We’ll be back! September 4, 2008

31.Aug.08

Our night train was easy and after we settled in to a hotel we decided to go see an embalmed dead guy.  Not just any dead guy however, THE dead guy; Ho Chi Minh.  The once leader of the communist north Vietnam was enclosed in a massive black structure protected by hundreds of guards.  At first we were denied entry to the mausoleum grounds because we had breached a major security measure, we tried to smuggle in bottled water!!  That’s right, you can’t bring water in the complex, as if I am going to poison their already dead leader, or have liquid explosives to bomb his corpse filled tomb.  We checked our water into the bag stand and were allowed to enter.  In typical communist style we had to stand in line with everyone and zig zag our way through the quite gorgeous park area, past crisp guards to his massive tomb.

Apparently Ho Chi is camera shy, so we had to leave our cameras at a booth past this point.  As we got closer to the structure I swear I could smell formaldehyde, reminded me of dissecting cats in high school physiology.  The tomb was freezing inside, and everyone walked quietly passed the guards who could be doing something far more productive with their time than guarding a dead dude.  Soon we saw said dead dude looking really creepy behind his glass.  A truly eerie sight, he wore an all black suit and was surrounded on a lower platform by 6 guards standing like stone.

After that, we got our camera and continued to tour the grounds which included a presidential palace (couldn’t enter), a very humble home where Ho Chi lived and presided from, some home on stilts, and a garage where Ho Chi kept his super nice vintage cars.  There was a museum, but we heard it wasn’t trerrific and skipped it.  We walked back to the main city and explored a bit more of Hanoi.  There was a big boring cathedral, more restaurants, shops, parks, etc, It is a nice enough city, but not much exciting to do.

We found a ton of locals eating at a little shop on the street so we settled in for one of our last Vietnamese meals.  Jess got a bowl of soup, and I branched out again and got braised pigeon with mushrooms and veggies.  They really like giving you all the parts of an animal in Asia.

Delicious!  Afterwards we went to the booking office where we got tickets to and from Sapa to clear up the ticket problem and get our refund.  She said a refund was no problem, but we should come back tomorrow when the girl who booked for us would be working.

Then we spent a good number of hours in our nice AC room and just chilled.  We finally stopped being lazy and got some dinner at an awesome place serving only beef hot pots.  It was packed with locals and smelled and looked delicious, so though the options were limited that’s what we got.  After the delicious dinner we sat down in a couple plastic chairs at our favorite beer spot.  Ten good beers and a long conversation with three other Americans later we paid the $2 bill and stumbled home to bed.  Damn I love Beer Hoi.

01.Sept.08

We knew it couldn’t be that easy getting our money back for the train tickets, and we were completely right.  At the booking office, the same woman as the day before gave us a long sob story about how in the end it was her fault after all, and to refund us she had to pay with her own money.  It sounded a bit dodgy because she said the manager of the business was out of town and she hadn’t even told her.  Later she tried to claim she was afraid of getting fired, but the whole situation seemed a bit sketchy and we weren’t leaving without our completely deserved refund, which we eventually got.  A typical transaction for us by now.  I forgot to describe as well this little dog living here that we see each time.  Hanoi has an obsession with Chihuahuas and this is the oldest Chihuahua we have ever seen.  It constantly shakes like it is having a seizure, it’s nails are crazy long, and it has the meekest bark.  It is so pathetic it’s almost cute, but whenever I try to touch it it slinks away dragging its ass behind.  We love this little dog, though someone should eat it already, if there is any meat left!

We spent the rest of the day buying some small souvenirs, getting our hair cut, wandering the city more, and just hanging out.

The beer at our favorite stand was just as good as yesterday.  Some locals invited us to sit and chat, though their english was nearly non-existent so we talked about what little we could anyway.  Another local sitting nearby didn’t speak better English, but amazingly spoke great German.  He had lived and worked through a communist labor exchange in soviet controlled East Germany and was very interesting to speak with.

We ate dinner at one of our favorite places Restaurant 69 where we met the three Americans from last night again.  Soon we were in a taxi heading to the airport and on the 5 hours red-eye flight to Seoul, South Korea.

02.Sept.08

One of the most boring days ever.  We had a layover in Seoul from 5am to 2pm and originally wanted to go into the city for the day, but we did not have enough money for the tram and food so we just sat all day in the terminal and felt a bit like Tom Hanks character from that movie…what’s the name?  Oh yeah, The Terminal.  We watched shows on my computer, read, wandered around taking pictures of really random stuff, and used the airports free internet.  Finally we were on the miserable 10 hour flight back to California.  Jessica slept well, but I was too excited to sleep and watched the mediocre movies on the little TV in front of me repeated over and over again. the 2nd of September has been a LONG day considering we passed the international dateline and have to live the same day twice.  We finally arrived, got all our bags, had no problems with customs and were brought home by Jessica’s parents.

It feels great to be back in California.  We had our first quality Mexican food in 9 months, saw some good friends, Jess is with her family, and on Sept 4th I go home to Newport!  The blog is going to go on hold until we fly to Germany on September 15 for Oktoberfest, then we’ll report on our travels for a few months in E. Europe.  Until then!

Hanoi Flickr Photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157607053917997/

Mud and Marijuana September 3, 2008

26.Aug.08

Had a nice sleep on the train and arrived in Lao Cai very early, then took an hour bus to Sapa. It really pays sometimes to book ahead on the phone because the hour ride up to Sapa was free through our hotel and took us right to the front doors. In some cases a little planning does go a long way. Right away we noticed the masses of women on the streets all clad in beautiful blue outfits with colorful, intricate embroidery, and all with different style hats. They patiently awaited us as we got off the bus to make quick conversation so we’d remember them later and buy their handicrafts. We’ve gotten too good at this by now. They are smart at least and don’t bug you about buying right off the bus, they wait instead until you come out of he hotel again later.

There were cheaper places to stay in Sapa, but our book said that Mountain View was just that, a great mountain view. We hoped our room was going to be worth the extra cash, and one look at the big clean, comfortable looking room followed by a look right out the window…I’ll let you decide if this room was worth ten bucks a night.

We had a soup breakfast and inquired about taking a three day hiking trip through the mountains. We got all the info from our hotel and decided to wander the city to check other booking agencies prices. Right out the door we got hit by a barrage of “you buy from me?” from the beautifully clad H’Mong women outside. The H’Mong are the local ethnic minority of Sapa and surrounding villages. Their outfits are exquisite and all wear unique hats to differentiate tribes. It is difficult saying no to buying their handicrafts because it is all so beautiful and they are very nice. Then again, we are terrific at saying no to anyone by now. We wandered a bit, checked prices with other places, but found our hotel had the best deal of $55 per person for a three day all inclusive guided trek down the valley, we went back and booked it starting tomorrow. We spent the rest of the day exploring the cities nooks and crannies which there are plenty of. We wandered the markets and were awestruck by all the stunning handicrafts one can find, but we determined to wait until return to buy. Ate some pizza with the delicious local wine for dinner and headed home for some shut eye.

27.Aug.08

Early we began our muddy, wet trek led by our Black H’mong guide Cho.  There are three groups of H’mong, Red, Black, and Flower, they are just differences in how they dress and sometimes their different religions, which an unfortunate many have been converted to western religions because with no education they tend to believe anything westerners tell them, then again Buddhist, Christian, Animist; it’s all pretty much the same shit anyway.  Our guide is very competent, speaks perfect english, and comes from a buddhist village nearby.  Unfortunatly it is raining today, not so hard that we get too wet under our ponchos, but hard enough that the mud becomes very slippery and once or twice found our asses quite muddy.  We are followed by two older women, also Black H’mong, trekking with us back to their villages from Sapa.  They are both very helpful at helping us not to slip as they are as skilled as goats when they walk the steep rocks and mud.  The entire time they are with us they keep picking different grasses, stalks, and reeds and make little souvenirs out of them for us; vey sweet.

Again, it is pointless describing the extraordinary scenery as pictures will do much better, but in brief; little villages dot the rolling green hills covered in rice fields.  The fields stack on top of one another cascading down the mountains; as water flows through the rice fields it makes hundreds of little waterfalls from field to field.  Absolutely stunning butterflies are constantly spotted the whole trip, our favorites being black with bright shining blue spots.  The first part of the day Jess and I are the only tourists on the whole track, and it is all the more beautiful greeting locals draped in their awesome traditional clothing.

We stop for fresh sandwiches for lunch at a shack filled with locals eating, drinking, and later smoking tobacco out of a massive bamboo bong with a can on the end as the holder.  At least we think and are told it is tobacco, but growing quite commonly here are marijuana plants.  You can smell them a good deal away; that fresh skunky/earthy smell.  We didn’t smoke any, but if it’s anything like avocados and strawberries, it is much better in California!

After more and more beautiful scenery we reached a very large village where our two followers departed to go their own way, but not before asking if we would buy some of their handicrafts.  They were gorgeous hand-made wares and we bought some beautiful pillow covers from them and said goodbye after tying some pretty bracelets on our wrists as a gift.  Our purchase attracted a bunch of little girls attention and they ran up to us trying to sell more little bracelets and other trinkets.  Again, you have to get good at saying no even to little kids if you travel in Asia, but even then they followed us the rest of the way and practiced their already terrific English with us.  We walked and walked more through the rice fields and between the mountains and we finally reached our destination.  We stayed the night at a homestay which is basically a families house with a bunch of mattresses up in the attic.  It may sound dingy, but it was very clean and nice and the food was good.  A french couple were staying the night as well and we all chatted and went to bed exhausted.

28.Aug.08

Our second day of trekking was similar to the first.  Similar landscape, more little villages, although some sun peaked out, no rain, and it started getting a bit warmer.  As always I fell in love with all the littel creatures of the villages.  I chased the piglets around, barked at dogs, and picked up a little peep duckling for Jessica.

It was another wonderful day of trekking, and much easier without all the mud.  We went through a bamboo forest, more pot plants, butterflies and rice fields, chatted with our guide Cho and the french couple who were with us most of the way.  We stopped at a big waterfall, crossed rivers, and simply took in all the beauty the earth has to offer.

The last hour of the trek down to our homestay was pretty grueling.  The heat picked up since we’ve come a lot lower and the last couple kilometers were very steep downhill.  We all made it down sweaty and muddy to relax in the deck chairs of a new home where we were served another scrumptious dinner.  Each night they have served us some awesome garlic fries; really garlicky!  We always have rice and different stir fry greens, a dish of meat, lots of mushrooms, and the usual Vietnamese spices, peppers, mint leaves, basil leaves, limes, cilantro, etc.  Lunches have been typical Vietnamese soups and sandwiches, and breakfast always banana pancakes, done very well compared to the usual super greasy overcooked pancakes in Asia.

After dinner we spent the rest of the night drinking local rice wine and playing cards.

29.Aug.08

Started off the day with banana pancakes!  We did a short hike in the horrible heat to a dumping waterfall into a nice cool river.  We spent some time swimming in the river cooling off from the heat and started our trek back up a bit.  The hike was one of the worst, most grueling hikes we have ever done!  The heat was unbearable and there was very little shade.  We went steep uphill in mud the whole way and since it was the same trail as yesterday there was nothing new to see making it even worse.

Finally we made it to the main road and hopped into our waiting car to ride back up to Sapa.  We just hung out the rest of the day and repacked our bags.  Washed our clothes and shoes of mud and topped the day off with a great beef hot pot dinner with some excellent Sapa apple wine.

30.Aug.08

Today was almost wholly uneventful.  We did a bit of shopping in the market, had some decent meals, used internet a bunch, walked around, chatted with some locals and other tourists.  Nothing special to report, we just killed time until our bus in the evening taking us to Lao Cai to board our train to Hanoi.  At the train station we had some trouble because we had booked tickets, but only recieved a reciept to get tickets at the station.  The woman who booked our tickets in Hanoi however had written the date as the 28th instead of the 30th like we said.  It seemed a bit of a sketchy system as we then had to buy new tickets to Hanoi form a guy standing outside the station.  They assured us we could get a refund in Hanoi, and we had the earlier reciept proving our 30th request, so we paid for a new ticket and boarded the night train back.

Hey Kids, It Looks Like a Finger! September 1, 2008

22.Aug.08

After a two hour bus ride we were left in a very remote part of Hanoi. Then due to a miscommunication (or scam) our taxi driver took us to another point far out of the city, then finally back in the city, dropping us off at the Handspan Tours office. He tried charging us a ridiculous amount for taking us the mad roundabout way, but after some good arguing, and getting help from a Handspan employee to speak with him in Vietnamese, we got away paying a slightly less ridiculous amount.

We’d come to Handspan to inquire about traveling to Sapa, or to Halong Bay, and after her help we were especially keen to do business with them. She suggested we first do a boat trip through Halong Bay due to weather, so we got a good deal on a three day package, then stored all of our crap in a storage office in the restaurant next door, taking only what we needed for a few days. The restaurant next door by the way is part of Handspan, called Tamarind Café, and served us one of the best meals we’ve had in months! All vegetarian; deep fried Chinese mushrooms, eggplant hotpot, and babaganoush burger were unbelievable!

After getting what we needed and paying for the trip we wandered around and found the cheapest hotel we could, still more than we are used to paying for a small musty room. After settling in we did a walking tour of the city with a map we got from Handspan and checked out the rows and rows of specialty shops. It is a very strange system in Asia, but especially Hanoi. All of the metal shops are along one street, all of the cloth shops along another, marble has it’s own block, toys another, etc, etc. The city is bustling, but still not as crazy as anything in India, though we expected so from other tourists’ descriptions of Hanoi. We found a nice lake with a cute little temple we visited. On the way back to the hotel we got seduced by delicious 3,000 Dong Ha Noi beer out of a keg along the street. Best part, there was a wireless signal we picked up nearby, so we enjoyed beer, used the internet, and bought a good quality knock-off Zippo from a guy who we ended up talking to about Vietnam history for awhile.

23.Aug.08

Our bus pulled up to a massive dock filled with what they call Junks, which are just dark brown boats, usually with a dragon head at front, all used to ferry tourists around the extensive bay. Our junk was not junky in the least; it was a luxury junk which we boarded with an Australian couple and an American/Swiss family with two little boys and a little girl. Our room is air conditioned, beautiful, and clean aside from some little baby cockroaches wandering around. The lunch we were soon served contained plate after plate of fresh, scrumptious seafood followed by juicy fresh fruit; an awesome meal.

After a couple of hours boating through an archipelago of massive limestone cliffs similar to Ninh Binh, but even more dramatic, we arrived at some sort of cave. The cave entrance was packed with tourists and at first not too impressive. The next room however opened up into the largest most extraordinary cavern we have seen, all lit up in a multitude of colors. Many natural statues filled the cave which resembled turtles, trees, and one which our guide told the children resembled a “finger” pointing up…what do you think the rock up right of this picture resembles?

After exploring the cave we were back on the boat and soon jumping off the deck into the water. Our host Eng warned us of jellyfish, but thankfully no Irukanji, Box Jellies, or Man-O-Wars so we swam without fear of death. Fear of pain, however was a different matter, and Jessica soon found out what a bad jellyfish burn feels like as its tentacles wrapped full around her leg. Ironically we were discussing how bad a jellyfish burn would hurt when it happened, and Jess said it felt like her leg had sat on a red hot pan for too long. The burn made red bubbles on her skin, and pain was reduced with some benzocaine and lime juice. Since Jess wasn’t writhing on the ground suffering we all decided to chance another rare sting and continued swimming in the wonderfully warm water. I had a lot of fun with the kids and protected them from Jellyfish attacks when someone on board spotted one just a few feet from us. Their mom ended up getting stung later as well, though not as bad as Jess.

After our fun jellyfish adventures and chatting with the kids about whatever crazy, random shit popped into their ADD minds, we had another perfect seafood dinner. A huge storm hit during dinner spinning the boat around with ferocious winds, dumping water, and streaking the sky with lightening. It died down and we slept well in our nice luxurious bed.

24.Aug.08

We said goodbye to the others and Jess, Eng, and I boarded our own private boat. It was a definite downgrade from our fancy boat, but we were on a different tour from the others; while they started the journey back to mainland, we spent the entire day kayaking! Our guide Eng had his own kayak to guide us around in our tandem kayak. Throughout the day we paddled through the tranquil bay to places where bigger boats could not journey. He told us that the little houses floating on the water were people’s homes where they farmed fish and clams in big sand buckets. Most of the homes came equipped with a cute guard dog as a companion, and maybe if the going was rough, a tasty meal. At one point we squeezed through an overhang to a serenely peaceful bay. It made a perfect amphitheater so we had a lot of fun bouncing our voices and sounds of the massive circular wall to hear a terrific echo.

After a break for lunch and a well deserved nap we headed out again to another part of the National Park (All of Halong Bay is a World Heritage Site, but only this section we kayaked is a National Park). Eng asked we bring a flashlight, but the only one we had was nearly out of batteries and emitted little light. We got to a cave he said not many people get through because it is too scary, dark, and filled with bats. We laughed heartily, popped on the dim light, and entered without fear…only a minute later to be completely consumed by that same fear we didn’t fear. The current was against us and tossed our little yellow craft all about the pitch black walls. Eng had no light so we kept our little spot on him because he said he could do it in the dark. We followed as close as we could, but the current decided mostly where we drifted and if we’d hit our heads on the low ceiling, or bang on the side only to push off hopefully in the correct direction. Ten minutes of rigorous paddling in the scary cave felt like an hour when we finally saw light at the end of the tunnel. The light opened into a lagoon even more serene and dramatic than the last. It was our own private little ocean for the time we explored the area until we were ready to make the much quicker and incredibly easier trip out of the cave, this time with the current.

Back on the big boat we headed to Cat Ba island where we would stay for the night. Along the way we passed an incredible sight; an entire city floating along the water. Kids and dogs chased each other through these little floating homes all bunched together, families gathered outside cooking, eating, doing laundry, an entire community floating on the water. What happens during a storm we wondered?! Although the homes seemed mostly protected by the cove made by the island and surrounding cliffs.

Our hotel at the island was beyond luxurious; a place we would only ever stay at with parents, were it not part of this Halong Bay tour package. It had a private beach, private pool and an awesome view of the bay right from our room window. Exhausted from kayaking, we lounged in the pool the rest of the day and caught our nice free dinner at the hotel restaurant.

25.Aug.08

I felt sick today, Jessica was burnt out, and it was again hellishly hot. After a free buffet breakfast we took a walk along the edge of the cliff by the hotel, and came back to lounge by the pool and in the nice cool room. Soon we were on a jet boat going quickly back to the mainland, then on a bus back to Hanoi. We arrived at the Handspan office, swapped our clothes out for some clean ones, grabbed another great dinner across the way and hopped in a taxi to the train station where we boarded the incredibly luxurious train to Sapa. Definitely the nicest night train we have been in and for a very reasonable price. It was a long day of travel, and once the AC came on making the cabin less oven-like, it was a nice sleep on the train.

Halong Bay Flickr Photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157607012014165/

This little doggy went to market… August 31, 2008

20.Aug.08

Arriving at 5am is never fun, especially compiled with the stress of finding a place to stay, having only mediocre sleep on a bus, and being almost completely cashless. The bus dropped us off at one of the only hotels in town. Thankfully it was budget and clean, so instead of running around, we just stayed put and caught a few more Zzz’s before deciding to awaken for the day.

Our first priority for the day was refilling the wallet with some cash. Jessica spent an hour on the phone with Wells Fargo and managed to get money wired direct from her account free of charge to any Western Union bank in the city. Thanks Wells Fargo! Holding our new Dong and Dollars was a relief from the fiasco a day before.

In the last blog I complained about the heat, which somehow increased to ever more unearthly degrees and humidity. Completely burnt out and having no desire to face the sun again, we spent the rest of the day doing almost nothing. We did eat at a nice restaurant down the street where I ordered the weirdest thing we have ever eaten. It consisted of very rare goat meat with rinds of tough inedible flesh attached complete with hair follicles, then rice paper to wrap them in with slices of green banana flower, pineapple, and some sort of bitter tree leaves. The meat was spiced with lime, lemongrass, sesame seed, and then it was all dipped in a sweet white curry-like sauce; I must say, it was quite delicious! Jess tried it, but understandably preferred her meal. Cheap 3,000 Dong beers washed the food down well. That was the highlight of the day.

21.Aug.08

Ninh Binh is a hideous city along a stretch of hwy 1 connecting Saigon to Hanoi. We took a left turn on our motorbike, however, and the city instantly cleared away within a blocks distance, and what left were miles of stunning scenery. The massive limestone blocks and sprawling fields of rice were reminiscent of Laos, spotted with tiny villages and many intricate and beautiful graveyards. After about 10km’s we arrived at our destination, the Trang An caves, and found it empty of tourists and only a handful of attendants by a lake floating dozens of empty boats along the shore. We paid the $7 for a boat ride through caves, which seemed like a lot of money, until we realized the unbelievable adventure which awaited us.

In all we traveled through eight caves and stopped three times at different temples. Some caves were more exquisite than others, but all were beautiful. We were always surrounded by huge limestone cliffs covered in greenery.  It was a stunning journey which took over 3 hours with us being among the very few tourists on the water that day. Even when we stopped we were greeted with an unusual peace and quite. Most often on trips like this the moment we stop we get swarmed with people trying to sell cold drinks and souvenirs. Not once did this happen, which seemed great at first, until we realized that it also meant there was no water to be found anywhere. Having stupidly not brought any we suffered from thirst until the journey was over.

We motorbiked back to the city and sat down at a restaurant filled with noisy locals (usually a sign of good food). Quenched our thirst, had a tasty meal, then headed off to explore the local market. People always go on about how the Vietnamese eat dog, yet we have never seen it advertised on the menu, nor have we seen it in markets, this was the first.

The locals laughed as I took these pics, I don’t think many tourists wander through this random market area. After the rows of dog head we headed out again determined to get the most use out of our rented motorbike. We wandered around the outskirts of the city, seeing the entrance to another set of more touristy caves we heard were not as good as the ones we saw. Drove around some small villages, saw more dramatic scenery, and then called it a day.  It was a short, fun stay in Ninh Binh.

Ninh Binh Flickr Photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606873756113/

Shitibank! August 30, 2008

17.Aug.08

The imperial city of Hue was an easy bus trip from Hoi An, which we grudgingly said goodbye to. The further north we go, the hotter it seems to become and Hue just about crushed our will to do anything. Once settled in a very nice hotel with air/con and free wifi for ten bucks a night, we did not want to leave. Eventually the hunger pangs became worse than the anticipation of the heat so we headed to a nearby Com Chay stand. After some delicious “fake meat” vegetarian food, we crossed a massive bridge to the main part of the city, once a island imperial palace; Beer gardens now line the rivers edge.  Exhausted by heat after only a 15 minute walk we settled into plastic chairs on the river to sample some of the local beers, which were no Beerlao, but decent enough. We wandered a bit through some markets and, though we are by no means sick of Vietnamese food yet, we couldn’t help ourselves and were tempted to get some KFC for dinner. Our comfy bed welcomed us after our walk back.

18.Aug.08

Biking around in stifling heat is far better than walking, not just because you move faster, but because the wind feels delicious. We soon found ourselves forced to dismount however once at the grand imperial purple palace, not as purple as one would imagine, and also not as grand since it got the shit bombed out of it the US/Vietnam war. We explored the grounds for over an hour, unfortunately on foot because only locals could bike around while foreigners suffer in the furnace heat, and get charged to park bikes, bummer. Many sections of the palace were under construction or being completely rebuilt, but some of what was left was very pretty, especially the entry gateway. Statues and lakes covered the grounds as did many construction workers napping in hammocks. It was worth a visit.

We ate lunch a place recommended by Lonely Planet that served us a barely edible seafood hotpot. Being so excited about seafood hotpots from the unbelievable one in Mui Ne, our spirits were crushed, as was our faith in Lonely Planet. Afterwards we biked more around the city discovering scenic lakes and quaint homes, and buying some fragrant local-made incense. Soon we found ourselves back home as the sun felt determined to drench every ounce of moisture from our bodies. We waited out the peak heat of the day reading and computing in our air/con room.

Realizing we were very low on funds we forced ourselves back into the furnace to find a bank and withdraw money from our last remaining piece of plastic after slowly losing all else over the last few months. Unfortunately it is a Citibank MasterCard which takes 3% for each withdrawal (which our others didn’t) and it is our last resort emergency card. Of course the card didn’t work at either of the two banks we tried, which is frustrating because just a couple days ago on the phone with them they said I should have no problems withdrawing now. I called them back, and they said I’d nearly reached some limit I didn’t know existed and now could only withdraw $150, get the limit heightened, or pay of the balance. So I determined to do all three as precaution; called parents to help pay it off, put in request for limit increase, and determined to just take out $150 (which goes a LONG way here anyway) next time at the bank, which was closed now. (Sorry if that seemed boring and irrelevant, but it comes into play later).

We had some delicious tempura and Pork at a Japanese restaurant with the truly clever name: Japanese Restaurant. Then we followed the sandman to dreamland. (We are really running out of ways to say “then went to bed,” which is getting really old to type).

19.Aug.08

Flanked by two yellow, orange, and red aluminum dragons, we entered our boxy dragon boat filled with about 20 other tourists for a bargain $2 cruise of the perfume river. For two bucks a person, the tour absolutely rocked and even included a tasty free lunch! We thought there would be some catch along the way which we kept preparing for, but we simply had had great service all around, and only had to pay extra to enter the three mausoleums which were $3 per person (no matter how you get there). Drinks of course were extra, but they didn’t overcharge too much so we were surprised they could make such a worthy trip so affordable!

I could go into every mausoleum in detail, but as usual, pictures give a better impression. They were all dedicated to royal family members and thankfully untouched during the wars. Each was a large complex of incense filled temples and stone graves, but more interesting were the surroundings with lotus filled lakes, rolling hills, towering pagodas, and beautiful jungle. It made for a terrific day and all within even a paupers budget.

Our boat was supposed to get back at 3pm, but landed instead at 4:15. Having only 45 minutes until our night bus to Ninh Binh left, we had limited time to get desperately needed money from the bank, and eat a quick dinner. I sprinted to the bank and my head fell in despair as the attendant shook her head to my credit card after it failed to withdraw the $150 I was promised I could withdraw, or even $100. The next bank had the same results, and with only $20 worth in Dong in my pocket, and owing the hotel at least $35 for bus tickets, bed, and cruise tickets, I sprinted back to Jessica in panic. I caught her sitting down to another meal of Com Chay which brought our hotel debt even greater and I stuffed my mouth with the food and ran to the hotel to see what could be done. We had no extra cash and our only plastic left was not withdrawing it. During an attempt to call Citibank before the banks closed in 5 minutes when our bus also came, the hotel manager said we could run to another hotel and try their credit card machine (since our hotels wasn’t working). Earlier on the phone I remembered hearing that there was only a limit on withdrawals, but not charges for some reason, so I hopped on the back of one of their motorbikes and zoomed across town to another random hotel owned by the same people. The heart-pounding credit swipe was accepted by the cheerful little black box to my utmost excitement! Citibank; it sort of works when you need it most! (I later learned by checking my account balance that the most critical error was made by someone I talked to saying I had $150 instead of the actual $50 which I had left to withdraw; I guess basic math isn’t a prerequisite of Citibank employment).

Our bus was there shortly after I returned and we were stunned to find a very unique bus full of actual beds with cute and colorful sheets and pillows. For being on a bus it was a good night’s sleep.  Kind of like the Harry Potter night bus from the third book.  Except no teleportation, hanging chandelier, or pimply attendant.

Hue Flickr Pics:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606867657968/

2008 Olympic Puppy Pillows? August 26, 2008

12.Aug.08

The train up to Hoi An (technically Da Nang, then bus to Hoi An) was a pleasant sleep in very comfy beds. Jessica especially looked forward to sleeping in, which was ruined by an inconsiderate woman coming in our room super early and chatting on her cell phone. Jessica shut her up, but the damage was done, we were awake. It reminded us of all the rude awakenings in India (double meaning?). We spent the morning performing usual train antics and also trying to understand the deeper meaning of our pillows?

Jessica held the bags as usual when we got off the bus from Danang to Hoi An and I ran around to like 10 hotels trying to find the best for us; cheap, with wireless internet (or nearby which we can steal), and moderately clean. Of course I found something even better than all that, though it is the most we’ve paid for a hotel in Asia, a whopping $12 per night. For such a relative little amount of money we got a massive, beautiful, and spotless room with mini-fridge, cable TV, fans, hot water, and room cleaning everyday. Right near the center of town, with a pool, huge lobby, free internet, and wifi! Unbelievable value for one of the best hotels we’ve stayed at on this trip; Hoa Binh. The trick is, everything else is more expensive, laundry, food, motorbike rental, but we didn’t feel bad giving the local people outside some business for fractions of the cost. Speaking of, one of the first things I did was take the laundry out to get done when the ladies at the hotel kept trying to convince me to have the hotel do it for more than twice the cost, saying the kind old man across the street would ruin our clothes. We had no problem trusting him for 50 cents per kilo, and also enjoyed his 50 cent bike rentals! We biked around the street getting a feel for the city and instantly discovering how unbelievably stunning Hoi An is. The city itself is a UNESCO world heritage site for its well preserved ancient buildings along a beautiful river. Every turn down each cute little alley is filled with exquisite historical nooks and crannies.

Also lining the streets are a plethora of shops which Hoi An is extremely well known for; tailor shops! We had some advice from online of places to look at, and ideas in our heads of some things we wanted tailored. We were extremely impressed by one shop called La Na with an incredibly friendly, competent, knowledgeable, and hard-working head tailor and likewise friendly staff. We instantly dove in, me getting fit for a suit, and Jess getting measured for a dress and skirt, both to be made by tomorrow afternoon and for unbelievably reasonable prices; now we’ll wait and see if it is worth the low price. We then ate at Café 96, which became an instant favorite for its succulent pork and eggplant, and White Rose, a local dumpling-like dish.

13.Aug.08

We spent the majority of today baking in the sun walking around the old streets of Hoi An on a self guided tour of sorts. Our tickets allowed entry to select ancient buildings in the city. Four of the points of interest were homes still lived in today built and maintained for hundreds of years. We could only enter one of four, but heard all were similar and the one we explored was filled with beautiful relics, heirlooms, and a guide serving tea and telling the story of the house. Every minute we are in Hoi An we love it more and more! We ate lunch at Thanh Phuong, a place offering the local beer Hoi on draught for 3,000 Dong a glass. 3,000 Dong is like ten cents, for a glass of beer!!! We got a set menu of Hoi An specialties, as well as a pork hot pot and learned that Hoi An is a cornucopia of culinary delights (Dave takes no credit for the last sentence). Every morsel was delicious, and the 10 cent beers extremely refreshing after a long, hot day of wandering. We got back into the city for a few more architectural delights, topped off by a traditional music and dance show in an old workshop.

Then came the exciting part of the day, (as if it hasn’t been enough), clothes fitting! The skirt fit perfect and is gorgeous, the dress needed work, but showed promise, and my suit…was…AWESOME! I had an idea in my head of how this suit should look, and the tailor blew me away. Grey silk lining on the inside, sweat guard on the armpits, perfect fit, not a stitch out of place, comfortable, and gorgeous, I mean just look at me! (I know, I epitomize modesty).

So excited and satisfied with our first set of articles, we had to order some more including another six piece suit for Jess (skirt, pants, jacket, 2 shirts), investing in that one day we’ll both get jobs. A winter jacket for Jess and a new pair of shorts and one more collared shirt for me were also measured, fabrics and colors chosen, sketches drawn out, the works. Normally I hate shopping, but at prices and quality so amazing…we couldn’t resist, and shopping became fun when anything possible was at our fingertips! (For people planning on getting suits tailored here, which is highly recommended; both suits were just a little over one hundred dollars altogether. You can get full suits for $40 to $300, but we felt the difference between our suits and a $300 suit was minimal to none, though a $40 suit is usually of worse material, ours were imported Italian cloth and Asian silks). We headed then to another tailor shop which was clearly not as professional as La Na to get some super cheap ($10 per) cotton dresses made for Jess. We figured if they didn’t turn out perfect, we’d only be losing ten bucks, and hey maybe they could make pretty towels?

Exhausted and sweaty after walking in the extreme heat and humidity all day, the first thing we did was hop in the chilly pool at the hotel. We then watched some Olympics and went to bed.

14.Aug.08

We rented a motorbike for the cheapest yet, only $3 for the whole day, then picked up Jessica’s dresses and left one for some fixing. She tried them on, and for what we paid, they were seriously beautiful. Hoi An changed my whole perspective on clothes shopping, if only someone would get this started in Tiajuana people would flock from San Diego and LA for something other than getting piss drunk and waking in a bath of ice with your kidney missing.

We filled up on gas down the road a bit, which is the first thing we always have to do because they siphon the gas leaving only enough to get you to a gas station; hey it is three dollars for rental, petrol not included. The petrol only costs like two dollar more to go the 30 km’s to My Son (Pronounced Me Sohn), yet another World Heritage site built in the same style and era as the Angkorian ruins. The ride there was beautiful and the local people very helpful when we got a bit lost finding the way. We parked at the base of a huge hill which, after buying tickets, we took a jeep up because they didn’t allow motor bikes any further. You can’t really compare My Son to Angkor, because Angkor is such a massive complex of temples, but when compared to individual sites, it was a very beautiful set of ruins surrounded by gorgeous mountains. As usual it was painfully hot and humid, so with sweat drenched clothes we hiked back to the Jeep meeting point and joined a queue of like 15 Spaniards, who as we’ve found, love traveling in big groups. We were soon on a Jeep and the back on the motorbike getting maddeningly lost on the way back to paradise. The situation was made worse when some jerk pointed us in the completely opposite direction in which we wanted to go. He was probably drunk off Beer Hoi already…they get started early in Vietnam.

Finally we found our way back to our favorite restaurant Café 96 for the best guacamole we’ve had in Asia, pretty close to back home. Then into our favorite tailor shop to try on our new clothes. Once again, perfectly made articles, so perfect I had to get one more pair of shorts in a different color (since the ones I am wearing have been with me for 5 years and contain three holes around the crotch which I have sewn over and over again) and a new autumn jacket. That’s it NO MORE SHOPPING… Damn it is addicting though! The money we saved on stuff we’d have to buy back home anyway for five times the cost! We headed back home and hopped in the chilly pool, then headed out again at night and discovered that a huge festival was to take place tonight which the entire city was buzzing for. It was the monthly lunar festival where people from all over come and light multicolored tea-light boats and float them down the river. Truly a stunning sight! The city was lit up with bright, multicolored lanterns making it even more enchanting (we wouldn’t have dreamed it possible).

After much wandering we headed back, fully satisfied with such a terrific day!

15.Aug.08

We spent another day wandering, seeing what we missed of the old city the first time around, and exploring the local markets, which sold nearly everything, where we bought some delicious smelling spices. We tied up all the loose ends of our tailored clothes and simply chilled all day. At some point we met a group of four people from UK and OZ and took them to our other favorite restaurant Thanh Phuong for cheap beer and yummy food. Nothing extraordinary today, just taking a break…it’s a tough life.

16.Aug.08

The “Marble Mountain” 10km outside Hoi An was much more than we expected! We pulled up on the motorbike to the main entrance where people wanted extortionate bribes to park our bikes. We laughed at them and drove past to, sure enough, find a side entrance taking a much more reasonable payment of 2,000 Dong and a “look at my shop mister.” We bought tickets for the massive marble caves formed by millions of years of tides, weather, and minerals (or just a little poke by the big grey bearded dude in the sky in about a second if you don’t believe all that fancy “science” baloney). What weren’t formed naturally were the killer carvings of dragons, Chinese deities, and characters all along the white marble walls. The cave is multi-layered with stairs going deep down and another making a steep climb up. The main chamber contained altars with statues and food and incense offerings to the spirits, and one huge main altar with heavenly light shining through a hole in the ceiling where Jess snapped a scary picture of me being a creeper. We descended downstairs which lead to a series of statues and paintings depicting the brutal Buddhist depictions of hell which were, needless to say, awesome!

Climbing the marble stairs up was supposed to be the climb to heaven, but felt a lot more like hell in the unbearable heat. It was filled with marble carvings of Buddha, Dragons, Spirits, and Chinese deities; not as cool as demons impaling humans on stakes, but quite beautiful nonetheless.

We left the awesome cave, thinking things couldn’t get any better, which they didn’t, but they remained almost equally amazing. The second method of exploring the mountain was a climb to high pagodas, temples, more caves, and the peak of the mountain. Everything on the hike was gorgeous, described best in photos as usual. Each cave of the five more had little and big carved statues of Buddha and other deities, the last being most impressive with a huge statue of Buddha in a gargantuan chamber.

All the temples were quaint and pretty, in fact the only absolutely miserable part of the journey was the climb to the very top through tight squeezes, up a slippery marble path, in the unearthly heat, surrounded by painful cacti. The view was nice, but not worth the pain. Overall, marble mountain was great, a bit touristy, but mostly Vietnamese tourists and only some parts were a bit kitschy.

We got back and did the usual jump into the refreshingly cold pool and a great lunch at a new western place. The rest of the day was just hanging at the hotel and picking up the last pieces of tailoring around town.

Hoi An Flickr Photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606762916555/

Ho Chi Minh’s Floating Bar. August 26, 2008

09.Aug.08

Out of the freezer and into the frying pan…again. Our first impression of Nha Trang is a very touristy beach town; our impression didn’t change much over the next few days. For a tourist destination which claimed to be one of the best snorkeling and diving spots in Vietnam, there sure didn’t seem to be a great variety of tours available, and snorkeling being the only substantial thing we wanted to do, we were left wondering how fun Nha Trang was going to be. After settling into a very nice room at Mai Huy Guesthouse, we hit the beach for the rest of the sunlight. We were quite surprised to find tons of Vietnamese tourists among the lesser quantity of westerners along this very plain, wave-less beach. People were parasailing, jet-skiing, windsurfing, and just playing in the water all around. We thought it would be a place to parasail, something we’ve never done before, but we were disappointed with how expensive a six minute ride was, especially for being in Asia. In hindsight $35 isn’t that much, and probably way cheaper than in California, but we just felt like relaxing on the beach and playing in the tiny surf. At night we ate at a mediocre German restaurant (Rotkraut just wasn’t quite right), and went to bed.

10.Aug.08

Pho Cali, just downstairs from our Hostel, served some of the best, most reasonably priced Pho in Vietnam yet. It was a place we knew we’d be coming back to. We rented a motorbike for the day and weaved through the traffic to Ponagar towers, a set of three very nice temples. Inside the main temple were those in silent prayer surrounded by lots of incense smoke, brass relics, flowers, and little wooden statues of Chinese deities. Originally Hindu, these converted temples lacked the tacky bright, colorful electric lights that many others have adopted; the candle light, smoke, and slow gong ringing made for a very peaceful, authentic experience. Lovely!

Next we biked to a place and paid to get covered in mud. I don’t know exactly how it differs from regular mud, but the mineral mud was really hot, smelled a bit like sulfur, and felt really good on the skin. We had our own private bath where we got nice and relaxed before our time was up after twenty minutes.

Then we washed up and dipped into an unbelievably hot mineral water bath. We found ourselves questioning why humans were originally so drawn to hot mineral water. Is it just because it’s unique and people are naturally curious about the unknown, is it all shaman bullshit, or it is genuinely good for you to soak in the mineral rich liquid? Either way we determined that it makes sense in places where it is cold, because it feels good, but it is so ridiculously hot here, why would you want to be hotter? It was still quite relaxing, and when our time was up in the piping hot pool we got all the time we wanted in a nice big communal cold pool. Unfortunately we just assumed it was cold, but expecting a nice escape from the heat on our skin, we dove in and were simply boiled alive again…more hot mineral water.

We motor biked around a bit more, saw some more temples, none as impressive as the first, but we saw big white Buddha which was pretty neat. We got back, had some pizza dinner and then found a shop with a beer keg for 4,000 Dong (20 cents) a glass. We had a few jugs of beer and chatted with a couple German guys. The beer was pretty much worth what we paid, I thought it tasted a big like raw egg.

11.Aug.08

One of the hosts on our boat tour today looked very much like Ho Chi Minh, and another guy called himself crazy monkey, though he wasn’t that crazy. About 20 tourists; Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, a bunch of Irish, and other westerners were packed on the boat touring around the archipelago islands, doing a bit of snorkeling, drinking, and singing. It was only $6 per person, so it was worth what we paid, though we expected a lot more snorkeling and what we got were cheap foggy masks, water filled with tiny jellyfish which stung everyone, and unspectacular sea life. The few highlights of the trip were: the meal, which was a full buffet of delicious seafood, followed by local fruits, a floating bar, where Ho Chi Minh 2 served free pineapple liquor to everyone swimming in the water, and the crew played garage band style accompanied by volunteer karaoke, with Ho Chi 2 on drums, and singing.

We made good friends with the four Irish and took them to our favorite place Cali Pho. Though our third time eating there, you can’t beat the value for such great food! We followed them to a bar playing 70’s and 80’s rock where we chatted for a bit until Jess and I ran away to catch our train.

Nha Trang Flickr photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606756996407/

What’s that sensation on my skin? August 17, 2008

06.Aug.08

Again we arrived in our new city to a torrential downpour. After climbing through winding mountain switchbacks surrounded by lush green forest we found ourselves in Da Lat. As I’m sure we’ve made clear throughout all these blogs, finding a guesthouse is often the more annoying part of the stay in any city. Usually whatever guesthouse the bus stops at is not one we stay at, as they rely on people being lazy and staying no matter how crappy or overpriced it is as opposed to searching for something better. This guesthouse however was surprisingly nice, very clean reasonably priced rooms with TV’s fridge, big comfy beds, and free internet with wireless in the rooms. We figured it was about the most we could hope for so we just stayed put and skipped the stress of trying to find a better place in the rain.

We settled in and the rain stopped near dusk so we left our new place to explore the city a little, once outside we noticed a very odd, foreign sensation upon our skin…is it? Could it be? COLD? The same cold we haven’t experienced for months since the Himalayas?! YES, finally an escape from scorching, sweat drenching heat! We went back to the room to dust off our warm clothes and happily jump in them. We wandered about the city in a very surprised state; it is simply nothing at all like any of the Asia we have experienced so far. We determined it was far more like San Francisco, or even Boston than anywhere we would have imagined in Vietnam. About the only difference were the usual masses of motorbikes, but the city is more or less like any other western mountain town, oh we’ve missed that cold air smell. We walked up and down the city hills and had a tasty candle-lit dinner with the local Da Lat wine (more like grape juice, but can’t complain about the price). We got back to the room and thoroughly enjoyed sleeping under thick warm covers again!

07.Aug.08

After our free breakfast baguettes and overly sweet strawberry jam, we hopped on our rented motorbike and hit the town. First stop was the presidential summer palace. On the way up we got a full view of the city and were stunned by how similar it looked to somewhere right in the San Francisco Bay Area:

The palace was simple and had a very 1960’s feel. It wasn’t anything more than visiting a large mansion on top of a hill. We learned that Vietnamese have no clue how to obey rules (also common throughout all of Asia). Each room was roped off by yellow rope, which, group after group, were more than happy to step over to get photos on the furniture. They would even hide those pesky “Do not sit” signs off the furniture so they could get the perfect shot sitting on madly expensive antique furniture, only to politely replace the signs so others knew to obey the rules as well. It was completely hysterical to us, and one of our favorite moments was in the formal living room where a whole family of eight had made themselves comfortable, not even bothering to reprimand their kid for standing and jumping between the antique furniture pieces. They snapped a plethora of photos at their unique family sitting experience.

Definitely our favorite part of the house was the end, where, for less than a buck per person you could dress up and take pictures in traditional royal regalia on antique settings. We had way to much fun doing this, and one of the professional photographers got really excited at us two honkeys dressed up, that we let him have our camera and he guided us into fun poses. The most amazing part was when I tried to give him a tip and he flat out refused!!! Any other country we’ve been to and they would have taken the money and still asked for more, but this guy was just being nice?! What a concept!

After wandering the outer gardens for a bit we hopped aboard the motorbike and headed to some weird treehouse/guesthouse thing.  Wondering what that is?  Well we still are as well, and we went there!  Anyhow it was a pretty neat art/hotel project which tried to incorporate nature elements into a modern hotel.  Lot’s of cute and kitschy rooms, not in use yet so at this point it’s just some weird tourist attraction.  Great idea though; build something weird, then charge people to come see it while it is still under construction to fund its construction, genius!

Stomachs grumbling we went to city center and discovered the massive central market.  Four story behemoth structure with any manufactured goods you could ask for, a massive farmers market, and terrific food court in which we found what we’ve been looking for since coming to Vietnam; COM CHAY!!!  In San Jose we have a favorite Vietnamese restaurant called Tofoo Com Chay.  It serves fake meats made out of soy with delicious sauces and fresh veggies.  We thought Com Chay was just a name, but now we learned it simply means vegetarian food.  It was just as terrific as back home and fractions less.  Another thing we discovered at the market were strawberries and avocados, something we haven’t seen for a long time.  Over the next couple days however we kept trying the avocados and they were nowhere near as good as in California, but the strawberries were delicious.

The whole day rained intermittently, but we didn’t let that stop us so we headed out again on the bike in our blue and green rain ponchos to the flower garden.  It was a very pretty and we were the only ones crazy enough to visit in the rain so it was very peaceful.  We motorbiked back along the gorgeous lake and took in how extraordinary beautiful the city is, then found ourselves home after a long day.  Only to go back out again for a tasty dinner and back for a wonderful cold night snuggled under the thick covers, oh the simple things we’ve missed doing!

08.Aug.08

We made a long stressful journey of 50km’s on a motorbike to a couple of waterfalls.  The first of which was more like an amusement park than a natural attraction.  One could either hike down to the falls, OR get drunk and take a small roller coaster down, which many did.  The place was packed with Vietnamese tourists having a grand old time around a waterfall which wasn’t actually that great.  So we came, we saw, and we left to go many many more kilometers down a nearly empty super highway in the sprinkling rain.  We got lost a number of times and I yelled a lot while Jessica tried to calm me down, but finally we found ourselves a lot farther than planned to the most grand of all the waterfalls, Pongeur.  Much less touristy and far more impressive than the last, we stayed down quite a while enjoying the view when a group of three incredibly drunk Vietnamese guys kept asking us to take random pictures with us; strange.

On the road back out we realized we had a flat tire.  Normally not a problem, unless the nearest building of any sorts is 6km away, which it was.  So we spent the next hour or so pushing the bike through a road flanked by rice fields and past herds of water buffalo.  Not too fun, but not too stressful as we had only one option…push.

We got back to some small civilization and had the bike repaired for 30,000 Dong ($1.50) then made the long journey home passing by a couple more falls along the way.  Once back in Dalat we bought sandwiches and pastries from our favorite deli and went to the room to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Vietnamese, which was done well with little commentary.  Beautiful ceremony and beautiful sleep.

Flickr pictures of Da Lat:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606641566545/

The Best Fish Paste in Vietnam… August 16, 2008

It may be the best in Vietnam, but I stand by the last Blog’s review of fish paste; it smells like dirty diapers and fish guts.  Luckily for us, this next city Mui Ne manufactures this crap everywhere so though it is a cool place, occasionaly you can’t help but start choking from the horrific smell which tends to permeate at random moments in different parts of the city.

04.Aug.08

We took a short bus to the beach city of Mui Ne with the two German girls we met in Saigon.  Jess and I got really lucky because we showed up last minute and booked the last two seats.  We arrived to a torrential downpour and spent a good amount of time waiting out the rain then finding a place to stay.  We got a great bungalow on the beach and headed out for some dinner.  Mui Ne is simply one massive road flanked by restaurants and beach resorts, so mostly all there is to do it relax on the beach, eat, and drink, which is exactly what we did.  Nothing exciting to report about today.

05.Aug.08

Today was more exciting.  First we woke up early and jumped in the terrificaly refreshing ocean.  The ocean and beach are the most similar to California as we have been yet.  That really salty ocean smell was very welcoming, though, unfortunately the waves are too small to bodysurf; great for Jess, bad for me.  We then rented a motorbike and headed for a set of sand dunes quite a few kilometers away.  When we first saw the red sand dunes and the vendors outside hawking their wares we began to pull over when about a dozen young children came screaming at us trying to sell some sort of blue slide?  Freaked out and instantly aggravated by their horribly obnoxious sales pitch we sped through them and away to a spot a bit down the dune where we could park and hike up.  Sure enough however once they saw us way down the sand, about six more of these blue mat carrying monsters came running and screaming at us.  “YOU WANT TO SLIDE?  YOU WANT TO SLIDE?”  They shouted again and again.  Not that we cared to make a slide attempt on the still mildly damp sand anyway, we asked a price and got slapped in the face by some ridiculous numbers which quickly shot down the more we laughed at them.  Getting covered in sand still didn’t sound like a good time to us and though we were persistent in our NO answer, they became increasingly annoying and pushy.  What should have been a pleasant hike up gorgeous red dunes was fast turning into an awfully stressful experience.  As if the kids couldn’t get worse following us everywhere we went, one kid got fed up and started walking away and shouting profanities at us; “Fuck you, you bad people, fuck you” he shouted back to us over and over again.  Who teaches them that shit anyway we wondered?  Considering his English seemed good I tried to explain to him that he certainly wasn’t going to get us to rent his slide like that, but he only replied with another “fuck you;” good comeback kid! The rest of the time there was spent trying to enjoy the dunes and get good pictures, while trying in vain to explain to one extremely persistent slide salesman why, even if we wanted to slide, he had no chance of us ever renting a slide from him because they are being to completely insane.  “Please rent slide” he again responded and with a roll of the eyes we kept wandering the dunes.

We left those dunes as some drizzle started pelting us from above.  Riding in the light rain for about 20 minutes we came to what looked like a town for really really little dwarves sprawled in bright colors over rolling green hills.  A peaceful setting for a dwarf/leprauchan village which turned out to be a vietnamese nazi graveyard, er, buddhist graveyard, the swastikas threw us off…

We kept going a LONG way through the gorgeous countryside, in the nice cooling drizzle and eventually came to a completely deserted and beautiful set of yellowish dunes.  Not one slide seller or tourist anywhere in sight, we had the entire place to ourselves and wandered for the next half hour through these perfect sand dunes.  Somehow, as usual, we got incredibly lucky and the sun even came out to say hello for most of the hike, then after 30 minutes the evil dark clouds started forming and Zeus began to urinate heavily on our heads.  Thankfully he spared the thunderbolts, but the ride back felt like millions of tiny spears hitting my flesh, shirtless on the bike. Jess wore a rain tarp because she is smart, but I felt it necessary to prove my manliness to the elements, plus I was already in a bathing suit, so nothing got soaked.

We arrived back to a city completely flooded with water.  It became quite an unbelieveable feat to ford the motorbike through the now rivered (made up word?) street.  Even the sidewalks were covered in water!  It was really kind of fun, and the locals got a kick out of Jess and I trying to follow their examples and work our way through the flood.  We ducked out of the rain and rivers to fill our bellies at a very local looking seafood bar.  One of those places where all the seafood are kept in massive tanks, so we knew it should be good and fresh.  We got a flaming pot of boiling water placed in front of us with raw prawns, squid, muscles, shrimp, fish, noddles, veggies, and spices dumped in to cook.  It was DELICIOUS!!!  Even Jessica who is not the biggest fan of seafood, loved every bite of the unbelievably fresh meal.

We headed back to our hotel, met with the German girls and went to another restaurant where they ate, and we just hung out and chatted.  Headed back, hung out and went to bed.

06.Aug.08

I woke up at 4:45am to catch a pretty terrific blue dawn and sunrise.  Jessica didn’t feel well so she slept in.  The beach was very peaceful, the silence only broken by the play of the neighborhood dog gang waking each other up to roam their turf and play around in the sand.  The local fishermen in their little half-sphere boats started coming in after the nights catch.  It was nice to be up for sunrise for once, though it didn’t come over the ocean to my disappointment.  Then I was woken up again a few hours later by Jess and we jumped in the ocean and had a light jog along the beach.  We spent the little of the day sunbathing and relaxing on the fine sand to the crash of the teeny waves, then hopped on a bus to our next destination; Dalat.

Flickr pictures of Mui Ne:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606591356268/

Designer Helmets. August 14, 2008

01.August.08

It was a very comfortable bus ride to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), clearly a Vietnamese company and bus. We passed through a normal, pretty border crossing for once which didn’t try to extort us for a “stamp fee.” We arrived in Saigon and were amazed to for once not receive the cacophony of “Mr, Madame, Tuk Tuk,” instead there were a few guys who politely offered us a taxi ride. When we asked if they’d use the meter we were shocked by the “yes” as an answer! So we had him take us to our couchsurfers place which was about a 12 minutes drive.

By the time we arrived it was pouring rain. To make matters worse the house we were looking for was in an alley described as “across from a hospital, between a pink clothing store and a shoe store.” It took a bit to find, and when we did we got out, unloaded our stuff under the awning of the “pink clothing store,” where the criminal asshole of a taxi driver slapped us with a 350,000 Dong bill…I instantly smelled bullshit considered that equals $20, a price we wouldn’t pay in the US! His fake meter said the price he quoted, but we thought the price was 35,000 and the decimal in the wrong place, 35,000 Dong is more around the price we were E-Mailed it should be. Still the thief was insistent and started getting very angry with me as I waited for Jessica to find our CS hosts so they could help. I tried explaining the situation to the lady in the “pink clothing store,” who was amazing and brought our bags inside for us, but she spoke no English. With the monsoon rains pouring, our hosts not wanting to come out in the rain, my shoes soaking wet, and now surrounded by four Vietnamese people trying to figure out why the white person looks so concerned and upset, I used my best charades and finally got through to them the extortion the taxi driver was trying to pull on us. Their faces lit up with anger and understanding, then one of the men instantly started yelling at the driver making life a whole lot easier for us, we grabbed the bags, headed down the flooded alley with a waterfall dumping on us, and looked back to the taxi driver pulling away in haste…though still with the exorbitant 100,000 Dong I gave him initially in attempt to make him go away. So far not bad odds; four awesomely sweet and helpful Vietnamese to only one asshole.

The rains didn’t let up, which ended up being fine because our new home and hosts are awesome. Not only is there a TV, but they have a collection of hundreds of movies, many new ones from the last year we hadn’t seen!!! The house has four people living in it, three who teach English, one working at a hotel; two Canadian, one American, and one Englishman. Moreover they make no limit to Couchsurfers so tonight they planned to have six Couchsurfers over, awesome! Though for now it was only three of us waiting out the rain by playing chess, ordering and eating pizza, and watching Arrested Development, Be Kind Rewind, and the new Sweeny Todd.

Later, when people started trickling in we all went out to a local bar nearby (we are nowhere near a tourist area, so the locals are always interested when we walk by). The nine of us sat down and the delicious and madly cheap Vietnamese beer just kept flowing from the jugs for the next two hours. Lots of laughs later we moved the party back to the house where more surfers kept piling in until finally we all found our places on the floor and couches in this four story building and slept. It was like a super social, free hostel, with endless entertainment; they are all getting good CS references, that’s for sure.

02.August.08

Waking up late we headed downtown and slurped a typical Vietnamese breakfast of Pho noodles; really delicious. Jess and I wandered around the super lively city brimming with people, parks, monuments, and crazy amounts of energy (speaking of energy there is an overwhelming number of electrical cables everywhere). We thought Thailand and Cambodia had a lot of motorbikes, but Saigon blows everything else away. The roads are flowing rivers of motorbikes with the riders all wearing terrific “designer helmets” made to look like hats with Gucci and Prada labels on them.

So we hopped around the streets like frogs from Frogger letting the bikes swerve around us and entered the independence palace. The place where the president used to reside; a stylish, fancy, & beautiful palace with furnishings and architecture right out of the 1960’s. It was fun to explore and gave some good views of the city.

We then headed to the revolutionary museum which wasn’t too interesting, but had some decent exhibits about the rise of communism and the war. Getting hungry we wandered around and bumped into a local version of KFC meets McDonalds. Figuring we had to give it a try being a local chain we went in and ate some decent fast food; nothing special. Then later we found out it is a chain from Korea, so we didn’t really eat local after all. Before going back we went in to what would seem from the outside to be a nightclub with fancy lights, ushers in fancy suits and dresses, and booming techno music. As it turns out it was (obviously) an electronics center. For the last month I have been researching a terrific little computer (and I mean little weighing less than 2lbs). We have seen two other travelers using it, and have been thoroughly pleased when testing it. Thankfully I found this little gem at the store, and it was the exact same price as offered online only $500 and totally worth it. After much thought, weighing pros and cons, I bought it (consider it a X-mas/B-day gift family, I don’t need anything else). It is an Acer Aspire One, 1gb Ram 8gb HD, 8.9” monitor, wireless card, the works. What an awesome computer for the price, just incredible and so perfect for traveling, life would have been so much easier this whole trip with this little guy.

We headed back and soon after arriving the seven of us hopped on three motorbikes and a bicycle to a German style Vietnamese restaurant with terrific home brewed beer. We drank more beer, ate fried frog, and had the opportunity to try a Vietnamese “delicacy;” fish paste. I would have gladly tried something new, but nearly vomited after a simple whiff of this foul purple, lumpy liquid. Now, I am not over-exaggerating, and I am not simply saying it was as bad smelling as baby diapers, no, it smelled exactly like used baby diapers, with a hint of sewage, rotten fish, and maybe a pinch of that smell you get removing a cast from a broken limb for the first time. It was so bad I couldn’t stop smelling it because when I put it down my mind couldn’t comprehend that such a foul smell could possibly be deemed fit for human consumption. Not even Pol Pot himself would deserve as cruel a punishment as eating this stuff, but apparently the Vietnamese feel they have wronged the world in some way and, like some crazy Religious fanatic, resort to self torture for atonement.

We headed to a club with lame music and Jess and I left early in a taxi because we didn’t feel like buying overpriced drinks and didn’t want to ride on motorbikes with our drivers who started drinking a bit. Back at the place we hung out with the two cool German girls who just arrived, and I played around with my new toy.

03.August.08

After eating more Pho noodles for breakfast we headed downtown again and went first to a really amazing Chinese temple, the Jade Emperor. It reminded us of a Hindu temple filled with incense smoke, great deity statues, beautiful colors, and filled with the prayers of the devout. An awesome place!

We then walked quite a ways and ended up at our first sushi restaurant since Australia. It was ultra chic, which means the prices were nearly the same as home, but with the same (if not better) quality! Our stomachs more than welcomed the delicious raw and cooked fish, seaweed, rice, wasabi, veggies, and ginger! One more painful craving fulfilled! We then went to the War Remnants museum. It was a huge museum documenting the French war and American war in Vietnam (mostly US). Complete with tanks, jets, and artillery in the courtyard, horrifying pictures depicting the sickening effects of agent orange and napalm, tiger cages where POW’s were kept, protest photos, children’s paintings of peace, and tons of more documentation of the war including great propaganda posters. It was one of the better museums we have been to in a long while.

Some more walking and “Frogger” later we were at a huge central market where we bought a rolly bag to carry our accumulating souvenirs. Inside the behemoth, and perfectly organized market, filled with thousands of people, all the power went out, sending a murmur of excitement through the crowd. The pouring rain outside made it a crazy experience fighting through the labyrinth towards light to the outside. The first taxi driver we asked to take us was another asshole thief like before trying to horribly rip us off and, having no tolerance for such scum at this point, I dug into him a bit and said I should report him to the police for being a scam artist. The tourists around were impressed and other drivers were laughing at him. We had no problem after that finding a legitimate taxi driver using a functioning meter (the real cost each time ended up being 50,000 Dong or about $3, not 200,000 or 350,000 Dong like the other schmucks try to charge!!!)

We ate more Pho and arrived to a home filled with Steve’s high school English students. They were all really cool kids and spoke great English already. So we hung out with them, ate pizza, watched Kingdom with Jet Lee and Jackie Chan, and after a bunch of pictures they left. Then a friend of the house came over with a huge bucket of steamed snails which the brave ones snacked on. More fun and conversation and then sleep.

Flickr pictures of Saigon:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606577084411/