Friday, August 8, 2008
20 Days in Vietnam
Blogs by their nature tend to be in reverse time order. However, since we are already back from our trip, this blog is going to start at the beginning and move through time in the traditional sequence. You may notice that we take more pictures as we go along. I attribute this mostly to how very hot it was. Dalat was by far the coolest place. (You can make any of the picture bigger by clicking on them.)
Economy Minus
We headed to Dulles Airport with only carry-on bags. We managed to pack Brad's 90 liter and my 75 liter backpacks with only the essentials. In our other carry-on we each had a quart zip-lock bags overstuffed with all the liquids we figured we'd need (along with a whole bunch of extra bags so we would never be caught out at the airport as we flew city to city). Lots of sunscreen and toothpaste, and 4 bottles of 98% deet bug spray ~ after all, we had been warned about the mosquitoes, prescribed malaria meds, offered Japanese encephalitis shots, and told to watch out for Dengue "break-bone" fever.
We dutifully showed our passports and boarding passes, took out our liquids, took off our shoes, and shoved everything through the scanner. We boarded the plane, took our seats in the Economy Minus cabin of the plane, and were off ~ Dulles to LA to Hong Kong to Ho Chi Min City. It did not take us long to realize we had actually landed in Saigon, as all of the locals still refer to the city. Now the adventure really begins!
We dutifully showed our passports and boarding passes, took out our liquids, took off our shoes, and shoved everything through the scanner. We boarded the plane, took our seats in the Economy Minus cabin of the plane, and were off ~ Dulles to LA to Hong Kong to Ho Chi Min City. It did not take us long to realize we had actually landed in Saigon, as all of the locals still refer to the city. Now the adventure really begins!
Saigon
First stop: Madame Cuc's Hotel 127. Their driver picked us up from the airport about 11pm (11 hours ahead of east coast US time) and we had the 45 minute ride of our lives! The traffic of scooters and motorcycles, cars, trucks and buses, bicycles and pedestrians all sharing the road and taking traffic laws as merely a suggestion was a bit of a shock.
This is the view outside our 1st hotel room on our 1st morning. Many views in Vietnam were a juxtaposition of old and new, modern and primitive. Hotel room views didn't matter much in Saigon. It was the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff and overall cleanliness of Hotel 127 which recommends it, and led up to stay there again on our last night in Vietnam.
On our 1st full day in Vietnam, we walked around Saigon markets (mostly the Ben Thanh Market), where I scored a better backpack than I arrived with for only 350,000 dong! That's just about $21 dollars with their exchange rate, and it is a The North Face! We ate pho at Pho Cali, a relatively clean pho joint where President Clinton once ate. Then, because we were still green tourists, we got ripped off by a cyclo driver who would not stand by his agreed upon price to take us to the Ngoc Hoang Pagoda. He agreed on 200,000 dong and then insisted on 400,000 dong. We gave him 300,000 dong in the end. 100,000 dong is only about $6, but when you consider that later in the trip we rented motorcycles for a whole day for 120,000 dong or less, you can see where the rub is. Really that was the worst that happened, so you just have to watch out, and our ego was hurt more than anything else.
They kept tons of small turtles in this pool, and they had a very large one in a very small pool cage.
Then we visited the War Remnants museum. What struck me the most was all the images of the impacts of agent orange. I had no idea that the damage to and lasting impact humans was so great. Below is a statue made from collected shrapnel.
We took pictures from atop the Sheraton Saigon,
(Look, Dad, I got my picture taken in front of the town hall! ~ you can see it in full in the mid/upper right of the pic above)
More pics from the rooftop bar of the Sheraton Saigon:
and ate slightly westernized Vietnamese food near the Reunification Palace. At the restaurant, we were sat at a 4-top, and then they sat a German couple we did not know right at our table with us. This turned out not to be that unusual of a practice.
This is the view outside our 1st hotel room on our 1st morning. Many views in Vietnam were a juxtaposition of old and new, modern and primitive. Hotel room views didn't matter much in Saigon. It was the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff and overall cleanliness of Hotel 127 which recommends it, and led up to stay there again on our last night in Vietnam.On our 1st full day in Vietnam, we walked around Saigon markets (mostly the Ben Thanh Market), where I scored a better backpack than I arrived with for only 350,000 dong! That's just about $21 dollars with their exchange rate, and it is a The North Face! We ate pho at Pho Cali, a relatively clean pho joint where President Clinton once ate. Then, because we were still green tourists, we got ripped off by a cyclo driver who would not stand by his agreed upon price to take us to the Ngoc Hoang Pagoda. He agreed on 200,000 dong and then insisted on 400,000 dong. We gave him 300,000 dong in the end. 100,000 dong is only about $6, but when you consider that later in the trip we rented motorcycles for a whole day for 120,000 dong or less, you can see where the rub is. Really that was the worst that happened, so you just have to watch out, and our ego was hurt more than anything else.
They kept tons of small turtles in this pool, and they had a very large one in a very small pool cage.
Then we visited the War Remnants museum. What struck me the most was all the images of the impacts of agent orange. I had no idea that the damage to and lasting impact humans was so great. Below is a statue made from collected shrapnel.
We took pictures from atop the Sheraton Saigon,
(Look, Dad, I got my picture taken in front of the town hall! ~ you can see it in full in the mid/upper right of the pic above)
More pics from the rooftop bar of the Sheraton Saigon:
and ate slightly westernized Vietnamese food near the Reunification Palace. At the restaurant, we were sat at a 4-top, and then they sat a German couple we did not know right at our table with us. This turned out not to be that unusual of a practice.
Nha Trang
We flew from Saigon to Nha Trang and learned to love Vietnam Airlines. You do not have to take off your shoes or display your liquids in a quart-size zip lock. Oh, and they feed you.
It took our taxi driver a bit to find The World Hotel, and it is almost nothing like its website, but it turned out to be a good place to stay for 5 nights. It is in the Vietnamese tourist section of this beach town, rather than the western section, which turned out to be a great location to learn about the culture. Lots to see and great food.
Our room at The World Hotel
The view from our room included a side street and a "square".
This restaurant was set up on the sidewalk each day for dinner. They appeared to feature steamed duck dishes.
Here's the square, which was very busy most times of the day.
Each morning, we ate breakfast at at a place across the street from our hotel ~ that is, after we had milk coffee and tea from a street vendor around the corner.
Brad went to the IIFET conference at Nha Trang University and I wandered the streets. I followed my nose and the Vietnamese on the street to busy places for lunch and tried my luck at the menu. It was delicious!
The conference had a dinner the 2 nights, and for the other 3 we ventured out. We ended up at Lac Canh all 3 nights, grilling all sorts of marinated meats, seafood, and veggies on a table grill, eating it with rice paper or miscellaneous rice and drinking local beer. Excellent! (Lac Canh is where we got the chicken head served to us on our plate of roast chicken. I saw food on another table that was not on our English translated menu and asked about it. Roasted chicken. Okay, bring us that as one of our dishes...and they did :-)
One night we swam in the ocean for over an hour, as a spur of the moment idea on our walk back from dinner. It is so very very hot that only a few westerners can be found at the beach during the day. The locals only seem to go swimming before breakfast!
On Friday afternoon, Brad and I, along with Brian (a friend from IIFET) rented motorcycles to drive out of town. Brad and Brian rented automanual and I rented an automatic (scooter). We drove out 20 km to the waterfall Suoi Ba Ho, where locals led us up to the top and toted beer in coolers to sell to us. What a great day!
It took our taxi driver a bit to find The World Hotel, and it is almost nothing like its website, but it turned out to be a good place to stay for 5 nights. It is in the Vietnamese tourist section of this beach town, rather than the western section, which turned out to be a great location to learn about the culture. Lots to see and great food.
Our room at The World Hotel
The view from our room included a side street and a "square".
This restaurant was set up on the sidewalk each day for dinner. They appeared to feature steamed duck dishes.
Here's the square, which was very busy most times of the day.
Each morning, we ate breakfast at at a place across the street from our hotel ~ that is, after we had milk coffee and tea from a street vendor around the corner.
Brad went to the IIFET conference at Nha Trang University and I wandered the streets. I followed my nose and the Vietnamese on the street to busy places for lunch and tried my luck at the menu. It was delicious!
The conference had a dinner the 2 nights, and for the other 3 we ventured out. We ended up at Lac Canh all 3 nights, grilling all sorts of marinated meats, seafood, and veggies on a table grill, eating it with rice paper or miscellaneous rice and drinking local beer. Excellent! (Lac Canh is where we got the chicken head served to us on our plate of roast chicken. I saw food on another table that was not on our English translated menu and asked about it. Roasted chicken. Okay, bring us that as one of our dishes...and they did :-)
One night we swam in the ocean for over an hour, as a spur of the moment idea on our walk back from dinner. It is so very very hot that only a few westerners can be found at the beach during the day. The locals only seem to go swimming before breakfast!
On Friday afternoon, Brad and I, along with Brian (a friend from IIFET) rented motorcycles to drive out of town. Brad and Brian rented automanual and I rented an automatic (scooter). We drove out 20 km to the waterfall Suoi Ba Ho, where locals led us up to the top and toted beer in coolers to sell to us. What a great day!
Hoi An
Brian spoke so highly of Hoi An that we decided to go there next instead of following our plan to head to Hanoi and Halong Bay. After all, if Brian wanted to go back to Hoi An, rather visit new places in Vietnam during his last few days in country, it must be good! We couldn't get plane tickets so we decided to go to the airport and try standby. If we didn't get on the plane, we would decide on the spot if we go to Hanoi with the tickets we had or go some place else altogether. All three of us got on the plane to Danang and took a 45 minute taxi to Hoi An.
After some difficulty with the driver, we were dropped of at the An Huy, a little boutique (but still very inexpensive) hotel that Brian had stayed in two weeks prior. They recognized him immediately and put us up for 1 night. We moved down the street to the Ha An, a relatively luxurious hotel, the next two nights. Very nice breakfasts were included at both hotels, with the An Huy's being more a little more traditional Vietnamese and the Ha An having more French influence (pastries!). (Have I mentioned that Vietnam is a country of eggs? There are many different kinds in the markets, and lots of them. I got to have fried or boiled eggs almost every morning!!! :-)
Hoi An is a city of tailors so I had some traditional and not so traditional clothes made. We wandered around the markets every day we were there. We took one trip out of the city on motorbikes. Brad and Brian rode automanuals and I rode an automatic (scooter). We drove 55km out to My Son, asking directions along the way to get there. What a drive! especially the 55km back during rush hour! and so very very hot.
My Son
After some difficulty with the driver, we were dropped of at the An Huy, a little boutique (but still very inexpensive) hotel that Brian had stayed in two weeks prior. They recognized him immediately and put us up for 1 night. We moved down the street to the Ha An, a relatively luxurious hotel, the next two nights. Very nice breakfasts were included at both hotels, with the An Huy's being more a little more traditional Vietnamese and the Ha An having more French influence (pastries!). (Have I mentioned that Vietnam is a country of eggs? There are many different kinds in the markets, and lots of them. I got to have fried or boiled eggs almost every morning!!! :-)
Hoi An is a city of tailors so I had some traditional and not so traditional clothes made. We wandered around the markets every day we were there. We took one trip out of the city on motorbikes. Brad and Brian rode automanuals and I rode an automatic (scooter). We drove 55km out to My Son, asking directions along the way to get there. What a drive! especially the 55km back during rush hour! and so very very hot.
My Son
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