HA LONG BAY

  

Okay, I know it has been a while since my last post but this is a story that I must tell from beginning to end. Ha Long Bay was one of the highlights of my trip and though touristy it was majestic and beautiful beyond words.  It is one of those places that you cannot expect to have all to yourself as it is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It has more than 3000 limestone karsts and islands that align the 120 km coastline.  The legend tells that the Vietnamese asked the gods for a dragon to protect them and help them fight the foreign invaders from the north. The gods sent a mother dragon with her baby which descended into what is now Ha Long Bay. The dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. Upon hitting the sea, these jewels turned into islets dotting the sea and forming a barrier against the invaders. The dragons fell in love with the bay for its peace and beauty and decided to stay and live there for the rest of time.

We left from Hanoi in the morning, the bus unnecessarily stopped at a tourist shop for about 45 minutes... it’s just one of those things they do to tourists...but we made it to the bay by noon. There are around 1500 boats that operate on the bay, so the port was packed beyond belief. There were all sorts of boats, thankfully ours was one of the best ones! There were 14 of us in total, sundeck, dining room, AC double rooms with private bathroom, and a covered deck with tables. It was perfect. After a couple of hours we had our first stop: Surprising Cave. The cave had colorful light displays of rock formations each with a hidden meaning.  We came out of the cave and went kayaking to explore the surroundings. As the sun started setting we went to an island where we climbed to the highest point (a good climb I must admit) and got to an incredible lookout point. Back on the boat we had dinner and played cards as the stars came out. All of a sudden, a storm begun to unravel, and the once still waters swayed the boat from side to side. Maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but it did thunder and it was ... amazing. 

  

We had set up our alarms for sunrise but by the time we got up the sun was already out... I spent the rest of the morning on the sundeck, enjoying the view, the breeze and the sun. Around noon i started feeling sick... the world was spinning. Motion sickness hit me as i stepped off the boat, how ironic. For the rest of the day I felt like a walking zombie and I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything. Our day wasn’t over through, we were planning on going to Cat Ba Island all on our own (without a tour) but  our current tour guide wasn’t very helpful when we asked about it. He made it seem like taking the public ferry was almost impossible but we knew it could be done. We were the only non Vietnamese people on the ferry along with Heloise. I was  so sick that I just sat there with my head buried between my hands hoping for it to pass... after an hour and a bit we reached land! Once we had made it to the other side of the island we rented motorbikes, filled the bikes with beers and ice (long story short we had a 24 pack of beer that we had been carrying for the past day because we weren’t allowed to drink it on the boat) and set off to find a quiet beach. We stopped by the side of the road and found the perfect beach. Went for a swim in the oh so very warm water and had a refreshing beer. The sun started going down so we got back on the bikes and chased the sun along the coast line. Unfortunately Heloise got a flat tire and we were in the middle of nowhere... fortunately everyone in Vietnam has motorbikes so there was a little place that fixed bikes nearby. Heloise went to get her money and cell from the trunk but they were missing!  Someone must have opened her bike when we were at the beach :s Yikes. Once all issues were solved we found a place to stay at the main beach and went to get dinner.  Some “Fried Crap spring rolls” anyone?

The next morning we stocked up with some more beer (the cooler idea really stuck) and headed to the national park which is located in the middle of the island. The day was smoking hot, 38 degrees, 90% humidity... you could imagine that the 40 minute UPHILL hike,  felt like 4 hours of hell.  At the end of the path there was a tall tower that looked somewhat trusty. I made my way up the rusty steps as Tuli had a heart attack. As we say in Canada, YOLO right? Haha. The wind was so refreshing, the forest bright green, the ocean in the distance, try to take it all in.   

On the way back we stopped at hospital cave which as the name describes, was a hospital during the Vietnam War. It was quite impressive and intricate with various escape routes and defence strategies. The guide was also interesting as he pulled out his money collection showing us bills from 38 countries!

HANOI

Back in Hanoi we spent our last moments together, its crazy how fast time can go by. The next morning we were all heading to different places, Tan and Dan to Hong Kong, Tuli and Mateo to Laos and I to Nin Binh.  One last dinner, one last round of beers, and many more adventures to come. Sad to split up but knowing that we will meet again someday J .

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. 

BAN LUNG

The bus was hectic, from 6 am until 7pm I sat at the back sandwiched between the locals, the seats didn’t recline and the floor was covered in garbage and fruit peals.  As soon as I stepped foot on land I got swarmed by people offering places to stay at. I couldn’t even move, there were too many of them. All the foreigners of the bus ended up together, all 6 of us got shoved into one tuk-tuk with all of our luggage. When we got to the hostel, Victoria and Fran, two hilarious English girls realized that their passports and bank cards were missing. Instead of freaking out as expected, they joked about it… if that was me I would have gone crazy. I shared a room with Rosemary, a girl from the states. We played a few games of pool on an extra large pool table and had a few beers before calling it a night.

The next morning Rose and I rented a motorbike and set off to see the landscape and find the Beung Yeak Laom volcanic lake. It is a beautiful turquoise lake in the middle of a mountain, and it was formed hundred of years ago by a volcano. It is 800 meters in diameter and 50 meters deep. The water was refreshing but not cold. We met a couple of people and swam around for a couple of hours. We also met a 16 year old Malaysian girl who invited all of us to go clubbing with her hehe. As we were leaving we also met two really cute kids. They ran up to us and were all laughs and hugs. After lunch we tried to search for some waterfalls but the roads were awful so we just went back to the hostel &had another pool match with the English girls who didn’t have any luck as the tourist police closes on Sundays…

The next morning I had booked a 2 day trek. A guy came to pick me up at 8am. He gave me a hammock and 2 big bottle of water to carry. We drove 30 minutes out of town and stopped in the middle of no where. Out of the bush came a young guy who turned out it be my guide. He was only 20 years old but he knew a lot about the minority people, agriculture and the use of different plants in the forest. He also seemed to know everyone that we passed by. We ran into some people washing a pig by a stream, after talking to them he told me that they were preparing feast in honor of someone who had recently passed away. Later on, we passed by a hut where they were making a box like structure out of bamboo. He explained that someone in that family was sick and they were preparing and offering. Once the box was finished they would kill a chicken and place its heart and liver along with some herbs and offer it to the spirits.

The first couple of hours we were walking up and down rolling hills through small villages along a narrow clay path. In front of each hut they had a vegetable garden and either rice, cashew trees, potatoes or eggplants. Chickens and pigs were running around loose. A few meters after the last hut, the forest begun. Lots of flowers blooming under the shade of large trees. The path was almost non existent. We had lunch by a small creak, and an hour later we arrived at a majestic waterfall in the middle of the jungle. We went for a swim. There were no signs of civilization, not one person around. We climbed to the very top, it was about 20 meters high. It was getting late so we had to continue. If it were up to me we would have camped there.

After an hour walk we arrived to another village where we would spend the night. We set our hammocks in a stilted hut which was the village’s meeting house. When someone had an important announcement they would hit a metal ring 7 times and the village would gather. Bing (the guide) got started on dinner singing his heart out as he fried some eggplant. We had various visitors who came by, stared at me and smiled… we ate on a plastic tarp on the floor but the food was surprisingly delicious. As the sun went down the children gathered outside, running around and shooting each other with bamboo guns. The all played together, younger and older, girls and boys.

 I went to bed early but woke up at 11pm, and I really really had to pee. The only problem was that I had no idea where the toilet was and Bing was sleeping. I walked outside trying to keep quiet. The moon was so bright that I through that there were lights outside. I went around the corner in the shade hoping no one would see me but as I was going to do the deed a massive pig woke up and started running towards me. I booked it back inside… lesson learned.

I woke up the next morning at 6, Bing was already making breakfast, veggies and noodles. We started walking at 8ish and after an hour we stopped at an abandoned hut at the edge of the forest. Bing showed me every day items and traps used by the minority people. When we entered the forest the path disappeared completely. I wondered how he knew where we were going, but we surely made it across. As we left the forest it started raining, I don’t know how to describe it but everything was so calm and beautiful under the rain. As we reached the top of the hill I felt like I was on top of the world.

We arrived at his house by noon and he started preparing lunch with his mom. He told me that she has been around during the Khmer Roughe. He also told me about his family and how his younger sister had been killed by a curse. He said younger children are the targets of curses because their spirits are not as strong. At 2 pm the guy from the hostel came to get me. The roads were slippery and that’s when I had my first motorbike accident. We didn’t fall hard but I was covered in clay.

That last night at Ban Lung was fun; I had drinks with the English girls who had finally managed to get a police report. We watched movies on a massive flat screen TV and we saw a gigantic gecko.