Running Away 2009

Written By Robert.

Travel From 9th to 11th

Spirit Houses in Hoi An

I’m not going to be able to fully inform you as to their exact purpose or who they are praying to, but nearly every shop in Hoi An, and many other parts of Vietnam, has a small shrine somewhere to bring good fortune to their business. These typically consist of a spirit house (small ornate open cabinet with a couple of shelves) adorned with red and gold. They will always contain several small statues of dragons and/or Buddha type figures. Many have installed LED lights for eyes in the dragons and have various arrays of flashing light displays in there too. I assume these are to attract the attention of the spirits as they cruise around, as there is so much competition for it. All of these things are secondary to the offerings placed inside to impress / dedicate to the spirits. In one store, they had fresh custard apples, bottled spring water and incense burning. A nice healthy offering for your health conscious guardian angel. In the next, the spirit house spread consisted of 2 cans of coke, 2 cans of beer and a pack of cigarettes. I know where I’d choose to hang out and reward with good fortune. If I got bored of that one I may visit the store around the corner with a row of shots on offer (I’m not kidding) and a watermelon (I assume to mix up a vodka melon) along with a 5 inch high bundle of fake $100 USD bills. As I mentioned, I’m unsure (ignorant) of even the religion behind these shrines, but I like the sound of a higher being that isn’t above a little bribery, drinking and smoking.

Hue

Travel from Hoi An to Hue was a reminder that it takes a extraordinarily long time to move via road (compared to Australia). It took 3 hours to go just over 100kms, of course, not helped by the 30 minute stop for lunch (always included because the driver gets a free feed and a kickback if they stop the tourist bus at their friends’ restaurant). A stop for fuel that would have taken a couple of minutes, was much longer as the incentive for stopping there for the driver was free tea for him (we weren’t long past lunch) and a bus wash. The fuel was in and done before he sat down, yet we all sat in the bus for another 10 – 15 minutes and watched him have 2 cups of tea (yes he got a refill), a cigarette while his bus got washed. Of course it was raining at the time so when we arrived, the bus was dirtier than before anyway. That’s just Asia really.

We’ve come to Hue primarily to visit the DMZ, the most heavily bombed stretch of Vietnam in the war. There are still areas in the DMZ (many in fact) where unexploded ordinance is lying around in ridiculously exposed areas. I found a mortar shell sitting by the side of the road. Even though you know that if the scrap metal scavengers haven’t touched it, it means they’re scared of it, which means you should be really scared of it, I still had the urge to play with it (I obviously didn’t in the end because I’m here to write this).

Our choices to do the tour were via bus in a group or with a private car. As the bus tour is approx 13 hours due to the driving involved, we went flash and got a private car and guide (still not very expensive) which turned out to be excellent. Our guide explained the story behind the Vietnam war (they call it the American war here) better than anything we’d read to date (which cleared a lot of questions up) and we got so much more out of the sights than we would have. We went to Khe Sanh Combat base (now mostly a coffee and pepper plantation with a small museum and collection of war machinery), some landmarks on the famous Ho Chi Minh trails, The Vien Moc tunnels (excellent), the Doc Mieu Fire Base (where I found the mortar round, along with many others around a field and a rusting tank body) and the bridge over the Ben Hai River.

Khe Sanh Museum

Old Choppers at Khe Sanh

I like the story behind the bridge. Prior to the American war starting, Vietnam had been at war with the French (they have had a lot of wars which is why ‘the Vietnam war’ isn’t too descriptive here). When the French left, two political parties were fighting for control of the country. Communists under Ho Chi Minh in the North and Anti Communists (ARVN – Army of the republic of Vietnam) under Ngo Dinh Diem in the south. It was decided by the two parties, while the French got themselves out of the country, and everything settled down, that they would split Vietnam into the North and South for two years, after which there would be a general election to choose between the Communists and the Anti-Communists and the country would be re-united. The country was split at approx the 7th parallel, which is pretty much the middle and matches up with the Ben Hai River. A bridge was built across the river at the point that the parallel intersected it. Under this system, anti-communists naturally migrated south and communist backers migrated north to support their respective parties. I’m not sure why creating two distinct ‘sides’ was ever seen as a good move to create a unified country, and history obviously now says it wasn’t.

The bridge turned into a pissing contest between the North and South during the two years of separation. There was a white line across the middle and either side could do as they pleased to their half. The south, wanting to be different to the North, painted their half of the bridge a different colour (originally I think they painted theirs yellow as opposed to the North’s red). The North wanted the country to appear unified, so they would paint their half to match, so the south would paint their side again, and repeat frequently for two years. Each side also had a flag pole next to the bridge. It was unacceptable to have a smaller flag pole or flag than your opposites, so every time a new one was constructed by either side, the other would promptly build a bigger one. The last bit of this little contest was done with speaker stacks. The area around the bridge became particularly noisy as the north and south each erected towers of speakers to blast the other side with propaganda, naturally upgrading them all of the time. Some of these stacks still remain, although many are now full of bullet holes. This type of story is of course still played out all over the world by men with stereos, but they are now in cars and home theatres, and are not often used to promote communism.

Ben Hai Bridge Today

Speaker (complete with bullet holes) and a stack still standing by the river in the background

In a nutshell, after the two years was up, no election was held as the south realized it didn’t have the numbers, and in an effort to get control of the country, their leader started talking to the yanks about receiving some support, the USA didn’t exactly need their arm twisted to get involved in fighting some communists, and away they went.

• my apologies to those who know better for any inaccuracies, but that’s the basic story as I heard it / can now remember it.

I only relay this information because Kylie and I were vague about the whole American/Vietnam War story and found it interesting to have it clarified, and I like the story about the bridge.

The Vien Moc Tunnels were probably the best stop of the day. These were constructed by local villagers just a little north of the Ben Hai River in response to the constant bombing of the area by the US airforce and navy. There are approx 2km of tunnels dug into the clay, up to 25m below the surface running from the hills to the beach front. The great thing is that they have been basically left as they were in the 60s and 70s and not mucked with for the sake of tourists (apart from a little soft lighting). During the war, 350 or more villagers lived in these tunnels, 17 babies were born underground there and they were used to help the north army move supplies and arms to a nearby island and south across the river. We walked through approx 500 metres of the tunnels. They are surprisingly spacious (for tunnels), up to 1.9m tall, of course I still had to duck the whole way. There were very small alcoves along the tunnels that were allocated to a family each as a bedroom / home room. The biggest chamber in the system (maybe 2 metres wide and high and 10 metres long) was used as a meeting room and even to show movies on a projector donated by Australians. The ground above is covered in bomb craters but none of the tunnels ever collapsed, probably as the ground is clay and very solid (and the tunnels are all fairly deep).

Tunnel Entrance by the beach

Underground Meeting Hall

Back from the DMZ, we had a little time to walk around Hue. It’s the old capital of Vietnam, so has a huge citadel with an outer and inner wall, a moat and various palaces etc. inside. Most of the population of Hue still live inside the walls also, I don’t know the dimensions of the walls but they are obviously big.

Hue Citadel

Bridge Into the Citadel

Traffic through the Walls

Hanoi

From Hue, we flew up to Hanoi, where we got to spend nearly 24 hours (not helped by the 3 hour delay in our flight). This basically left us enough time to do the self guided walking tour out of the lonely planet in the few hours of daylight that we had left, eat, sleep, pack and go back to the airport. What we did see of Hanoi was a city moving with a massive amount of energy, especially in the central old quarter where we were staying. Very interesting actually, especially watching the lady at the markets cut up a frog carcass with a pair of cleavers, turning it into prime leg meat ready to cook in a few seconds. We have run out of time in Vietnam this trip, and made the decision to spend as much time in the south as we could and do what we wanted to do there, and leave the North for another time.

Hanoi Street (Old Quarter)

Hanoi Street (Old Quarter)

Cyclos In a line running a tour

I though it was meant to be Duck Duck Goose?

The Local Fresh Food People

Next stop, Macau. Time for me to win back the cost of our trip.

Written by Kylie

Hoi An Vietnam

Rob is sick now.

I seemed to have recovered from my episode – yesterday was a little touch and go, but I managed to eat and keep it down – I stuck to ‘safe foods’ ie: cornflakes, vegetarian spring rolls. Rob on the other hand – feeling invincible (and wanting to try all the local fare), had a 5 course dinner at one of the local (although fairly reputable) eateries. At least 3 of his 5 courses had shrimp – I think that may have been the start of the downfall – although he was ok until he woke up at about 1am – and that was 2 pints, a mojito , a banana pancake and 6hrs later. But he isnt doing too bad - more just feeling a little viral than anything else - a much different experience than mine.

We were thinking of cycling to the beach today – about 4km away – but considering Robs condition, and the fairly fair weather we will probably stick close to the hotel. We also have some fittings at the tailors here. I’m still unsure why I buy stuff at tailors overseas as I am rarely happy. I think I would be better at it if I had an ounce of creativity – but when the clothes arn’t premade, even looking at a picture I can’t seem to get the fabrics, colours etc right. But I did go to one of the more expensive tailors to get a couple of dresses made for some of the numerous weddings I have this year – they were expensive for Hoi an, but probably quite cheap for Australian shopping (especially if the silk is actually silk – which it should be from this place). Robert finally got his hibiscus print suit made – in board-short material. He had to go to a cheaper place to get this done – it looks quite good considering what it is – I think the bright blue hibiscus print distracts you from anything else. I did try to get a strapless top made in matching fabric – but I knew that would be a disaster from the get go. I knew it was going to be well beyond the skill levels of the sweat shop workers – she did nod when I said ‘boning’, but I still knew at the time that it wasn’t going to happen.

We have also been amused here by a number of package tour groups. The city is quiet until about 10ish when the buses from the resorts all ship in. When the groups all descend on the old town its like a circus - some have a flag they follow, others have big name badges (with names and countries), some have matching hats or shirts and we even saw a group today where all the women were wearing the same dress and had a business card of their resort/tour group stapled to their shirts (kind of like 'if found please return to...').

As an aside - Tom and Monique you guys would love this place – great hotels and resorts, beach, culture, food (avoid the shrimp) and the tailors all have Asian/ Japanese prints and embroideries and toggles as standard. They also have a lot of things with dragonflys and butterflies. I think I’ve barely walked past a shop without saying ‘Tom would love that.’

Now we are trying to figure out if our luggage space/ weight allowances are going to be ok for our remaining flights – Hong Kong to home will be ok but it’s the Air Asia flights that will be the problem – they love to charge enormous amounts for excess baggage. Its hard to believe that in 10days time we will be heading home – its gone so quickly, but also seems like ages since we have been home.

Travel From 4th to 7th

After arriving with relief in Na Trang from our bike trip, we’ve spent the last couple of days in and around town. It’s a really nice beachside city with big parks and public areas between the beach and the road. We splurged on a 30 USD room, which bought us something on the seventh floor, with a balcony, across the road from the beach. A special touch was the eighties décor – lilac walls, pink bedcovers with lime curtains, nice.

The View From Our Room

We were booked to join a boat trip to go and snorkel etc. but Kylie was struck down, we think by some dodgy undercooked eggs, and has unfortunately spent the last day and a half in bed. The girl at our hotel was sympathetic for a minute when I asked her to cancel the trip, until she realized it was non-refundable and grabbed the ticket for herself and a friend, made her week I think. I also ended up cancelling our 12 hour night bus for last night (probably a bit much for someone feeling unwell) and booked us a flight this morning up to Hoi An. A little luxurious I know and it breaks our overland trip but it was cheap enough and much more comfortable for Kylie.

So far we’ve had a wander around the old town and like the feel of the place. Hoi An is one of the only towns to retain some heritage after the war as it wasn’t bombed, so it’s been listed as a world heritage site. Cars aren’t allowed in the old town area (unfortunately motorbikes still are) and the buildings seem nicely looked after. The biggest tourist industry is clothing, there are something like 500 tailor and shoe making stores. A big plus that I’ve discovered is draught beer for 4000 dong (around 30 cents) by the river.

Hoi An

Written By Robert
Travel from 3rd to 4th

After writing the last blog on the bus to Dalat (we were told it is a 6hour trip), we arrived late in the day as trip ended up taking around 8 ½ hours. Dalat is very different to the other parts of Vietnam and Asia that we have encountered this trip. It is more reminiscent of an alpine village than anything else. The temperature was pleasantly cool as the town sits at 1500m above sea level, has European style buildings, a nice lake in the middle of town, lots of flowers and pine trees etc. It was a shame that we didn’t really allow any time here, apart from the afternoon we thought we’d have before the bus ran late. The purpose for the detour up the hill is so that we could ride down it again on mountain bikes the next day.

We had pre-booked and paid for the trip already but very nearly had it cancelled on us as they had no guides available. They ended up pulling one off a team building day when we went to rebook elsewhere (because they really didn’t want to refund us) and we were good to go early the next morning.

The total distance to Na Trang, our destination, is around 120 – 130kms, we were to cycle approx 75kms of this. Accompanying us was a guide also on a bike, and our driver in a van as support. At any stage if we needed a break or some sustenance, we could use the van, and at least I can say that neither of us gave up and jumped in the van.

The starting section was about 40kms out from Dalat and was a little undulating, which wasn’t too bad a start. At around the 15km mark, we had to go up, and up, and up. We climbed for around 4kms and it was tough. I got up the whole way cycling and Kylie had to get off and push the bike up the last little bit but made it too (without hoping in the van) . At the top we were actually in the clouds.

The good news and reward for our effort was then 15k of road that dropped us from 1600m to nearly sea level through some really beautiful scenery. The decent was the most enjoyable bit of the day. At the bottom, we had a shock to our systems, as the temperature was probably 15 degrees warmer, and a lot sunnier, than when we were up in the clouds.

looking back up the hill to where we started our decent

Lunch was at a roadside restaurant but was self catered by our guides. There was a menagerie of animals there to keep us a little amused (monkeys, chickens, pigs, dogs, a weasel). Very cute pet monkeys.

Getting back on the bikes to complete the last 15-20kms was hard. The seats were suddenly more uncomfortable, it was much hotter and our legs really didn’t appreciate the hills. It was with some relief that we reached the finishing point and completed the last portion of the trip to the beach in the van. I haven’t conveyed Kylies sentiments at the time (which weren’t that kind) of the whole adventure but I think that we both agree it was a highlight of our trip so far and appreciated the area far more than if we were sitting in a bus.

On the Bus (Again) to Dalat

We’ve both enjoyed Ho Chi Minh City, and not just because it’s cheaper than the previous couple of countries (Our budget has actually been adhered to even with us shopping a bit!). It’s too easy to add a bit of excitement to your day by simply attempting to cross one of the many busy roads. The trick is to pretend there are no bikes (although there are thousands) and just avoid getting hit by cars, trucks and buses. Everything else smaller than that goes around you, it’s good fun.

Kylie has also discovered the wonders of a good bowl of Pho Bo. It’s basically the Vietnamese national dish (rice noodles, bean sprouts, bit of other green stuff, beef in a soup) and I took her to one of the best places to get it first up. I think our next three meals after that were also Pho.
Ho Chi Minh is a very contrasting city. There are areas just bustling with activity, a very noisy mix of bicycles, cyclos, bikes, cars, trucks & people all trying to share the road. No one really looks when merging or changing lanes, they just listen for a honk to tell them someone else is there, and there always is, hence the noise. It’s a great system to watch and get involved in, and amazingly seems to work despite what you initially think. The inner city is super refined compared to most other areas. Downtown is where you’ll find Prada, the Sheraton (and all the other 5 stars), Louis etc. etc. in air-conditioned boutiques, wide park filled avenues and a reduced traffic flow. It’s really very nice but clearly we weren’t staying in this area (district one) on account of affordability and it being a little too gentrified for our style. The backpacker area was much more our style and more importantly, the beer and Pho were much cheaper there.

We did actually do a couple of things apart from play in the traffic, drink beer and eat Pho in ho Chi Minh (although you could do just that). As mentioned above, we went shopping in the busy Ben Tanh market and bought Vietnamese conical hats (I’m sure these will feature in future photos) and visited the war remnants museum. This museum has all manner of military equipment incl tanks and a Huey chopper parked out front and is basically dedicated to detailing the horrible things that the Americans did during the war from a Vietnamese point of view, including a couple of malformed fetuses floating in a tank that were a result of Agent Orange exposure and a lot of very graphic images of people killed from all manner of bombing and napalm attacks. Possibly not for the easily offended.

Now on the way out of town, there are many contrasts again. On either side we have been passing shipyards, bus depots, crane yards and all kinds of industrial workshops, it’s a fairly dirty area. Amongst this, wherever they can, there are green areas. In the median strip, open areas between roads etc contain perfectly manicured lawns and gardens. There are teams of people looking after these areas and are kept busy watering, mowing and pruning. Every bush is shaped, mostly into balls etc. but we have passed an excellent looking dragon and a herd of water buffalo, all made out of shrubs. It’s been an interesting city.

Next stop is Dalat up in the hills, where we spend one night before jumping on mountain bikes and riding down approx 80kms to the coast, which I have been looking forward to for a while (before we left home). Cheers.