Triple H: Hue,Hanoi and into Halong Bay

HUE


Hue is the historical capital of Vietnam. Its right on the river, dominated by the old city known as the Citadel. The Citadel is fortified by surrounding walls and it spreads across more than 5km squared.  Inside of the imperial city lie the remains of the purple forbidden    city, which was reserved for the private life of the Nguyem emperor and his family. 


For us, Hue was a more of a stop over so we had about 5 rushed hours to see the Citadel. Parts of it were beautiful and majestic, it was easy to picture royalty walking around the gardens;  others were too beaten and in ruins to truly get a sense of what had been there. Their plan is to restore the whole place back to what it was, but im sure this will take more than a few years.

HANOI

Our fist day in Hanoi was hot, really really hot and humid. Our main purpose was to find a tour company to be able to do an overnight trip to Halong Bay. Other than that all we did was force ourselves to walk around the city, after all, every captial city is at least worth a browse around ;). It was too hot to enjoy it though... im pretty sure my favourite part of the day was walking into a store that had AC... im horrible i know....

The city was nice, with parks, markets and lots of nice restaurants.  But we only had a small glimpse of it as we booked an overnight boat tour for the next day to Halong Bay.

Hội An

Hội An means "peaceful meeting place" , what better description? It is a beautiful city and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999. It is an extremely well preserved South East Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries.The streets are filled by yellow and white one to two story houses decorated with colorful lanterns and flowers.We got in early morning and found a nice place to have breakfast by the river. As we were leaving to go back to the hostel all the stores started opening; turns out you can get dresses, shoes, jackets and anything you want tailor made for incredibly cheap prices!! the girls and I ended up spending the the morning shopping.... it was hard not to stop at every store. If I had room in my back I would have gotten  an entirely new wardrobe made...oh well.

By the afternoon we decided to give shopping a break, rented motorbikes and went to explore the marble mountains. The marble mountains are comprised of five limestone outcrops  in isolation from the surrounding plains. Each mountain represent one of the five elements of the universe: water, wood, fire, metal and earth. The main mountain (which is the one we climbed) represents water. Small caves with altars were scattered at the top, joined by a path that seemed more like a labyrinth. After going through a secret passageway and climbing up the slippery raw marble, we got to the higherst point. The ocean was visible revealing the soon-to-be-built resorts all along the coastline. We left and went to the beach for sunset, where we were offered a mat to sit on and drinks. Played cards as we watched the hundreds of locals haning out and swimming. The sunset was spectacular and the river of people just added more character to the dramatic scenery.

The next morning we rented bicycles to seer more of the city. The day was beautiful,not one cloud in the sky, but that also meant that it was extremely hot. Before we surrendered to cold beer we got a chance to see the market, the old bridge and the riverside. Afterwards, we biked to the beach to go for a refreshing swim. Later that night we had dinner at a typical restaurant and then went around eating random streets pastries with Tan as the experts took night photos. At night everything looks magical, everyone comes  out and all the colorful laterns are turned on, and the boats slowly drift in the calm river. 

NAHTRANG

 Ever since Kong Lor cave i had kept in contact with Dan and Tan, but our timing was a little off, in Vietnam we were finally able to work it out. At the time, they were also traveling with an Italian couple, Tuli and Mateo. On our first day together we went to Vinpearl, a massive Hollywood-style water park. It was a blast! Spent the whole morning on the watersides, lunch at the gorgeous too-perfect-to-be-true white sandy beach, and the afternoon at the roller coasters. They even had a roller coaster where you drove your own cart warning "any damages to other vehicles are your responsibility", translation: do not brake ;).  The sunset was beautiful and the night fell upon us as we rode on the cable car over the ocean. Went back to freshen up and enjoyed a delicious feast of fresh seafood.

The next day we rented bikes to go check out a couple of waterfalls. This calls for motorbike accident #2... it was quite embarrassing actually .. i braked too fast with the front brake...minor scratch. We ended up squishing into two bikes, Asian style ;). The scenery along the was was picture perfect, fishing villages on the ocean, mountains inland, and boat-shaped trees along the median. We managed to find the path to the waterfall at the end of a dirt road. After a sweaty 10 minute walk we were at the first pool. Went for a refreshing swim; there were lots of rocks to jump from and you could go behind the waterfall itself into a mini cave. Dan and I went to explore the rest of the pools, the path got a bit rough, long jumps from rock to rock and steep climbs but worth it after all. By 2pm we were getting hungry and there was nothing around the waterfalls, so we left in search for a restaurant. We thought that the fishing village would maybe have some fresh seafood...silly us. There were no 'real' restaurants... we wondered around the dusty streets being greeted by curious smiles. Dan, Mateo and I settled for a green concoction, a sort of porridge with ground meat, while Tuli and Tan found a little place that had noodle soup and bread. We all sat on tinny plastic stools with the elder lady that owned the stand. It was one of those experiences that stick with you.

Back in town we went for a walk along the beach and into the night market. We found a fancy sushi place and decided to splurge a little. It was well worth the $10 :p. Went out for drinks, mostly free or happy-hour ones and then had a couple of pool matches at one of the bars.

The last day started nicely, I woke up early and went for a run along the beach. Back at the hostel got packed up and we had a bit of an issue with the manager, which scaled fast and furiously. We were trying to pay but he was overcharging us for the rooms, using an outdated currency conversion. He refused to give us our passports back ... days before, Mateo and Tuli had some money stolen, he was also trying to charge us extra to leave our bags for the day ... it almost turned into a fight, we almost called the police... in the end, we stormed out of the with all of our belongings. We were homeless and our bus didn't leave until later in the evening... thankfully we had made friends with the owner of a nearby restaurant where we had breakfasts every day and he let us leave our bags there until our bus came. Spent the rest of the day at the beach, relaxing an playing cards and then Tuli Tan and i went shopping for a bit.  When the bus came to pick us up they shoved 14 of us with packs and everything in a minivan to the bus station.... it was like they were trying to see how many backpackers could fit in a minivan.... but the ride was only 10 minutes so no big deal. The bus was a sleeper, and the 5 of us got the whole back of the bus. The seats went all the way to a horizontal position, it was pretty comfy. We payed a mini game of risk and then i quickly passed out.

SAIGON

as soon as the bus stopped i ran out and hopped on the fist motorbike i found. What I didn't know was that there is a population of 10 million people and 8 million motorbikes. The driver was out of his mind! We were going extremely fast and into traffic. He swore at pedestrians and vehicles on his way. I had my big pack, the guitar a bag and my small day pack... but managed to make it out alive. To top it off, the hostel i was looking for was closed so i was forced to wonder around the streets homeless haha. With some help i found a hostel down a narrow alleyway. The owner was a very nice Chinese lady. She gave me the penthouse ;) i had my own 2 story balcony and everything.

Had some really good Pho for breakfast and shortly after, i met a cyclo diver who offered to take me around for the day. A cyclo is pretty much a wheelchair with a bicycle behind it. Mr Lung introduced himself showcasing a news article with his picture on it. I liked him from the start. He looked wise, or at least he seemed so by the look in his eyes and the shape of his beard. He knew a lot about the city and he told me about the corruption that goes on and how the police gets everything foe free otherwise threatening small businesses.




Fist stop was the war museum. We all know that there was a Vietnam war in the 1970's & that the US was involved, but that's the extent of it. This museum opened up a world of suffering an cruelty right before my eyes. Unnecessary tortures and gore filled the walls... dragging people behind tanks, taking pictures with body part of the dead. American soldiers killed many innocent children and women, wiping out entrire villages. Then, when i thought it couldn't get worse, I learned about agent orange. This chemical was used to get rid of the food supplies of the enemy, however, it had devastating after effects. Generations of people with missing limbs, deformities, cancer and skin diseases. All those who came in contact with the chemical were affected in one way or another. To this day, people are still being born with deformities. The pictures and stories were heartbreaking.

Second stop was the Notredame cathedral and the post station. Both very picturesque and well conserved.

Stop number three was an artisan shop where i got the see the whole process of Thai traditional art. There where three types: egg shell, nacar, paint.

Before we got to stop number four we drove by the waterfront with modern buildings, sky scarpers all around. One of them even had a helicopter landing platform! We got to our stop which was a bonsai garden right on the lake. There were shaped in all sorts of shapes, and the oldest was 100 years old. It was really pretty specially because there were lots of butterflies fluttering around us.


Last stop was the antique market. We waled around as he showed me various relics, female Buddhas, items from ship wrecks and more.

Next day i had booked a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels but first we went to a the Cao Dai temple. It was quite strange through. It was the a mix of fluorescent pinks and yellows with incredibly detailed designs and all sorts of icons. Cao Dai is a fusion of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism with a tinge of Christianity and Islam. It is a very new religion or sect founded in the 1920's as the answer to the ultimate ideal religion. At noon, the service started and the followers came out in organized rows all dressed in white. Females on the left and males on the right. The sat and bowed in tune. The temple was surreal and so was the ceremony, it was hypnotizing, the ying and the yang, the weird symbols hidden among the walls... the whole experience leaves you more confused than when you went in.

After lunch we went to see the Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels are a form a huge underground network and they are spread out through the whole country. They were located at strategic location for the war and they were use as a hiding spot as well as communication and supply routes, and hospitals. Many believe the tunnels where the key to success. Life in the tunnels was extremely difficult due to the lack of air, food and water. Often there were infested with ants, scorpions, poisonous centipedes and vermin. The people would only come out at night but often, they would be forced to remain underground for days or even weeks at a time. This caused sickness and skin diseases as mold began to grow on their bodies. First we watched a video which was meant to be very serious but talked about warriors that got awards for being great "killers of Americans" ... the entrance to the original tunnels was tinny, no idea how they could fit in there. We got a chance to try them out. The northern Vietnamese hid in these tunnels for 9 years, i barely lasted 5 minutes... some parts were so small i had to go on my stomach and pull through. The feeling of claustrophobia was overwhelming. The guide also showed us different traps, the Vietnamese were very resourceful and recicled all sorts of materials to make their weapons , mainly using scraps from enemy ammunition. They used their hunting knowledge to set up traps, horrifying.

A JOURNEY INTO VIETNAM THROUGH THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

I knew that the border I was about to cross was remote, just not to what extent. I got in a minivan along with 8 Vietnamese peole and loads of random merchandise. We were stopped at various police checks, at some, the main lady gave them money. She was dressed in a matching pink outfit with yellow flowers. She had long gloves on, a hat and one of those masks they use here to cover their mouth from the dirt. Weird…

The immigration itself was very easy. A few stamps and I was in Vietnam. The van dropped me off at the Pleiku bus station by 11 am. No one in that town spoke any English and I had no Vietnam currency (dong). Fortunately, they let me pay with American money…phew. Now, the only issue was that the bus didn’t leave till 8pm. 9 hours to waste. Pleiku must not see any tourists because everyone in the bus station was staring at me. Some of them would try to speak to me, but at that time I didn’t even know how to say hi…Fortunately I had the guitar and a book to keep busy. I eventually ventured outside and managed to exchange money with a random vendor to buy some food.

The sunset was gorgeous; most random location for something so beautiful. The bus departed on time, and stopped at 11pm for dinner but I chose not to get off. The guy sitting beside me brought me back a coke. I tried to decline politely but it was of no use. Then, he tried to make conversation. His English was impossible to understand, so he would typed the questions on is phone. It stared like any other convo, where are you from? How old are you? Blah blah blah but then he asked me if I had a boyfriend… I knew better, so I said yes, but he didn’t stop there. He couldn’t understand why my so called boyfriend wasn’t there… and moved on to asking me if I thought Vietnamese boys were beautiful… what was I supposed to say? No? …. After that, I just put my headphones in and went to sleep. I woke up at 2am, fist off, he had covered me with a blanket and secondly, his had was uncomfortably close to my thigh. To top it off he was “asleep” and his head was falling to my side… I was so shaken… I bluntly pushed him towards the window, took the blanket off and moved in my seat until he had moved far enough from me. I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night.