The Bumpy Road South: Vietnam

First things first... we've been working on our itinerary some and realizing how tight we are on time we booked a flight from Kuala Lumpur back up to Shanghai to catch our flight home. So now we have until Aug. 8th to get to Malaysia without having to back-track, which is still a TON of territory to cover in just a month! Our new map itinerary will be posted as soon as the internet stops freaking out! ah!

SUNDAY, July 6:
After an early morning of updating the blog we heading into Hoi An with expectations of riding bikes to the beach before taking an overnight bus south... but by now we should know that expectations never pan out. We found out that the bus was full, so in the spirit of winging-it we decided to take up the recommendation of another traveler from a few days back to head to China Beach. A stop we didn't think we had time for, but so glad fate intervened. For the rest of the morning we relaxed in Hoi An, picked up Jennifer's custom-made dress (picture later in the post!), and then caught the 2pm bus to China Beach. We stumbled off the bus in the middle of nowhere it seemed but after a small adventure we found our way to Hoa's Place where we had called ahead to book a night. We had heard it was a little bit outside of actual China Beach, but away from tourists, which was perfect. Hoa himself greeted us and showed us to our room (which there were only 4 rooms in the whole place!). Then Hoa, the old Vietnamese guy, insisted that we join him for a beer and he chatted away for at least an hour about running the hotel for 14 years now- such a great guy.
We walked 2 minutes down this little side street to the beach and relaxed for while on the deserted beach- except for a few Vietnamese people enjoying the waves. Jennifer walked in the water up to her waist, saw a jelly fish, and decided to stick to the shores for now! Then we got cleaned up for dinner at 6:30. At Hoa's everyone eats together in family style dinner. So we quickly became friends with the 5 other people staying there. An older couple from US/Korea and their daughter, and our newest friends Steph & Laine, from Canada. It turned out that Steph is 1/2 Trinidadian! Small world! After our wonderful meal of Vietnamese Cuisine we decided we all wanted to find the Wimbledon Championships on TV... an interesting decision since we were at a deserted beach... but we got Hoa's Place to call a cab who agreed to drive us into Da Nang and wait for us there to take us back to Hoa's! 30 minutes later we were searching Da Nang for any bar/restaurant with satellite... and finally we happened upon a place labeled "pub" and made ourselves cozy in front of the TV and a big fan. An hour later we were the only people in the place... and 4 hours later we had made friends with the wait staff, gotten to know our new friends even better, and thoroughly enjoyed some quality tennis. A fun night with great friends and a wonderful start to Jennifer's birthday celebration.

MONDAY, July 7:
Happy 22nd Jennifer!! Not the birthday plan we started with, but that just means we had to spread out the celebration, which Jennifer loves to do anyway! haha. Breakfast at Hoa's around 10am, with Jennifer's favorite Vietnamese dish- Banana Pancakes!! Then relaxing on the beach all morning where the only other people around were Vietnamese fishermen in their cup-shaped dingy. That afternoon we had lunch at Hoa's (hamburgers!!), relaxed a bit more, and finally had to say "goodbye" to our new friends as we headed in a taxi back to Hoi An. Luckily we left with time to spare because our taxi broke down on the way, but his friend picked us up and took us the rest of the way- quite an adventure as always.
We arrived in Hoi An with a little time to walk around, then caught out 6:30 pm bus down to Nha Trang. For the next 12 hours we attempted to rest on our "sleeper bus" along the bumpy roads of Vietnam.
TUESDAY, July 8:

We arrived in Nha Trang at 6am sharp, awoken by loud music over the speakers of the bus. It felt good to walk around the stretch our legs, even if we were up at sunrise. We walked a bit and found a hotel not too far away. We checked out scuba diving, but opted instead for a day at the spa we had heard a lot about. Another morning of banana pancakes for Jennifer as we found a fun oceanside restaurant to hangout at. Chris took advantage of the opportunity to rest his eyes for a bit... haha. Jennifer went to the beach a while to enjoy the gorgeous surroundings, and then that afternoon we hopped on the back of motobikes and adventured to the mineral springs spa! For a birthday splurge we each got the mud bath package along with a 45 minute massage for only $11 each! What a deal! It was so much fun- hot mineral water showers, mineral mud bath, jet-spray mineral water, and a hot tub to soak in. After all we've been through lately we had no idea we could be so clean! After all that we each got a 45 minute massage (slightly painful for Jennifer with a sun-burnt back!) but a great treat. And then another thrilling motobike ride back into town. Then back to gorgeous Nha Trang- where the Miss Universe Pageant will be held this week! We had no idea! We had another splurge of ice cream sundaes to celebrate Jennifer's birthday. While eating at a restaurant kids were constantly begging us to buy cigarettes and gum... here is one example.

Then showers and out for a fun dinner to a Mexican restaurant where we had huge burritos (another fun splurge!). This is Jennifer at the restaurant in her fun new dress made in Hoi An :)
WEDNESDAY, July 9:
On the move again, we were back on another bus by 7:30am heading towards Saigon. We slept some, listened to music, and watched the gorgeous countryside pass by outside our windows... village after village, children running through the ride fields, chickens running amongst the houses, cows so skinny you could clearly see their rib cages. We plowed along the long and twisty road- seriously our driver must not have know where the brake was. Then we approached Mui Ne, a gorgeous beach town, and the sand dunes surrounded the road. A 30 minute stop for a noodle lunch and then we hoped back aboard for the second half of our journey... the last leg was suppose to just be 4 hours, but with traffic it turned into 5 1/2. 11 hours in total sums up another successful travel day... arriving at 7:30pm, we found a guesthouse after a few minutes of walking, and settles into the backpackers district of Saigon, Pham Ngu Lao. We wandered a bit, picked up a bunch of travel brochures to start planning our time in Saigon, and ate pho dinner at a night market, then sat down in the refreshing air conditioning of "Highland Coffee" where we had some cool coffee drinks and looked through brochures before calling it a night.

THURSDAY, July 10:
Last night we booked a full-day tour for today, starting at 8am. Back on another bus for a 3 hour trip to the Cao Dai Temple... we're getting better at sleeping on buses, but having the back seat, on back roads made for an extra-bumpy ride. We arrived around 11:30 to the temple, where we quickly got to walk around the temple before the noon mass began. We watched from the balcony as the colorful temple filled with monks. The religion is a mix between Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. The music played, worshipping began, and it was so unique to be able to watch. Next we headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch break where we met more people from around the world, and then off for another 1 1/2 bus to the Cu Chi Tunnels. So surreal to see the strategy behind the Viet Cong... All the traps and tunnels used in the war. We had the opportunity to shoot machine guns, which we declined, but even hearing the shots in the nearby field really put things in perspective. We also got to climb down into a 100m stretch of the tunnel, which was tiny enough- but that has been enlarged for tourists! Great to be able to see... then another 1 1/2 bus back to Saigon. After showers we went out to enjoy Saigon a bit. We found a fun restaurant where we grabbed a balcony seat and ate a delicious pizza. We wandered the backpackers district a bit more then headed to bed by midnight.

FRIDAY, July 11:
Our only full day to explore Saigon, so we got going around 8am to see all we could. We made it to the post office (the best place to make international phone calls) where we caught up with our parents and Jennifer got a letter from her mom :)

(THANKS MOM!)...
Jennifer grabbed breakfast from a street vendor... in this cart she fried up an egg, cut open a fresh baguette and spread on some laughing cow cheese- delicious! Then we wandered over to the Notre Dame Cathedral where we enjoyed the neon-lights around the statues. Afterwards we walked to the Was Remnant Museum where there were tons of pictures and mementos from the Vietnam War. Powerful to see- some great photography in the exhibit along with helicopters, tanks and planes. Then over to the Ben Thanh Markets where they had anything you could imagine!! We did a bit of souvenir shopping, wandered the fresh fruits and meat section, and ate some pho at the restaurant section- the markets were huge! Next we walked to the Reunification Palace where we enjoyed the 60s decor and a free hour-long tour... mostly we enjoyed the refreshing AC in the theater at the end of the tour (just kidding- it wasn't our favorite part, but still near the top). We headed back to the backpackers quarter through the busy street. We stopped in the center of the main round-about to take in the craziness.

Seriously though, none of the pictures capture how crowded the streets are... no matter what time of the day the motos are everywhere. There are 10 million people in Saigon and 3 million motos to put it in perspective a bit- so crazy here. Crossing the street is an art. Then we went and relaxed at a pub for a bit where we caught up on journals and Jennifer took advantage of the incredible Vietnamese coffee (maybe that is why I'm still awake at 1am rewriting this blog entry for the 3rd time after it keeps deleting!!). Anyway... we then found a great place with cheap chicken burgers for dinner where we relaxed for even longer and enjoyed the Saigon surroundings. Now bed time as we have more traveling early tomorrow.

A tour of the Mekong Delta and then into Cambodia we go!

The Vin Family Reunion

WEDNESDAY, July 2:
We woke up around 9ish ready for our full day of exploring Hanoi, Vietnam! We opted for another bowl of pho for breakfast (they eat it for every meal, so we decided to join them). This time we got to sit at a tiny little table with a bunch of locals, adding to the experience. We wandered the streets some, Lonely Planet in hand, and found a couple sites we were searching for, like the Bach Ma temple. Then we decided to squeeze into a bicycle tuk tuk for a 30 minute ride. We weren't sure what we got ourselves into as this guy peddled us through crowded streets of motorbikes and buses, but after a day, the rules of the road kind of make sense to us.

It is basically like a small river, and just like boats, you tend to stick to the right side but other than that you can weave and swerve and avoid pedestrians when possible.

We were dropped off at the lake area and walked a little to the Ngoc Son temple in the middle of the Hoan Kiem lake (the center-point of Hanoi). We rested a while, enjoying the views of the lake and then walked some more to our next destination on the map: the Hoa Lo prison. It was the prison in which John McCain was kept when he was a POW. Very educational and interesting to see- crazy to think of all the things that happened inside those walls.

Then we had some ice cream as we walked around the lake, towards St. Joseph's cathedral. We weren't able to go inside, just view it from the outside, but it was so unique sitting there in Hanoi. Much of Vietnam is French-influenced, but this in particular was very European, and somewhat out of place.

Then we wandered through a food market- filled with crazy foods, meats, HUGE cucumbers, chicken guts, animal brain & heart, and lots of other bizarre delicacies. After a stop for snacks, & enjoying the atmosphere of Hanoi a bit more, we headed back to the hotel for a rest, and showers before meeting our Canadian friends at 7:30 for dinner. We walked to a place where there were Hot Pot places lined up back-to-back in a street. Partly covered by an awning, but mostly just in a street- so we negotiated a price for the 4 of us and sat down to enjoy a delicious vegetarian hot pot! As the pot boiled we threw in veggies, noodles, tofu... all so good! We decided, along with Heather and Sara to find a fun place to relax for the night, and as we wandered we found the "Bia Hoi" section of town our Lonely Planet had raved about. These shops basically put out little children's chairs on the street and you could sit amongst locals and travellers and drink 20 cent beer. There was one intersection where each corner had a couple, so the whole place was filled with fun people. We met 2 older couples from Amsterdam who had great travelling advice, then a couple guys from Denmark, then we met this guy from Russia and 2 guys from New Zealand who we hung out with for a while. So fun to meet people from all over the world on a side street in Hanoi! We followed the Russian guy (who had lived in Vietnam for 15 years) to a couple places after that- he knew all the local hangout. After a while we called it a night, knowing we had another full day ahead of us!

THURSDAY, July 3:

Our bus left around 8:00 for a 2-day, 1-night trip to Halong Bay. It is a gorgeous part of Vietnam on the coast where over 300 limestone rocks jut out of the bay! We crammed on a mini-bus with about 20 other travellers, and 3 hours later arrived at Halong Bay. As we unloaded from the bus with all the bags, we stood amongst tons of other bus loads of people ready to board boats as well. It all felt a little like cattle herding onto the hundreds of boats in the harbour in front of us. But somehow our guide singled us out and told us to follow him, and put us in a group of 14 Vietnamese people. We were then escorted with them to a ship... just us and Vietnamese people. We have no idea where all the crowds of tourist went, we just knew they were out of sight. We had a good laugh about it, and talked to our new tour guide, Chung, who was really cool. We were a little weary about the whole thing since no one seemed to speak English, the old man in the group laughed at us, and we weren't served lunch for a while after them... hmm. But then a couple people joined our table for lunch, and chatted with them in broken English to find out that the whole group was a family- we were literally crashing the Vin family reunion! haha. That is pronounced Vaughn, kind of like the Von Trapp family! So yes, we got to know a few of them, and they seemed nice. Then we docked to go touring through these huge caves up in a mountain.

Jennifer couldn't help but take a picture of another tiny foreign man holding Chris's hand :)

In there we ran into our New Zealand friends we met last night- so funny. After exploring the huge caves for a bit we returned to join the Vin family reunion. It was a gorgeous day with a few clouds and bright blue skies so we lounged on the top deck a while, soaking in our surroundings. That afternoon we arrived at a floating dock with kayaks! Jennifer was so excited, she had wanted to kayak around Halong Bay for weeks now. We paddled around for about 30 minutes, enjoying the view from down on the water- making the cliffs seem so much larger, putting things in perspective a bit. As we docked, the old man from the family was swimming so Jennifer decided to dive in and join him. He thought it was funny, and signaled that we should dive in together and race. Instead, just playing around, Jennifer did a flip into the water instead, which the whole family loved. So then the old man wanted a diving competition... so we continued to dive in, and the funniest one was when Jennifer did a back flip in and then he proceeded to do a huge back-flop! haha.

After that the family loved us! And it turned out that a bunch of them did speak English. As the boat pulled away from the dock and into a little open water it was swimming time- more flips off the side of the boat, and jumping from the top deck. Tons of fun. As Jennifer swam near the ladder waiting to climb up at the end of swim-time, she felt a shock, and then another and hopped onto the ladder as fast as possible. The water cleared fast as 3 people on the ship were stung by jelly fish. (Seriously one of the most painful things I've ever encountered- and it got me twice!). So after resting a bit it felt a lot better, and our new family was so welcoming now! The old man even offered up some of his beer stash. Then it was dinner of plates full of food, where our table-mates were downing this really strong liquor they called wine which they were pouring from a 7-up bottle. Such a fun family! Then we relaxed after sunset beneath the stars and then headed to bed early.

FRIDAY, July 4th:

Woke up at 7am and joined the family for breakfast in the dinning area. By 9am we docked at Cat Ba Island and said "Goodbye!" to the Vins, our wonderful Vietnamese family. We hopped back on the ship with the people we rode to Halong with, and sailed for a couple hours back to the docks. We met tons of new friends from England and Norway who we ate lunch with back on shore. Then we played hacky sac a bit with a little birdie disk thing, and then another 3 hour bus ride back to Hanoi. Back to the hotel around 4ish, where we had 2 hours to shower and rest before our overnight bus to Hoi An (south down the Vietnam coast). The Sleeper Bus wasn't bad- 3 rows of bunk beds all down the bus, big enough to barely sleep. Other than the loud Vietnamese music blasting from the speakers along with the music videos playing on the TV, and a neighbor who sang along, the trip wasn't too bad. Not the traditional way to spend 4th of July, but all in all a successful day of travelling.

SATURDAY, July 5th:

After sleeping on and off throughout the night we finally arrived in Hue around 8:30am. Our plan to spend the day there and take the afternoon bus the rest of the way to Hoi An was changed when the afternoon bus was all booked up... so we jumped straight on another buss (seats, not sleeper) and headed towards Hoi An. This stretch of the coast was suppose to be gorgeous, so Jennifer was ready with camera in hand. Chris didn't luck out so much, as the bus filled up he was stuck with a tiny plastic stool to sit in the aisle. We travelled through the mountains, along the coast for 4 hours. Eventually we arrived in Hoi An around 1pm. We quickly figured out a place to stay and went out to explore the city a bit. This is the place where you can get any clothes custom-made, so Jennifer set out with vision in mind to get a dress made. After going to 3 different shops she made a decent deal and got measured. Hopefully it fits! Then we enjoyed the city, walking along the shore of the river, loving the peaceful streets of our first small town. It was quiet which we are not used to, but wonderful. The buildings are all worn around the edges which makes this city feel comfortable. After a snack and walked through their local food market, and then headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. Then we sat outside a cafe for a couple hours as Jennifer updated her journal and we both enjoyed the street-side location, where they were playing Jack Johnson (a perfect touch!). A walk back over by the river for a noodle dinner, and then headed to bed before midnight.

Much more to come... we're heading to Nha Trang tonight to spend Jennifer's birthday there! Can't wait to see what comes next :)