2 weeks of vacations in Vietnam !
I had to take vacations ( otherwise I'd lost them, Norwegian regulations ... ) before the end of the year, so I decided in a hurry to go to Vietnam.
I was really in a hurry and I didn't plan anything- I almost didn't left the airport because I didn't know you need a re-entry permit to re-enter Japan.
"Classic Tristan", someone said ;-)
Saigon :
Saigon -or Ho-Chi-Minh city, but the southerners prefers Saigon, the original name of the city before the reunification ) is the capital of Vietnam, a very industrialized economic center.
I haven't much to say about Saigon to be honest, I didn't find it exceptional. Shopping malls, town hall, opera, a few buildings there and there...
There were however a few things outstanding : The number of motorbikes (see pic ), the restaurants ( I had great classic French food
there ;-) ), the reunification palace ( the garden and the photos from the 2 wars were actually the interesting parts, otherwise the building itself is not pretty and the inside not really moving. )
Note : crossing the streets in Vietnam is a dangerous exercise. You have to cross 4 to 8 lanes of intense traffic, with a lot of motorbikes, and there's no lights most of the time (or they served mainly as decoration). You have to not hesiate while you're engaged, as the cars & motorbikes don't stop, they just "plan" where you'll be in a few seconds according to your trajectory and walking speed.
I planed the rest of the trip from there : A 5 days tour in the north, then a flight to the south west on a nice Island. Next stop : Hanoi.
Hanoi is a wonderful mess. Houses piles on top of each other, none of them looking like each other with different styles, colors, and shape. There are plants & trees everywhere, electric & phone cables , and various mess, all entangling in this caricatural ( but accurate ) image you might have from Hanoi or Vietnamese city.
I didn't stay long though, and after a night in a great hotel ( Hotel Prince 2 fyi ) where I got upgraded for free, I left for the Ha-Long Bay.
While waiting I watched a chinese drama ( think "Santa Barbara" ) , dubbed in Vietnamese. It was hilarious !
The taxi dropped me at the harbour,where I met the possibly most annoying Vietnamese person, ever : One of those street seller who harass you until you give them money, but this one was a level 70 persistent street lady.
I said "No" about 30 times (seriously) for her shitty postcards, until I finally gave away. I hate myself for it - and I never felt like wanting to punch someone in the face so hard - and I feel sorry for the next person who will have to meet this persistent witch.
Anywayyyyyyyyy, the ferry trip to the Island of Cat Ba was followed by a motorbike ride (3 on a ridiculously small motorbike, scary experience ! ).
I then proceed to visit the Ha-Long bay.
It was truly 2 magnificent days : Boat trip in the Lan Ha part of the bay, suntanning, swimming, fishing octopus by the night (and eating them right away) , beautiful night sky with stars .
I've been lucky the weather was great, apparently it often rains or get foggy in the bay, be aware of that if you decide to go there.
We also visit fishermen's floating village, had a kayak trip under tunnels and caves that brings you to hidden lakes.
Pictures will tell a lot about it :
That was magic. I really miss Adeline here, :-( , it's a very romantic place I really recommended. ( Edit : At the time I'm putting pictures for this post, I'm not anymore in a couple, but I'd still recommend it highly for others).
Now, a good "What the fuck ??!" moment on my trip back :
We took a taxi boat, actually a small boat driven by two old fishermen.
At one point , the old guy looks at me, smile, pinch my visage on one cheek, then proceed to do the same with my arms, apparently testing the muscles there. And said nothing.
Yeah , WTF.
For a second there I thought I'd end up being sold as a slave for some secret fish factory hidden in the bay !
Speaking of which, my guide told me a very frightening story which happened to him.
He and some friends went for this job in Malaysia, after they read the offer in a newspaper. The job was supposed to be good pay with regards to salary in Vietnam, so they left (trip paid by the company)in order to get "rich" and come back for their family.
However, when they arrived, not only the job was very different from what was advertised ( really, really hard factory work, of his friends actually died after 3 months ), but also the pay was extremely bad (even for Vietnam ).
The thing is, they didn't have enough money to come back to Vietnam, and their contract ran for 3 years ( ! ), so they had to stay until the contract ends so the company will send them back. That's purely and simply slavery.
My guide managed to get out of this hell after several months by fighting with some employees over there and get kicked out from Malaysia for bad behavior.
Scary...
Ha-long, the land part :
I took the ferry back to visit the land part of the bay.
I'd like to quickly tell you about the classic tourist traps and annoyance from Vietnam, through what happened to another tourist while I was there.
Some guy asked for my ticket before I board the boat. Since he wasn't at the entrance of the boat, I didn't listen to him as I was almost sure it was a trap ( I think it was) and boarded the boat without a problem.
Then on the boat, some people gave their tickets to one guy from the staff. I didn't, and it was good for me as the tickets were requested to get out of the ferry station.
Basically they tried to make you pay or three times the price of the ticket. There was a lot of arguing and almost fighting, something you really don't want when you're in vacation ...
Tourist traps are very common in Vietnam, I avoided several of them but fall for some, like when this employee charged me triple so I could change my flight (at the last minute, so you can't check on the website or discuss this) at an official company counter !
Just to be clear, I had a great trip, but those problems are really annoying, basically you always have to be careful and suspicious ( much more than Thailand for instance), it will slightly degrade your experience.
Be careful about your stuff, always keep your ticket, if you rent a motorbike check the gas right away, read online advices and read warnings in the guides, etc
Anyway, the taxi brought me to the city of Tam Coc, in the land part of the Ha Long bay.
After a meal and a night in a nice hotel, where I met a very friendly French family, my guide offered me to join him and his friends for breakfast for a bowl of pig blood and raw intestines.
No I'm not kidding, it's a tradition for the first day of the Lunar month. I politely declined the offer.
We visited the nice surroundings of Tam Coc, a market, the rice fields, and my guide, Long, gave me many explanations about the region and the life there. He also mentioned people were still being buried in the rice field. Yep, your rice grow in water were bodies decomposed. yuk
We proceed to visit a templein Bich Dong, partly built on and inside a cliff. very nice. Long re-explained me the story of buddhism in Vietnam. I was surprised there were so many divinities ( genies etc) in Buddhism.
We then visited the Hang Mua park after a bycicle ride, climb 500 steps, and admired the landscape and the goats who managed to climb in this very unusual place.
wtf:
We went for a boat (?) ride on Trang An river, traveling from lakes to lakes and through 9 (!) caverns.
At one point we met another boat going the opposite direction, filled with women much older than me who were apparently commenting positively about me. I pressed our guide to row faster before I got married in exchange of goats or something.
Finally, we visit the antique capital of Vietnam, Hoa Lu , where I learned even more about the history of medieval Vietnam, and its Kings & Queens.
next stop : Train to Sapa.
Night trains, evenin 1st class, are very shaky and extremely cold, with air conditioning blown on your face. I dreamed I was in Tokyo, and the "Big One" ( this once-in-a-century huge earthquake which will cause a great deal of damage ) was finally hitting us : Building were toppled, and I couldn't stand up because earth was shaking so much.
I woke up suddenly, realizing I was literally jumping on and off on the mattress, due to the train shaking a lot !
I finally arrived in Lao Cai and took a bus to Sapa, which was really cold and foggy.
Sapa is a beautiful mountain area, with splendid rice fields standing along the moutains, and many villages where Vietnam minorities (H'mong noir & Dao red ) live.
I had a nice hike, and spent the night in a villager's house. The food was great (huge wok) , and I had the best nems EVER.
I met Suria , a really fun malaysian girl who lives in London, which made fun of me because I was freezing my ass (come on, it was like 8 degrees outside ! ).
The next day we had more hiking through the mountains and villages.
We met many people from the minorities (they join and walk with tourist and sell them stuff) , ad I walked over a broken wooden bridge which look dangerously unstable, like in the movies :-) Note : I took the pic from another standing point, but I swear I walked on this thing !
We left Sapa in the evening.
After another shaky trip to hanoi, I took a plane to Saigon, then Phu Quoc.
I've spent 6 days swimming, sunbating, and relaxing on the phu quoc Island.
Just when I thought I became invincible to colds ( because I went from very hot Saigon to the ice cold Sapa train, and then Sapa itself, and then back another cold train followed by very hot Saigon again ) , I got one. Oh well, no superpowers after all.
There's quite a lot to tell but I feel a bit lazy so I'll shorten up a bit :
I ended up in a secluded part of the island, in a place called "Freedomland" :-) yeah yeah you probably imagine the hippies hideout and there's a bit of that, but it was absolutely wonderful.
I met really nice and happy people, from various nationalities ( French, Canadian, germans, austrian, swedish etc ) who whom I had an awesome time swimming, sunbathing, riding motorbikes around the Island ( sometimes driving over rather scary bridges mades of branches, sometimes over extremely steep path absolutely not made for scooters :-) ), and finally having dinner & breakfast almost everyday.
The cook, Peter, who's also the "chief" of the camp is a fun and extravagant person who helped everyone with everything and made sure we had a great time. Thanks again Peter if you read this !
I can't recommend Freedomland enough. Make sure you go there at least a few days if you go to Phu Quoc, instead of one of the hotels located around the very touristic beach on the other side of the island.
I also went scuba diving, but while Phu Quoc is one of the best area to dive in Vietnam (or so I heard), it was alright without being fantastic.
Horrible anecdote : I was slightly scared during the dive because I met a guy in Ha-Long who told me his regulator ( the thing on top of the oxygen tank ) broke apart from his bottle during a dive in Vietnam, due to bad equipment !!
Overall, I did more stuff than planned, since my plan was to do absolutely nothing but reading & relaxing for 6 days, but I had a very good time anyway. I have a particularly fond memory of coconut shakes next to the beach, with the sunset...
We had Christmas with amazing food (and raggae music, lol ) and the next day I flew back to Tokyo.
