Apologies
for being a slacker on the blog :P
Leaving
Saigon early in the morning I climbed onto the back of a motorbike
with my 16kg pack on my back. If you've ever been to Saigon and seen
the traffic you will understand what a terrifying experience this
was, thank god it was only a 20 minute ride to the pier. I will say
this, trying to balance on that bike with a full pack left me with
some very frayed nerves and some very sore quad muscles.
Hopped
onto a boat and headed up the coast to a place called Vung Tau to
check out the beach. After Saigon the place seemed like a ghost town,
with so few cars and people about it was almost unnerving. The town
has a Jesus statue up on the hill and some casino's down by the
waterfront, trying really hard to recreate a whole Rio vibe. Almost
there, just needs a LOT more people. Watched an amazing sunset over
the ocean ( which really disorientated me because I thought I was on
the East coast???) and snuck into the pool at a much nicer hotel than
the one I was staying at.
The
next day, after a long stroll along the beachfront, I decided I would
need to catch a motorbike taxi back to my hotel if I wanted to catch
the afternoon bus out of town. There were probably 15 men on the
corner calling for me to go with them, and I took pity on the
toothless old guy who looked the most pitiful. My reasoning was as
follows; I felt sorry for him and wanted to help him out, and I
figured that at his age he probably had the most driving experience
of all of them. Not two minutes into the trip he crashed into the
back of a car in front of us. He broke hard and slowed right down (
so I thought he would miss it) but at the last second he accelerated
and smacked into the back right corner of the car. Of course he then
engaged in a screaming match with the driver of the car while I did a
quick self check and ascertained that I was fine. I pressed 20,000
Dong into his hand and walked away as he continued to scream at the
driver of the car. Moral of the story, don't choose a motorbike taxi
based on pity. Don't choose anything based on pity actually.
Crisis
averted I made it to the bus station and continued North to a town
called Mui Ne. The 'bus' was actually a minivan and I found myself
once again the only white person on a cramped and crowded local bus.
Let's say the bus could comfortable hold about 20 people... I think
we maxed out at about 30. Even so, I had a seat ( no sitting in the
aisle for me!) and was next to the window so I was reasonable
comfortable for the 5 hour journey. I watched as the little towns and
villages of Vietnam flashed past the window and before I knew it I
was approaching Mui Ne. With about 1 hour to go the 14 year old boy
next to me pulled out a cigarette. I glared at him an intense disgust
that I thought made my feelings clear. He lit up anyway. On a
minivan. With 29 other people crammed in around him. I shouted at him
in English. He ignored me in Vietnamese. The bus rolled on.
Mui
Ne was an unusual sort of place, not at all what I had expected from
a placed touted as 'the best beach in Vietnam.' The whole beachfront
was walled off by hotels and resorts, there was no public access
where you could just walk down and enjoy the beach without going
through a hotel or restaurant. Also, the beach itself was about 1
meter wide. BUT, the kite surfing and wind surfing in Mui Ne was
world class. Probably the reason the Quicksilver has a huge hotel on
the waterfront and runs the Quicksilver Kite Surfing Academy in Mui
Ne. I found myself a bargain room at a nice beachfront place ( with a
pool) and spent an afternoon on the sun deck watching the kite
surfers skip across the South China Sea.
The
town is also full of BBQ seafood restaurants where you can select the
freshest seafood at a very good price and eat yourself silly. Which I
did ;) The other draw card in Mui Ne is the sand dunes. I took an
afternoon tour out to the white and red sand dunes, and to a local
fishing village. The fishing village was full of little circular
bamboo boats that bobbed around on the sea and were full of all
manner of fish and shellfish. The sand dunes were completely random.
After weeks, even months, of dense tropical jungle it was very
surreal to suddenly find myself in a desert of sand and surrounded by
giant sand dunes. The tourists can pay a lot of money to hire 4 wheel
quad bikes and tear around the dunes, or they can pay very little
money to hire a sheet of plastic and slide down the dunes. Do the
maths people ;)
So
after a few days of swimming, sunshine and good seafood I caught the
1am night bus to Nah Trang. The road between Mui Ne and Nah Trang is
bumpy and punctuated by the horns of a billion semi trailers tearing
up and down the coast. I did not get much sleep. I rolled into Nah
Trang at about 6am and cheered myself up with a western breakfast at
the Rainbow Divers dive shop and found a decent place to stay for a
few days. Nah Trang is big enough to have everything you want, but
small enough to manage and figure out within a day or two. I spent a
day a day diving out in the bay and quickly realized that my diving
in Thailand and Indonesia had thoroughly spoiled me. Poor visibility
and a lack of marine life meant that I only opted for one day of
diving in Nah Trang. Still, it was a lovely day out on the bay with a
great dive crew... if you are in Nah Trang and you want to dive give
Rainbow Divers a shot.
It
was Halloween while I was in Nah Trang, so I met up with Kate and
Grant ( the awesome Unicorn Hunters from HCMC) and went to the
sailing club for the Halloween party. A Halloween party on the beach
in Vietnam is as random and strange as it sounds. We waited a looong
time for the Vietnamese dancers to put on a floor show and do the
Thriller dance. When they finally did we laughed a lot and took
ourselves home. The next day we caught the cable car across the bay (
an adventure in itself for Grant who is afraid of heights) to Nah
Trang's adventure theme park VINPEARL LAND!!!!! Lonely Planet
describes it as Vietnam’s answer to Disneyland.
What
followed was a day I will never forget, though due to fear or
laughter I cannot say. We skipped the dinky rides and headed straight
to the water park. Perhaps the creepy, scary clown shower at the
entrance should have been an sign... but we ignored it. First slide,
speed slide, great fun! Second slide, speed slide again, Nadia get's
massive air and manages to punch herself in the face and the stomach
on landing. Hmmm not a great start to the day... and the bruise on my
stomach lasted for a week!!! Third slide, the Tsunami, went on it
against ALL my better instincts and regretted it. The Tsunami is an
almost sheer drop into a half pipe water slide. Grant went first and
seemed fine. Kate went second and screamed something unintelligible (
I later learned it was, 'DON'T DO IT, IT'S NOT FUN'). I went third,
almost went over the top on the far side, fell out of the tube as I
came down and slid down half the wall on my neck. Needless to say I
was very sore and pretty damn scared. For the rest of the day I stuck
to a firm policy, I would only go down slides that had an enclosed
pipe. Until I was persuaded to go down the Family Slide with Kate and
Grant. This was a huge wide slide that you could go down in massive
ring tubes( that looked like life rafts) or in those linked tubes
that look like figure eights. We went in a linked tube and I swear to
go ( and Kate will support this one) we almost went over the edge!!!!
Despite
all of these near death experiences we had a really fun day. Much
time was spent discussing how perfect the park was for the plot and
setting of a horror movie, the covered slides were a lot of fun and
also, the park is full of really random animal statues, which we used
as the basis for many inappropriate and hilarious photo opportunities
while horrified and disgusted Vietnamese families watched. We capped
the day off with a turn on the bumper cars, and I think it is safe to
say that the stress and anxiety of my day at the death park all came
tumbling out as I laughed uncontrollably and rammed into other
drivers like a maniac. We coaxed Grant back onto the cable car and
made our way back across the bay to Nah Trang where we treated
ourselves to some delicious Vietnamese cuisine and gave thanks for
making it out alive.
My
last day in Nah Trang was spent getting a massage on my VERY SORE
NECK, and sunning myself by the pool at the Louisiana Brew house. The
Louisiana Brew house is an excellent micro brewery on the beach at
Nah Trang where you can drink their specialty brews, eat their great
food and swim in their lovely pool. I want one on the beach in Perth,
but it'd never work ( shakes head sadly). I jumped onto a night train
to Hoi An, where I spent the night trying to sleep with my feet
tucked up on the chair to avoid the rat I could see running around
the floor. In the end I tied my shoelaces around the bottom of my
pants legs and settles my feet on the floor. However, between my fear
for a rat somehow running up the inside of my pants leg, and the
group of Vietnamese guys in my carriage getting absolutely hammered
on Heineken, I didn't get much sleep. I just had to laugh and remind
myself that it's all part of the adventure.
Once
I made it to Hoi An, rat free might I add, I am ashamed to admit I
lost all control of myself and turned into a retail monster. Mostly I
blame Kate the Unicorn Hunter... she MADE me buy shoes!!!! I only
spent 4 days in Hoi An, but I came out of that town with 5 custom
made dresses, a biddness suit, tailor made work pants, 2 custom made
coats, 2 pairs of custom made leather shoes and a hand made leather
bag. I regret nothing... but I'm praying the package I posted it all
home in makes it to Perth. As well as being a shoppers dream, Hoi An
is a beautiful town that is filled with silk lanterns, traditional
covered bridges, cobbled streets and something else that you can't
name, but you can feel it as you wander about town with a smile on
your face. On top of all of that I think it's fair to say Hoi An had
some of the best food in Vietnam! On the recommendation of Miss
Jacquie Long, we cycled out to the beach one afternoon in search of a
restaurant she went to a few years ago that serves, ' the most
amazing tasting plate ever!' Her directions were vague and non
specific, but we found the place ( eventually and after much
searching) and delighted in a HUGE tasting plate of Hoi An's
delicacies. Thanks Jack it was every bit as good as you said it would
be.
I
escaped Hoi An on a train headed for Hue. I say escaped because if I
had stayed any longer I would have gained 10kgs and wouldn't have had
enough money to fly home ( because I would have spent it all on shoes
… clearly). The short train ride to Hue was very pretty and wound
through the mountains and along the coast. If you are going to take a
train trip in Vietnam, take the train between Hoi An and Hue. Of
course Hue was almost underwater when I arrived, the perils of
building a city on the riverbanks in a country that has monsoons. I
took refuge in my hotel room and watched episodes of American
Master-chef ( I loath that smug Christian guy!!!) while the rain
continued to fall outside. The next day I decided to venture out into
the flooded streets and since the towns famed citadel was 3 feet
underwater I hired a cyclo driver to take me across the river to the
markets. Wandering through the markets while I hid from the rain was
a lot of fun, because I had no plans to buy anything I didn't have to
get into haggling with the vendors so I just chatted with them and
made some new friends :) Still when I left the market I was the proud
owner of some tea ( which I probably can't get into Australia), some
weasel poo coffee ( which I probably can't get into Australia) and
some bamboo conical hats ( which I probably can't get into
Australia). Yep I'm a sucker.
Kate
and Grant arrived in town and we spent a few crazy nights drinking in
local bars ( most notably one called Brown Eyes!!!) and wading
through the flooded streets of Hue. Whilst drinking at Brown Eyes one
night the power went out, but the management handled this with grace
and class. They started handing out free shots! But this only worked
for so long and we decided to go in search of a bar that had power.
We practically swam down the street to the DMZ bar and began drinking
cocktails. What else are you going to do when the town is flooded and
the power keeps cutting out? I forgot to mention that at this point
the power was also out at our hotel. Grant started putting in
requests to the DJ for a Korean band called Super Junior,
specifically a song of theirs called 'Mr Simple', which we had taken
the time to learn the dance to. This was followed by requests for
Darryl Braithwaite and other such classic artists. The DJ stopped
listening to our requests. It was time to go home to our powerless
hotel. It was time to leave Hue.
