’s birthday.
Cat Ba was a great alternative option to Halong Bay. A guesthouse with clean sheets & a balcony
with a view of the harbour ran us a whole $6/ night. On Ben’s birthday we
rented some scoots for a tour around the island. What a gorgeous little
place. The “Hospital Cave” made our list
of sites to see. The Vietnamese
constructed the interior of the natural cave with concrete rooms for meetings, doctoring,
washing, training, & even entertainment, like a full sized cinema
room. Escape routes were designed for
each of the 3 floors. One of which was a
narrow 10ft vertical tunnel with a 4ft deep pool to break your fall;
Clever. The local guide of the cave gave
me a little lesson on how not to leave my bike when he easily lifted my seat
accessing my purse & camera, then turned the handles & steered my bike
off. Hmpf. At least I didn’t have to learn the hard way.
We had been invited to the birthday party of Rafaela who we
met on the journey over to Cat Ba. Her
birthday happened to be the day before Ben’s.
Meeting at Slo Pony, a local bar & adventure centre, we took off on
the back of bikes to Slo’s house for casual drinks, chats, & local
Vietnamese eats. Rafaela jammed a mean
song by the Cranberries, Zombie!
Amazing! The honey wine, more
like moonshine, had us a little weak in the knees by the end of the evening...
weak all over the next morning too! Wandering
around in a zombie-like state, the next day we planned for not much. That was until we ran into Kate & James,
who bent our rubber arms for a night out to celebrate Ben’s “real” birthday. Glad they did... Great times; Great people!
Our days on Cat Ba were coming to an end. Hoi An was next on our list. The original plan was to rent/ buy a couple
of old Minsk’s & cruise down to Saigon, stopping off along the way at
various “points of interest”. However,
after speaking with a few people here & there, we decided against it. Renting may be too expensive, buying would
most likely result in breaking down or the possible delay in re-selling, &
our inexperience on manual bikes combined with the deadly HWY1 was sure to give
us at least a few new scars to compare.
Instead, we chose the safer, cheaper route by bus.
If you need suites, shoes, purses, dresses, coats (I’m using
plural on purpose!), go to Hoi An. Not
every other, but every single shoppe was dedicated to outfitting tourists with anything
they wanted, and for insanely cheap. We
couldn’t resist. For myself, a new pair
of leather “gladiator” sandals, & for Ben, a fitted button-down shirt. The rest of our days in Hoi An were spent
wandering through the little alley ways lit by iron lamps & on the final
day, a few hours on the beach. Had we
known the beach was as nice as it was, I’m sure we would have spent more time
there. But, we had to move further on
down the line.
Nha Trang was claimed by a few to be one of Vietnam’s best
beaches. Hardly... But it was still nice. With only a few days to spend here, we
organized a snorkel trip around some of the outlaying islands. Again, for a whole $6. The boat seemed pretty tame, that was until
our crew set up their stage & jammed on the boat. The floating wine bar was soon to
follow. Only one or two small glasses of
wine were accepted of the many offered, mainly because I saw from the corner of
my eye that the bartender had fallen into the sea, open bottle in hand. I’m sure those who didn’t catch the bottle
going in half empty & coming up full, had a few issues the following days.
Enter Mui Ne... Now
this was a beach! Waves were coming in
at 8-9 feet at times. Ben & I, being
young and all, decided to try our body surfing talents. Yeesh...
8FT is awful high when you’re in water to your chest. A few good turns being lifted by the water
giants, & one good bail where I did the “scorpion” as Ben calls it (where
the wave takes your legs & bends them back allowing your heels to smack the
back of your head, just like a scorpion’s attack), had me retiring my career
with a whole 50 minutes of experience.
The main attraction at Mui Ne, are the two mass dunes, one
white, the other red. We had reconnected
with Torsten, a German guy we briefly met in Cat Ba, & Ash, an Englishman
we met just after the bus arrived in Mui Ne.
The four of us rented bikes & rode off to the white for the early
afternoon, making it back to the red sands for sunset when they would really
show their colour. Other than the sand
blasting & clouds dimming our sunset, the trip was a great one!
Off to Saigon. Not
much happened here... But our guesthouse
owner was interesting. We have dubbed
her Vietnam Grandma! The cutest lady
you’ve ever seen! She would constantly
be holding your hand, or rubbing your arm.
Sometimes, she would hold my hand in hers, then grab Ben’s, putting our
hands in each other’s & squeezing with the biggest grin. She loved love.
The main purpose was to visit the War Museum. I won’t go too into detail, as much of the
things we saw were horrific & emotionally draining. I will not be able to tell you in words what
it was like to see the photographs & torture weapons displayed. One thing I will touch on is Agent
Orange. Before coming to Saigon, I had
no idea what this chemical was. All
throughout Vietnam are deformed beggars.
Some have twisted limbs, some none at all, & others skin appears to
be melting off the bone. Agent Orange,
used widely during the Vietnam War, has damned the lives of almost any children
& grandchildren of the men & women sprayed. It causes the most terrible birth defects... Siamese twins, eyeless & limbless
children, swollen heads & eyes... the list goes on. Denying the street people the food or money
they are begging for is hard enough, but now knowing why they are disfigured
makes turning away heart breaking. At first,
you think it is possible to help by giving money or water, but you are easily
defeated by the number of people, that you have to find other ways to
help.
I’m not sure why each of our last journal
entries, have such sad conclusions...
I’m sorry, but the one on Cambodia probably will too. On a positive note, even with all the
terrible things that the S.E. Asian people have been through, they are some of
the kindest we’ve met.
MUCH LOVE,
B&B VONDUBYA
