Uncle Ho, Moto's And Fried Cockroaches (Iek)
Door: senorita Laura
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Laura
26 Mei 2007 | Vietnam, Hanoi
Hey Everybody,
I'm not in Vietnam anymore, but I'll still tell what I've been up to there. We got to Laos two days ago and it's lovely and quiet here, but I'll tell you about that next time. Now it's time for Vietnam!
On our way out of Cambodia we saw what we didn't think was possible, seven people on one motor!! Three adults, three squashed children and a baby dangling by the side!
We took a boat on the Mekong to get to Vietnam. And great way to do it, beautiful scenery and lots of children waving and shouting hello at us. And it was easy and quick to get through customs.
We arrived in Chau Doc and left for Rach Gia the next morning. We were planning to go to Phu Quoc Island, but because of the long weekend (Liberation Day on April 30th and Labour Day on May 1st) all the boats were full and the island was chock-a-block full of Vietnamese tourists. So we took a bus to Saigon and saved Phu Quoc for later.
Saigon was very busy and big compared to Cambodia, bit of a culture shock for us! When we arrived we took a cyclo to our hotel. We piled all our stuff onto the cyclo and then planted our bums onto the seat...we hadn't arranged the weight properly and we both tumbled off onto the road! After some reconstructing we had an uncomfortable but fun ride to our hotel.
The next day we had a look at Reunification palace. This is where the communist tanks came into Saigon on April 30th 1975. But now there is nothing to see, so it's rather dull actually :p We then went to the War Remnants museum, which was a very different story. Loads of shocking pictures of what the Americans did in the war. I knew it was bad, but these pictures showed far worse than what my history books contained. Killing the innocent without a second thought and treating the prisoners of war like animals. But like the Reunification Palace there were also some tanks and aeroplanes, and if you don't think about what they were used for they look pretty cool. (I'll post a pic for all the men who are still little boys at heart :p)
We took a trip to a Caodist temple and the Cu Chi tunnels the next day. Caodism is a religion founded by Sun Yatsen, Victor Hugo and some Vietnamese guy (just have a look on Wikipedia if your interested) The temple was very colourful and had this strange eye with an eyebrow staring at you. The Cu Chi tunnels were used by the Vietcong. Vietnam had loads of tunnels like this during the American war. We crawled through a tunnel that was made wider for tourists, but it was still pretty tiny. It was fun to try out, but I'm very glad I didn't have to live in them!
On April 30th, Koniginnedag (Dutch queens birthday, big holiday in the Netherlands) and Vietnamese liberation day it was time to find a hospital again. There were hardly any doctors around and I had to wait for hours. I left the hospital after having an x-ray, loads of people looking in my ear and some new antibiotics. And this point I had totally had it with Asian doctors and medication and decided it was enough. The next doctor I'll see will be my own on the morning after I get home :s.
After the doctors we didn't have very much else to do and as we were in the neighbourhood we thought we'd pop by the Dutch consulate. We had expected to find some sort of celebration to be going on...but they had taken the day off because of Liberation day! So we took a picture of us and the Dutch flag. Seeing that flag felt like home, I've never felt so Dutch before.
Leaving Saigon where crossing the street is an adventure in itself (always keep walking, don't stop and don't run! :p) we headed to the Mekong delta on a two day trip. The first day we visited Mytho and Ben Tre. We saw how coconut candy and rice paper are made and cycled around the village. I also had a snake around my neck. Very scary, his head sniffing my hair. But I've got a picture as proof, so I'll never have to do that again!
Getting up early the next day to see the floating market in Cantho. We took our own boat together with a Belgium and Spanish girl as the rest of the group was too lazy to get up so early. It was worth it as the market was up and going when we got there, and without the boatloads of tourists. You could see what they were selling by the fruit and veggies that were hanging from the mast. In the afternoon we did our second attempt to get to Phu Quoc. Buying a boat ticket for the next day and sleeping in Rach Gia.
Just a few hours in a boat and we arrived on a peaceful tropical island called Phu Quoc. We took our hammocks to the beach, found some nice trees to hang em in and spend most of the day lying in the hammock reading a book. And to cool off we jumped the waves in the ocean, great fun. So we did exactly the same the next day :p It felt like a holiday, just relaxing like that. But the next day it was time to continue our trip and get back to the mainland.
We took the boat back to Rach Gia the next morning, then got on the bus to Saigon and from there the night train to Danang. The train was a comfortable way to take this 15 hour trip and the view was amazing. The Vietnamese guy sleeping above us (he slept for the full 15 hours) was snoring, but I had my trusty Ipod to drown out the noise :)
In Danang we went to the Cham Sculpture museum. It was nice, but I guess we didn't really appreciate it after seeing too many ruins etc. already. The next morning we got on a local bus to Hoi An. It said it was 7000 dong on the window and it took us about 30 minutes of bargaining to get it down to that price. The guy kept threatening to kick us out if we didn't pay the ridiculously high price.
Hoi An is a beautiful little old town, and a shoppers paradise. There are more than 200 tailor shops in town, so we did a bit of shopping. We got some beautiful cloths and sandals made exactly the way we wanted them and super cheap! We bought even more souvenirs in the rest of Vietnam, also buying some more bags to put them all into. And to avoid paying 120 quid to British Airways on our flight home we'll be wearing as much clothes as we possible can to save some kilos. I can put on 9 shirts, a vest and 4 pairs of trousers all at once, just look a bit fat doing so :p
We spent the rest of our time in Hoi An seeing the old houses and temples and tasting the delicious local cuisine.
We also took a trip down to the My Son ruins near Hoi An. The ruins were really beautiful, but the trip there and back on the back of the moto was the most fun, seeing the landscape and people going about there daily activities.
The next morning we took the bus to Hue where we visited the old palace and walked around the citadel. The next day we took a boat trip to tombs and temples in the area. Again nice, but much of the same. I guess it's "Same same, but different" as the Asians say!
Took the day train to Ninh Binh the next day. Last times snoring had been replaced by Vietnamese karaoke at a volume that made your ears hurt! No music can beat that stuff, so I read a book and stared out of the window instead. We arrived in Ninh Binh in the evening and sorted out some tours for the next few days.
Motor tour to Kenh Ga, Hoa Lu and Tam Coc today. The last two are more famous, but Kenh Ga had the best scenery. Hills appearing from flat and green rice paddies were gorgeous! By the time we got to Hoa Lu it started raining so we didn't see much there and at Tam Coc, just peeking up from under our conical hats every so often.
The following day we went to Cuc Phuong national park. The rainforest was nice, but the best part was the monkey sanctuary with loads of Vietnamese monkeys to see.
A month and a half ago I was too scared to get on a motor for a six hour trip, now were going on a three day trip with all our luggage tied onto the motor cruising through the Vietnamese mountains. We visited some hill tribe villages where the people still wear traditional clothing and live in wooden huts. We peeked through the window of the local school, of course none of the children paid any attention to the teacher anymore :)
The guesthouse was a lot less primitive than in Cambodia, but we got some strange food in return. They served us deep fried cockroaches and birds which both tasted of oil. The cockroaches were ok, just chew for a second and swallow. But the birds took like five minutes to chew up...too much time to think about the bones your crushing. Very difficult to keep inside and after two I politely refused to eat another. The rest of the food was delicious and our drivers made us eat as much as humanly possible (they wouldn't believe that we were full) Our trip ended two days later when they dropped us of in Hanoi. I was counting the last 40 K as it started to get very painful to sit.
In Hanoi we saw a couple of cult films to get our brains working again (they are taking a very long winter sleep) arranged our visa for Laos and visited the Hanoi Prison Museum (according to them the French treated them like shit, which I very much believe, and they treated the Americans like guests, which I don't really believe...). We took a day tour up to Perfume Pagoda. It sounded good, but in fact it was just a big cave with some Buddha statues and lights. Apparently it's very holy...
Time for some relaxing at Halong Bay. A two day boat trip (own room and bathroom, love the luxury :)) across Halong Bay, visiting a cave taking a swim and admiring the hills that sky rise out of the water. It was a nice break from busy Hanoi, but in the end we had to leave and get back to the city. We found out there was no way of getting to the border we wanted to get to in Laos, so we had to rush around and find another way to get there. Afterwards we went to see a water puppet show. Very clever how they moved the puppets around the water, though I had no idea what the story was about.
We started our last day with an argument with our hotel. We had stayed there the nights before we went to Halong Bay and were paying for the night we spent after that. The first time we had to pay 10% government tax, according to them everybody had to. The second time we stayed we didn't have to pay this tax and saw on other people's bills that nobody ever had to pay it. After giving us lots of lame excuses why we had to pay and others didn't they kicked us out when I kept asking to see bills of other people paying the tax. Not a very nice way to begin our last day in Vietnam.
We then went to visit Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh) at his mausoleum. It was very strange, we've seen him everywhere for the last four weeks on propaganda posters, bank notes and in paintings. But now he just didn't look like himself without his sparkly eyes and his big smile. We then took a well deserved break and went for a massage. Bit painful at times, but very relaxing and a good way to prepare ourselves for the trip to Laos.
That trip to Laos, to get to Savannahket took us 24 hours in the end. The worst bit was getting through customs to get out of Vietnam. We had to pay twice as much as the Vietnamese and Lao people or we wouldn't be allowed out of the country. We couldn't wait to leave by then, so fed up with this kind of nonsense that we paid and made our way to the Lao border. This was a lot easier and everybody had to pay the same to get in. Laos is a lot quieter that Vietnam with only 5,6 million people, the same amount as in Hanoi alone. We've got about 2,5 weeks to spend in Laos. These last two days have been good, so I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the country. Tell you all about that in a few weeks time.
We've been away for exactly 8 months today and they've flown by. So it's our last month now and home is getting pretty close. Looking forward to going home, but I'll miss this travelling lifestyle I've grown accustomed to! Better make the most of those last five weeks.
Anyway, that's all for now (and it's more than enough!) post some pics, find some food and find my bed next :)
Ciao Ciao,
Laura
I'm not in Vietnam anymore, but I'll still tell what I've been up to there. We got to Laos two days ago and it's lovely and quiet here, but I'll tell you about that next time. Now it's time for Vietnam!
On our way out of Cambodia we saw what we didn't think was possible, seven people on one motor!! Three adults, three squashed children and a baby dangling by the side!
We took a boat on the Mekong to get to Vietnam. And great way to do it, beautiful scenery and lots of children waving and shouting hello at us. And it was easy and quick to get through customs.
We arrived in Chau Doc and left for Rach Gia the next morning. We were planning to go to Phu Quoc Island, but because of the long weekend (Liberation Day on April 30th and Labour Day on May 1st) all the boats were full and the island was chock-a-block full of Vietnamese tourists. So we took a bus to Saigon and saved Phu Quoc for later.
Saigon was very busy and big compared to Cambodia, bit of a culture shock for us! When we arrived we took a cyclo to our hotel. We piled all our stuff onto the cyclo and then planted our bums onto the seat...we hadn't arranged the weight properly and we both tumbled off onto the road! After some reconstructing we had an uncomfortable but fun ride to our hotel.
The next day we had a look at Reunification palace. This is where the communist tanks came into Saigon on April 30th 1975. But now there is nothing to see, so it's rather dull actually :p We then went to the War Remnants museum, which was a very different story. Loads of shocking pictures of what the Americans did in the war. I knew it was bad, but these pictures showed far worse than what my history books contained. Killing the innocent without a second thought and treating the prisoners of war like animals. But like the Reunification Palace there were also some tanks and aeroplanes, and if you don't think about what they were used for they look pretty cool. (I'll post a pic for all the men who are still little boys at heart :p)
We took a trip to a Caodist temple and the Cu Chi tunnels the next day. Caodism is a religion founded by Sun Yatsen, Victor Hugo and some Vietnamese guy (just have a look on Wikipedia if your interested) The temple was very colourful and had this strange eye with an eyebrow staring at you. The Cu Chi tunnels were used by the Vietcong. Vietnam had loads of tunnels like this during the American war. We crawled through a tunnel that was made wider for tourists, but it was still pretty tiny. It was fun to try out, but I'm very glad I didn't have to live in them!
On April 30th, Koniginnedag (Dutch queens birthday, big holiday in the Netherlands) and Vietnamese liberation day it was time to find a hospital again. There were hardly any doctors around and I had to wait for hours. I left the hospital after having an x-ray, loads of people looking in my ear and some new antibiotics. And this point I had totally had it with Asian doctors and medication and decided it was enough. The next doctor I'll see will be my own on the morning after I get home :s.
After the doctors we didn't have very much else to do and as we were in the neighbourhood we thought we'd pop by the Dutch consulate. We had expected to find some sort of celebration to be going on...but they had taken the day off because of Liberation day! So we took a picture of us and the Dutch flag. Seeing that flag felt like home, I've never felt so Dutch before.
Leaving Saigon where crossing the street is an adventure in itself (always keep walking, don't stop and don't run! :p) we headed to the Mekong delta on a two day trip. The first day we visited Mytho and Ben Tre. We saw how coconut candy and rice paper are made and cycled around the village. I also had a snake around my neck. Very scary, his head sniffing my hair. But I've got a picture as proof, so I'll never have to do that again!
Getting up early the next day to see the floating market in Cantho. We took our own boat together with a Belgium and Spanish girl as the rest of the group was too lazy to get up so early. It was worth it as the market was up and going when we got there, and without the boatloads of tourists. You could see what they were selling by the fruit and veggies that were hanging from the mast. In the afternoon we did our second attempt to get to Phu Quoc. Buying a boat ticket for the next day and sleeping in Rach Gia.
Just a few hours in a boat and we arrived on a peaceful tropical island called Phu Quoc. We took our hammocks to the beach, found some nice trees to hang em in and spend most of the day lying in the hammock reading a book. And to cool off we jumped the waves in the ocean, great fun. So we did exactly the same the next day :p It felt like a holiday, just relaxing like that. But the next day it was time to continue our trip and get back to the mainland.
We took the boat back to Rach Gia the next morning, then got on the bus to Saigon and from there the night train to Danang. The train was a comfortable way to take this 15 hour trip and the view was amazing. The Vietnamese guy sleeping above us (he slept for the full 15 hours) was snoring, but I had my trusty Ipod to drown out the noise :)
In Danang we went to the Cham Sculpture museum. It was nice, but I guess we didn't really appreciate it after seeing too many ruins etc. already. The next morning we got on a local bus to Hoi An. It said it was 7000 dong on the window and it took us about 30 minutes of bargaining to get it down to that price. The guy kept threatening to kick us out if we didn't pay the ridiculously high price.
Hoi An is a beautiful little old town, and a shoppers paradise. There are more than 200 tailor shops in town, so we did a bit of shopping. We got some beautiful cloths and sandals made exactly the way we wanted them and super cheap! We bought even more souvenirs in the rest of Vietnam, also buying some more bags to put them all into. And to avoid paying 120 quid to British Airways on our flight home we'll be wearing as much clothes as we possible can to save some kilos. I can put on 9 shirts, a vest and 4 pairs of trousers all at once, just look a bit fat doing so :p
We spent the rest of our time in Hoi An seeing the old houses and temples and tasting the delicious local cuisine.
We also took a trip down to the My Son ruins near Hoi An. The ruins were really beautiful, but the trip there and back on the back of the moto was the most fun, seeing the landscape and people going about there daily activities.
The next morning we took the bus to Hue where we visited the old palace and walked around the citadel. The next day we took a boat trip to tombs and temples in the area. Again nice, but much of the same. I guess it's "Same same, but different" as the Asians say!
Took the day train to Ninh Binh the next day. Last times snoring had been replaced by Vietnamese karaoke at a volume that made your ears hurt! No music can beat that stuff, so I read a book and stared out of the window instead. We arrived in Ninh Binh in the evening and sorted out some tours for the next few days.
Motor tour to Kenh Ga, Hoa Lu and Tam Coc today. The last two are more famous, but Kenh Ga had the best scenery. Hills appearing from flat and green rice paddies were gorgeous! By the time we got to Hoa Lu it started raining so we didn't see much there and at Tam Coc, just peeking up from under our conical hats every so often.
The following day we went to Cuc Phuong national park. The rainforest was nice, but the best part was the monkey sanctuary with loads of Vietnamese monkeys to see.
A month and a half ago I was too scared to get on a motor for a six hour trip, now were going on a three day trip with all our luggage tied onto the motor cruising through the Vietnamese mountains. We visited some hill tribe villages where the people still wear traditional clothing and live in wooden huts. We peeked through the window of the local school, of course none of the children paid any attention to the teacher anymore :)
The guesthouse was a lot less primitive than in Cambodia, but we got some strange food in return. They served us deep fried cockroaches and birds which both tasted of oil. The cockroaches were ok, just chew for a second and swallow. But the birds took like five minutes to chew up...too much time to think about the bones your crushing. Very difficult to keep inside and after two I politely refused to eat another. The rest of the food was delicious and our drivers made us eat as much as humanly possible (they wouldn't believe that we were full) Our trip ended two days later when they dropped us of in Hanoi. I was counting the last 40 K as it started to get very painful to sit.
In Hanoi we saw a couple of cult films to get our brains working again (they are taking a very long winter sleep) arranged our visa for Laos and visited the Hanoi Prison Museum (according to them the French treated them like shit, which I very much believe, and they treated the Americans like guests, which I don't really believe...). We took a day tour up to Perfume Pagoda. It sounded good, but in fact it was just a big cave with some Buddha statues and lights. Apparently it's very holy...
Time for some relaxing at Halong Bay. A two day boat trip (own room and bathroom, love the luxury :)) across Halong Bay, visiting a cave taking a swim and admiring the hills that sky rise out of the water. It was a nice break from busy Hanoi, but in the end we had to leave and get back to the city. We found out there was no way of getting to the border we wanted to get to in Laos, so we had to rush around and find another way to get there. Afterwards we went to see a water puppet show. Very clever how they moved the puppets around the water, though I had no idea what the story was about.
We started our last day with an argument with our hotel. We had stayed there the nights before we went to Halong Bay and were paying for the night we spent after that. The first time we had to pay 10% government tax, according to them everybody had to. The second time we stayed we didn't have to pay this tax and saw on other people's bills that nobody ever had to pay it. After giving us lots of lame excuses why we had to pay and others didn't they kicked us out when I kept asking to see bills of other people paying the tax. Not a very nice way to begin our last day in Vietnam.
We then went to visit Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh) at his mausoleum. It was very strange, we've seen him everywhere for the last four weeks on propaganda posters, bank notes and in paintings. But now he just didn't look like himself without his sparkly eyes and his big smile. We then took a well deserved break and went for a massage. Bit painful at times, but very relaxing and a good way to prepare ourselves for the trip to Laos.
That trip to Laos, to get to Savannahket took us 24 hours in the end. The worst bit was getting through customs to get out of Vietnam. We had to pay twice as much as the Vietnamese and Lao people or we wouldn't be allowed out of the country. We couldn't wait to leave by then, so fed up with this kind of nonsense that we paid and made our way to the Lao border. This was a lot easier and everybody had to pay the same to get in. Laos is a lot quieter that Vietnam with only 5,6 million people, the same amount as in Hanoi alone. We've got about 2,5 weeks to spend in Laos. These last two days have been good, so I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the country. Tell you all about that in a few weeks time.
We've been away for exactly 8 months today and they've flown by. So it's our last month now and home is getting pretty close. Looking forward to going home, but I'll miss this travelling lifestyle I've grown accustomed to! Better make the most of those last five weeks.
Anyway, that's all for now (and it's more than enough!) post some pics, find some food and find my bed next :)
Ciao Ciao,
Laura
-
26 Mei 2007 - 15:22
Caroline:
is het waar ben ik de 1e???
Hai laura,
Leuk weer een bericht te lezen. Ik verveel me een beetje, zit met een gebroken been in gips vandaar....
Nog even dan zien we je weer.
Nog veel reisplezier.
Groetjes Caroline -
26 Mei 2007 - 19:02
Hieke:
Wow, dan ben ik nummer 2!!!
En ik verveel me ook, heb m'n enkel en m'n scheenbeen gekneusd.. Pff! Heb Toro de hele dag verveeld, nu is ie me een beetje zat, dus duik ik maar ffe achter de pc :D!
Zal je morgen nog wel ffe een mail sturen over onze roadtrip. Ben benieuwd of je je veilig voelt bij mij in de auto. Nouja, volgens mij ben je inmiddels wel wat gewend qua vervoer...
Veel plezier de laatste paar weken. Geniet nog maar van het uitslapen zolang het nog kan!!
kus Hieke -
26 Mei 2007 - 19:02
Hieke:
Wow, dan ben ik nummer 2!!!
En ik verveel me ook, heb m'n enkel en m'n scheenbeen gekneusd.. Pff! Heb Toro de hele dag verveeld, nu is ie me een beetje zat, dus duik ik maar ffe achter de pc :D!
Zal je morgen nog wel ffe een mail sturen over onze roadtrip. Ben benieuwd of je je veilig voelt bij mij in de auto. Nouja, volgens mij ben je inmiddels wel wat gewend qua vervoer...
Veel plezier de laatste paar weken. Geniet nog maar van het uitslapen zolang het nog kan!!
kus Hieke -
26 Mei 2007 - 19:03
Hieke:
2x zelfs, oeps! Dan ben ik ook nr 3 ( en 4)... X -
26 Mei 2007 - 19:44
Nicholas:
Hi, I am a bit late, but the announcements are being eaten by the spam filter :-(. NX -
26 Mei 2007 - 22:17
Saskia:
Hoi Lau, hoe is het in Lao? Ik ben wel erg laat, zesde dit keer! Was met Saar en Daf naar een Bollywood in Den Haag. Maar geen echte: only 1,5 hours and not a lot of dancing! Ook weer geen ondertiteling, maar bijna de hele film was in het Engels, omdat hij ging over een call center in Delhi voor Amerikaanse banken.
Het was heel leuk om Ayumi te zien in Tokio.
Nog maar 1 maand, ik tel de dagen af.
XXX Saskia -
27 Mei 2007 - 12:00
Wilhelmien:
Hi Laura,
Je maakt een enerverende tijd door!!!
Als ik dit zie wil ik ook wel weer een mooie reis gaan uitzoeken. Van Saskia kreeg ik berichten uit Japan. Ze hebben ook genoten zo te horen en te zien. Vorig jaar waren om deze tijd waren we bijna klaar voor vertrek. Het lijkt alweer zo lang geleden. Voor jou gaat de tijd ook snel denk ik. Maar geniet nog voor de rest van je reis reis en we wachten de berichten weer af.
Lieve groet en doe voorzichtig, Wilhelmien.X -
27 Mei 2007 - 12:14
Ayumi:
Hello Laura,
When I visited to Vietnam before, I couldn't have a chance to watch the water puppet. Was it fun? And I really like the atmosphere of Hoi An that I've never been.....next time. -
28 Mei 2007 - 08:23
Pawel:
Hi Laura!
I'm totally breath less after I went through your pics and description!!! amazing experience!
I had a busy time as well (but not as much;) Couple of weeks ago I went to Angola and last week to Abu Dhabi! you can check my pics at www.bazyl.mpoczta.net/pawel/
tot straks!
groeten,
Pawel -
30 Mei 2007 - 09:13
Maureen:
Hey Laura,
Ik heb van je reisverslagen genoten;je hebt ze zo fantastisch omschreven dat ik het gevoel hebt ook met je mee te reizen!
Ik zal ze missen, maar ben ook weer blij jou heelhuids in Hillegom terug te zien!
Toi,toi,toi verder en nog even genieten.
Groetjes
Maureen.
P.S.Wat je om je nek had is ook 'fast food'(zie foto met slang). -
04 Juni 2007 - 13:50
Miranda:
Hoi Laura,
Wat een avonturen zeg! Ik moet van Esmée zeggen dat wij ook op vakantie zijn geweest! Naar Garderen op de Veluwe, niet zo exotisch als waar jij zit en waar je ouders vorige maand zaten, maar goed het was ook heel erg leuk!!.
Tot gauw!
Miranda -
16 Juni 2007 - 08:05
Nicholas:
Hi there. I am now back from not seeing sharks in the Red Sea and have just read your tale sitting in the back garden with a cup of coffee. And what a tale! I am afraid you will find the western world very boring...Enjoy your last week in Asia!! See you soon NX
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