So, we've seen a lot since arriving back in Vietnam. We spent a few days in Hanoi. Chris caught a cold (probably catalyzed by the damp weather and poor hospitality of the North)... We decided that some mountain air might be in order. We'd heard such great things about the little town of SaPa in the mountains up by the Chinese border. We decided to take the luxury train (and it was nice... It's also the only real way to get there). There was some confusion with the tickets (hand written coupons instead of real tickets), but Chris was firm with the operator and made sure we got there ok.
We got to the Lao Cai train stop early in the morning and had to take a minibus from there up the rest of the way. The ride was pretty, but when we arrived in the town it was incredibly foggy. The minibus driver took us to a hotel where he gets commissions. We insisted he take us to the town square. After a bit of huffing, he brought us back. It was so foggy, we had no idea where our real hotel was. We wandered all over in the fog, but finally found it. There was a fire roaring in the lobby and they gave us some coffee and a hot breakfast.
SaPa is known for it's views, trekking and all the regular mountain stuff. At this point, Chris had a pretty bad cold. We didn't do any trekking, but we got around town a lot, periodically finding cafes with fireplaces. It was very foggy for our entire visit, except for a brief period one afternoon. We were having a beer out on a cliff-side patio (with yet another American guy Chris had picked up along the way) when the clouds swept up and out. It was spectacular. Suddenly, there were massive mountains looming right there, towering above us. In the fog, we'd have had no idea any of it was there. Within a few minutes, we were completely engulfed in the fogs again, which you can watch race through the valley and then up. You can actually see the houses below vanish one by one as the fog takes them. Spooky.
The views of the fog rolling back in
This incredible event was about all we appreciated in SaPa. Everyone is trying to sell moto rides, trekking tours and the Black Hmong women follow and harass you incessantly to buy their handicrafts. Apparently they didn't used to be so annoying... They were regular townspeople who ignored the tourists and sold their stuff at markets with the others from the area. The story is, that one woman, perhaps desperate, followed a tourist for so long that he paid her to leave. This was only a few years ago, but now there are dozens of them. They're persistent and sometimes kind of rude. The food in SaPa left a lot to be desired as well. It was hard to find Vietnamese food and the Western fare was mediocre and overpriced. Let's just say, we grew tired of the North fairly quickly. We were going to go to Halong Bay with the 1000's of limestone islands, but given the weather and our experiences with the people in the North, we chose to head South immediately.
We took our train back to Hanoi, went straight to the airport (where Chris was lightly kicked by a security guard for lying down after we found no free seats anywhere - don't worry man! We're leaving!) and went to Danang on the central coast. Danang is not a great spot for tourists, though its China Beach was a popular spot during the war (for those who like the smell of napalm in the morning). We took a car down to Hoi An. At this point we'd actually done plane, train and automobile within the last 18 hours and were pretty tired. We slept, then had dinner with Peter and Angie, some friends from Ottawa enjoying their last night in Hoi An. After our less than awesome time up North, it was so nice to see some familiar faces and have a nice exchange.
Hoi An is known for its beach, and its tailors. We spent most of our week there out at the beach between Chris's fittings at the tailor. The old town of Hoi An, which is away from the beach, is a real gem. It's a world heritage designated town and the buildings were beautiful. Outside the town, canals and little rivers run up to the sea, where cheap lounge chairs abound as does cheap beer. Given the slower pace of Hoi An, and the distance you need to cover between the old town and the beach, we chose to rent a little motorbike. Chris did the driving and he was really good. It was nice to have some freedom.
Fitting for a suit
The beach in Hoi An
My personal chauffeur
Almost everything about Hoi An was great. The people were kind, the weather was nice. We ate some nice food and found it easy to get around. Unfortunately, outside our hotel one night we witnessed the surprise bike-by killing of a dog. It was killed in 5 whacks with a big rod and slung over hte back of the bike, where the assailants took off. I still have knots in my stomach over that. I know they will eat dogs in Vietnam and we had noticed very few full grown dogs in the North, but it was such a drive-by nightmare what we saw! It could have been someone's pet. They like dogs here to keep as pets probably more than to eat. I don't think what we saw was very common (animal slaughters are usually less public), but it still shook me.
After Chris's clothes were finished (we'll see them in 3 months thanks to sea mail), we left Hoi An and headed further South along the coast. We took the train to Nha Trang, which is Vietnam's premier beach party town. We nearly missed our stop (the station signs don't indicate the town you're in), but the old man next to Chris, despite having no English, managed to communicate to us that we should get off.
Nha Trang was ok, but my party days are long over. The beach was nice and we had a great view from our 11th floor balcony ($6ea/night). The activities around Nha Trang weren't really my sort of thing: miniputt, scuba, water park, kite surfing, etc. There are lots of Russians along the beaches in South Vietnam. They love kite-surfing and letting it all hang out, and there a lot of restaurants catered to Russians. What's Russian food? Potatoes, eggs, mayo, vodka?
I'm glad we stayed away from the hard core party scene, especially given the number of altercations we saw between foreigners and Vietnamese in that town. What they were all screaming and slapping eachother over, we weren't sure... hookers, taxi fares, drugs?
View from our room
We actually spent almost a week in Nha Trang. I'm not sure how. We did get a bit lazy and it was easy to kill time on the beach or around the town. A bit tired of the sun and the sand (I know... life sucks), we booked a bus to DaLat in the central highlands. The area around DaLat is the best wine, veggie, coffee and flower growing region of Vietnam. It was really really rainy while we were there but we had a nice time. We had wanted to rent a bike and see the outskirts and plantations, but the rain made that a less desirable undertaking.
We did manage to visit a place appropriately called Crazy House. It's a hotel of sorts, though visitors stream through to look at the creepy, stange architecture, which maybe makes the guests feel a bit like zoo animals. I thought the place was hilarious. It was so bizarre!
Crazy House
One of the guest rooms.
????
We wandered around DaLat when it wasn't raining too hard. We had some nice local foods and found a little live jazz bar to hang out at and drink DaLat wine. The first couple nights we had dinner with the hotel owner's sister and father, whose English is as limited as my Vietnamese. They made soups laced with coriander (I survived), rice, beef hot pot, dried shrimps soup (yuk), steamed veg and some little fried fish I can only hope didn't come from the garbage dump / fish pond behind the hotel. They seemed very displeased with my chopstick skills. They pointed and discussed it quite a bit, before I lost my chopstick privileges altogether. I'd been having some stomach upset, so after I had finished what little I wanted to eat, they presented me with a jar of jam and a spoon. Confused by this, I declined but they insisted, so I actually ATE some! but I don't know what the hell was going on.
We really liked it in DaLat, though we ran out of dry clothes quickly. The rain was too unpredicable to stay there too long, so yesterday we moved on to Mui Ne. It's only 3 hours from Saigon, still along the coast. It's a one road town, but the road is long. We're staying at the opposite end from the restaurants, and the hike down there actually takes and hour and a half. Our place is really nice though. We have a little bunglow with all the amenities and a pool and beachfront access. We'll rent a bike to get in and out of town.
Anyhow, all for now.
