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Richard writes…
Happy New Year!!!
We are currently in Saigon, having a lazy morning in bed after last night's festivities, so I thought it would be a good time for an update. Today, coincidentally, also marks the halfway point of our trip.
Since leaving Nepal we have had a varied couple of weeks travelling down Vietnam. To get here, we took a bizarrely long route which included an overnight stop over in Kuala Lumpur. We spent 6 hours in a rather cool capsule hotel, which was actually very comfortable and vastly better than sleeping on the floor while the cleaners vacuumed around our outlines. The hotel was made from shipping containers which had been placed in a spare corner at the back of the terminal. Each container was sectioned into two levels of single bed compartments, with reading lights, power points, and comfy beds - just what we needed.
Our flights to Vietnam were with Air Asia, an airline which we were really quite impressed with. They are very much an Asian version of Easyjet, and were both cheap and efficient. It is very sad to see news of their recent accident, but it hasn't put us off flying with them again.
I have been to Vietnam before, 7 years ago when I went travelling after uni. Comparing this trip to last time has made me realise that backpacking is very different nowadays, mostly due to the internet. Hostels no longer have a row of computers in the lobby, they just have WiFi, and Nic and I have a smartphone each, a dirt cheap sim card from most countries which provides mobile data, and a windows tablet pc which can do everything we want. Whereas last time I was here, I was feeling pretty smug to be able to spend hours in an internet café, backing up my photos onto a spindle of writable cds. There was also no trip advisor or google maps on phones, so a big heavy Lonely Planet was an absolute lifeline. On the flipside (and I might just be being nostalgic), people talked to each other more, since it was a vital way to find out how to get places, where to stay and what to do. Travelling has certainly got easier!
Vietnam has changed too. There are more cars on the road (though not necessarily any fewer motorbikes) and there are fewer dodgy DVDs for sale (probably because there is plenty of fast internet now, so films can just be downloaded). Hostels and hotels have become better too (Trip Advisor's influence? A good write up in Lonely Planet used to mean that a hostel could enjoy 2-3 years of doubled prices and halved standards until the next edition is printed, now opinions are instant and most hotels and shops have asked us to write a review). One thing that hasn't changed is Vietnam's ability to make money from tourists and, matching my experience last time, it has been a little difficult to do anything which is not part of a short tour. Public transport isn't great (foreigner pricing is rampant), but tour buses are dirt cheap and there are few rewards for trying to be independent.
As I was here before, we limited our visit to the highlights. We arrived into Hanoi, at the north end of Vietnam, and enjoyed the relative warmth compared to Nepal. We did a lot of walking in the Old Quarter, appreciating the system of each street seemingly being devoted to the sale of a particular product (shoe street, mirror street, bubblewrap and other packaging street, even a Christmas street). We also enjoyed the French influence, eating lots of fresh baguettes with cheese!
Next stop was Ha Long Bay. This is a fairly famous area to the east of Hanoi consisting of hundreds of small, but tall limestone islands poking out of the sea. Most have sheer cliffs all around them, and some have never been climbed by humans. We spent a couple of days on a boat in the bay, visiting some pearl farms and kayaking. It is a hugely touristy destination, but we went on a slightly extended trip further into the bay, which luckily coincided with a rare day of beautiful weather. We also tried squid fishing in the evening, which was a massive con, we decided that there are in fact no squid at all in the sea (there is no other explanation for our lack of success).
Leaving the Hanoi area we got the night train (which had a little less character than the old Rhodesian Railway train we got in Zimbabwe, but was a very comfortable way to travel) south to Hue, and then moved on to Hoi An. Hoi An was notable for many reasons (cue bullet points):
- Rain. If you remember the film Forrest Gump, there is a montage scene where Forrest describes all of the types of rain in Vietnam. We basically enjoyed a 5 day version of that montage, with particular emphasis on "big ol' fat rain" and "rain that flew in sideways".
- Clothes. Hoi An is famous for tailoring. Unfortunately for our bank accounts, shopping is an activity that is not affected by rain, and there are now a lot of clothes on their way back home.
- Christmas. We treated ourselves to a nice hotel in Hoi An, and while Christmas is not a big deal in Vietnam, there was a nice atmosphere around town. Unfortunately, no boxing day sales.
- Sales techniques. Pushy vendors of tourist goods occur all over the world, but in Hoi An even owners of mini supermarkets post people outside to shout at us (and anyone else) as we walked down the street that we needed to go into their shop for our water/biscuit etc needs. Maybe Tesco should take lessons!
From Hoi An we flew south to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City (flights are cheap in Vietnam). A lot of the sights here are centred around the Vietnam War, more commonly known round here as the American War of Aggression. The tone of the museums are extremely one sided, which makes them a bit less trustworthy but still very interesting.
Last night was New Year's Eve, and while again this is not a huge event in Vietnam (they celebrate Tet in February instead) there were still parties and fireworks in the city. We headed out with a few guys from our hotel into the backpacker district and enjoyed a few drinks. The fireworks were nice but not mind-blowing (our experience might have been dampened slightly as we had a tree blocking the view), however the really impressive thing was the flow of motorbikes on the roads. Traffic in Saigon is madness at the best of times, but in the hour running up to midnight, the city centre was filled from all directions with scooters, often carrying whole families. The little lane discipline that normally exists gradually faded and both sides of the road were used for bikes to drive towards the centre and park up, pretty much touching the neighbouring bike. By midnight, the city centre road grid had become a dense parking lot of bikes, all pointing towards the tallest tower where the fireworks would be, with pedestrians lining the pavements. As soon as the fireworks were over it took less than 10 seconds for thousands of helmets to be put on and scooters started up, and within 10 minutes the streets had become rivers of mopeds crawling along at walking pace between each junction. We stayed out for another hour or so, enjoying the atmosphere, before heading back to the hotel for sleep (we are definitely getting old!).
Tomorrow we will be heading into the Mekong Delta for some cycling and exploring by boat (on another tour), then into Cambodia.
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