The Last Hurrah

We are now in Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon. It's a bustling busy city with glamorous hotels and shopsm lots of tourists, beautiful French colonial architecture, and Nutella. (Yes, the hazelnut chocolate spread, which we lost in Laos).

We had 1st gone to Nha Trang for a couple of days. It's a small beach town between Hoi An and HCM City. We had managed to escape the rain and clouds that had been following us from Hanoi. After settling in to our 7 USD/ nite hotel, I was completely excited to smell the South China Sea, take my flip flops off, and feel the warm foam on my feet. I was so escited. I was waiting for the beach since.... China. But with the recent typhoons and tropical storms, the waters weren't as blue as we preferred and the waves that crashed onto the shore were huge and very intimidating. Only a few brave souls ventured into the water to throw their bodies into the waves... boys, of course.

We decided to lay out on the rooftop deck of hotel for a little bit, enjoying the sun, trying to even out our horrible tan lines that we've accummulated . I was in heaven, swinging on a hammock, under the hot sun, reading a book, listening to music, with the smell of the sea in the air... all I needed was somebody fanning me with a banana leaf while feeding me grapes (Ellen denied me my request).

That afternoon, we had hired a ride to take us to the Thap Ba Hot springs where we could soak in a bath of mud, take showers in hot spring water, soak in a hot mineral bath, and then swim in a pool of hot mineral water. That was amazing. It was a beautiful sunny day to lie around in a spa, shifting from tub to tub, and just relaxing until my fingers and toes turned into prunes.

Then later that night we went to the Louisiane Brewhouse. It was a beautiful beach side restaurant, with a swimming pool, with tables and beach chairs all over. We decided to splurge and have a fancy dinner to remember Vietnam... and dined on delicious snapper and ginger beer. I loved being on the beach. It totally reminded me of Miami, at the Shore Club. All they needed was house music playing in the background and some beautiful people in designer clothes walking around... and I was in Miami. Haha.

We left Nha Trang the following day because the rain had followed us and ruined our day to sunbathe. But no worries, we will soon be in Thailand.

HO CHI MINH CITY: We arrived in Saigon early Saturday 10 Nov morning. And after settling into our Hotel, Phoenix 74 in District 1, had breakfast, we walked around the city. Saigon is a large city, but everything we wanted to see was nearby. So we walked to see all the French Colonial architecture of the municipal building, the post office, Notre Dame's cathedral, and city hall. We also stopped by Parkson's, a western grocery store, on a quest for Nutella. We left our last jar in Luang Prabang, Laos and have been miserable without it. We paid over 100,000 dong over 6USD for a jar and bought 2. We had spent our budget on that freaking Nutella, but it was worth it.

That night we hung out with some local friends... Tram's-2nd cousin's-friends Chi and Liem and some others took us to dinner and for some drinks afterward at Allez Boo, a backbacker hangout. It was really nice, trying some authentic Vietnamese food (other than the usual Pho) and hanging out. They were very friendly and hospitable.

The following day, we had organized a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels. They're a series of subterranean tunnels where people lived and soldiers planned strategies against the Americans during the Vietnam War. We took a boat to the tunnels, learned a little bit of history about Vietnam and the war and were actually able to walk through original tunnels, which were reconstructed to make them slightly larger to fit the bigger Westerners. Mostly everyone was duck-walking through the tunnels and sweating while trying to walk about 100 yards. But it was easy for me...crouching, not having any real problems. Finally, being short comes in handy. Haha. See the following picture of a tour guide in a Spider hole...

The following day, we had arranged another tour to go to the Mekong Delta, one of the 1000 things to see before you die. It's where the great Mekong River that runs through China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam empties into the South China Sea. So there's lots of different types of fish and foliage that live in the area. It was pretty touristy and it almost felt like I was in a boat ride at the Epcot Center in Disney World for a little bit. It was nice to see how people live in the area.

In a town called Hoi An in Vietnam. After 16 hours of bus rides through rainy Vietnam from Hanoi to Hoi An, I found paradise. It was still rainy and cloudy as we arrived in this small town, but the streets were filled with clothing vendors soliciting you into their stores to get a wardrobe custom designed and fitted for you within a day. So for me, traveling with my backpack and only 2 pairs of shoes, I was definitely in heaven.

Ellen and I had heard all the rumors about getting clothes custom made for you in Hoi An. And we thought we would buy a suit and a coat for interviewing in when we came back from our holiday and entered the real world (ahem, next year). We walked into a couple of stores, looked at fabric, some designs, and compared prices and ended up getting 2 cashmere/ wool suits with an extra skirt, a blouse, and an ivory wool winter coat for $150 USD and done for me in 24 hours. I was satisfied with the purchase, but kept looking into stores as we walked through the streets, sneaking peaks at other materials, designs, and other possible articles of clothing. And as we walked that night to dinner, we got sucked into another store and 2 more blouses, 1 pair of cashmere trousers, a trench coat, and a corduroy fall jacket, I really thought we were done. But alas, today I walked by a shop that made custom shoes and saw a pair of cute leather sandals done for you in 1 hour and thought they would look cute on a beach in Thailand. Ok. Ok. I'm really done. But only because our bus is picking us up to go to Nha Trang in 20 minutes. If I was here for another day, I think I might have added a pair of boots, a pair of sexy heels, and possibly another coat to my collection.

I was unhappy with a fitting yesterday, things not fitting perfectly, collars not looking like they did in the pictures, but with a few alterations, the clothes came out wonderfully. There's nothing like putting on an outfit that was specifically made for you. And I know sandals are sandals, but the cute little leather sandals I got fit the contours of my foot perfectly. The streets are full of backpackers, all of us in flip flops, tank tops, adidas pants, cargo shorts, unkept hair, and just having that "hobo" look. But when we go into a store and try on our custom cashmere suits we're transformed into these powerful, wealthy executives. And now that I think about it, it's probably all a scam... getting the backpackers to look good, at least for a day, in custom made clothes.

Anyway, but other than shopping for clothes, Hoi An is another UNESCO World Heritage city with several beautiful historical temples and sites. It's also full of lantern shops, art stores, and cute little riverfront restaurants.

Check out the Japanese covered bridge...

However, with all the rain hitting Vietnam the last few days, the riverfront had flooded.... In the pic you can see the flooded streets and park benches.

We also visited the central market, a circus of crazy smells, strange foods, kitchen appliances, household goods, and Tiger Balm vendors. And we saw some ladies offering street food... a tasty selection of kidney, liver, and intestines in chili sauce. We opted for pizza.

I half heartedly looked at all the temples and sites of Hoi An. It's so easy to get distracted by the stores with beautiful clothes displayed. Ahhhh.... So now we're headed to Nha Trang, a beach town half way between Hoi An and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)... and finally we get to taste some sun and beach...

So we're finally in Hanoi, Vietnam, after flying from Luang Prabang, Laos. It's completely different here. We had come from sleepy Laos and we had gotten off the plane and were welcomed by the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. It was noisy, polluted, crowded and just full of motorbikes. There are about 3 million people living here but there are about 5 million motorbikes.... crazy. I had flashbacks of China with all the crowds, traffic and noise. But as always, I was excited to be in a new environment. See people eating pho right on the streets, perched everywhere....

We arrived on Halloween and felt pretty disappointed that we weren't going to have a proper celebration. But at Hanoi Backpacker Hostel, there was a party... woooppeee!!! And even though we didn't stay there cuz it was booked, they invited us to join their festivities.

It was full of backpackers with homemade costumes. I had talked to "Frosty the Snowman" and he was wearing some styrofoam outfit with an orange carrot shaped nose and a black cardboard top hat. He said he had found it on the street. Funny. We celebrated on the rooftop of the hostel and had food and Beer Ha Noi (not as good as Beerlao) and mingled with people from all over. What I've noticed, being here for a few days, is that there aren't any American backpackers, except Ellen and I. Everyone's from England, Germany, France, Ireland, or Australia. It's kinda funny and strange... where are my fellow Americans??? But we were amidst the backpacker crowd and comforted to be in a friendly environment during Halloween. Playing Halloween party games, drinking, eating, socializing.... listening to everyone's stories and finding out we're all on our way to the Full Moon Party in Thailand around the 24th. So apparently, we'll be seeing these people again from city to city, hitting up the same towns by bus or train and seeing the same sights. It's kinda nice seeing a familiar face from one town to the other and hearing about their experiences in between.

Here's a pic of the Halloween party... of the Magic Mushroom and Frosty the Snowman. BTW, Frosty won for Best Costume.

On our 2nd day in Hanoi, we did a pow wow of sight seeing. We made arrangements for a trip to Halong Bay, bought our on and off bus ticket that will take us on a journey of 5 stops on our way to Saigon, and then skipped around town seeing the Presidential Palace, the Temple of Literature (an old university dedicated to Confucius), Uncle Ho's Mausoleum (that we didn't see cuz we had already seen Mao's Mausoleum in China and one embalmed communist leader is enough), and the One Pillar Pagoda (a temple built on one pillar, as if you couldn't tell by the name). Later that night we saw the famous Water Puppet show... a puppet show with traditional Vietnamese music of puppets dancing around in murky water. The water hides the strings and mechanics of the puppets. It was interesting and fascinating for the 1st 5 minutes, then my ADHD kicks in and I'm done.

HALONG BAY: We had taken a 2 day/ 1 nite trip to Halong Bay. It's another UNESCO World Heritage sight and is actually being nominated to be one of the 7 natural wonders of the world next year. It's a bay of a radius of 1000 kilometers filled with over 2000 limestone cliffs jutting out of the water. Legend has it that it was dragons sent to protect the Vietnamese from foreign invaders. It is a remarkable site and was very beautiful. The sun peeked out for a couple of hours and gave us a few good pictures, but it hid again, and we haven't seen the sun since. We walked through some caves, had lunch on the boat, went kayaking through some rocks, and just hung out. We met some other travelers, which was nice and spent the night exchanging stories, playing cards, the whole spiel... We all slept on the boat that night and it was pretty eerie... docked in the middle of a bay, pitch black darkness enveloping you... but peaceful in a way.

The next day, we spent the whole day getting back to shore and then bussed back into Hanoi, where we checked back into our hostel, The Queen's Salute (Hanoi Spirits) and negotiated a price for our room. We were going to pay 3 USD each but opted for 5 USD to get satellite tv... we needed some homey comforts and HBO was one of them. Haha! We then met Benson, Tram's cousin, who's from Oklahoma and is now living in Hanoi teaching English. He's been nice enough to give me some pointers about the Hanoi and took us out for dinner and drinks in the Old Quarter.

Today, Sunday, 11 Nov, we'll be on our way to Hue/ Hoi An by bus. We spent the morning mailing our souvenirs from Laos home. It'll be home by January/ February... I'll give my gifts out then. Then went to the museum of Ethonolgy and saw some of the rich culture and history of Vietnam. We saw great exhibits recreating ancient living quarters depicting the origins of Vietnamese lifestyle. It was pretty fascinating. One thing, in particular, was a recreation of several wooden carvings of men and women in provacative (no, perverse) positions to encourage fertility and procreation.... see the following pic.

So we're off again... down to Hoi An. It's known as the place where you can get anything made... all types of clothes, even shoes. They measure you, and sew to your specifications, doing it for you within a day. I'm excited to shop. Yay, a new adventure begins...