FYI: 1 USD = 15000 VND
Feb. 26
We were picked up by the bus of the travel agency for our ride towards the Vietnam border at Chau Doc. About halfway we changed from bus to speedboat to travel down the Mekong towards the border post.
On the Vietnam side we were dropped off in a restaurant while the guy from the agency collected our passports and customs forms and set out to collect all the necessary stamps. Much to our surprise we discovered that without so much as showing our face to the immigration officers we were allowed to remain for nearly 3 months!
After the border we stepped into another boat that took us on a 2 hour ride to Chau Doc which was highly scenic. Immediately you're in the Mekong delta and the crisscrossing of the canals with the variety of boats and the people living near and on the water is very unique. Even here we realized that Vietnam has an identity all of its own. Where Thailand, Laos and Cambodia share a common (Indian based) culture, Vietnam has always been heavily influenced by the Chinese (e.g. they eat with chopsticks instead of fork and spoon).
The hot fashion item in Vietnam for women seems to be a tight 2 -piece suit of trousers and blouse - in fact you see almost no Vietnamese women in skirts. Traditionally sarong type skirts like in the neighboring countries were never worn, but the ao dai is the national costume (nowadays worn by schoolgirls and office workers). It's an extremely elegant combination of trousers with a tight ankle length robe over it that has 2 slits on the side up to the waist.
The conical hat is also a very striking feature of the Vietnamese: in the countryside 90 % of the women wear a conical hat, so you really see them everywhere. Vietnamese women go to great lengths to keep their skin pale so they wear the conical hat, tie a bandana over their face (they look like they're going to rob a bank) and wear gloves (the ball gown gloves up to the upper arm are very popular).
We spent the first night in Thuan Loi hotel (12 USD) on the Chau Doc riverfront. Chau Doc is a busy river port and there is indeed lots of activity going on on the river. Floating houses are also a common sight.
Feb. 27
By coincidence a Cantho-bound bus had dropped off a group at the hotel, so for 4 USD pp we could hitch a ride in an empty aircon bus to Can Tho, the biggest town in the Delta. Along the way you see of course hundreds of rice paddies, but the strange thing is that a lot of them have tombs on them (so the land would not be easily sold). That's also striking: there are really many catholic churches here.
The driver dropped us off at the Tay Ho hotel on the riverfront (10 USD) and smack in the center of town. Cantho is really a very charming place ... there is a very lively market near the river that goes on all day and is very photogenic.
After much discussion at the hotel and parading around the riverfront to attract offers for boat rides to the floating market, we finally decided to go with the hotel (20 USD for the boat, from 6 till 3).
Feb. 28
Before sunrise we met our boatswoman (nearly all boats are rowed by women) for the trip to the markets. Phung Thiep floating market is the farthest of Can Tho, but on the way there we passed the Cai Rang market, which is the biggest market in the Delta and a wholesalers' market. The big boats put up wooden poles with samples of the merchandise they have on offer so everyone can see where to go, and the smaller row boats shop around from one boat to the other. The market really is huge - there's of course also the side activities of baguette and coffee sellers happening from smaller boats.
The Phung Thiep market has less big boats but is one big jumble of rowing boats, and with our boat we dove right in the middle of it. That's definitely one advantage of a small boat: the bigger tourist boats we saw all passed along the edge but couldn't get really in the middle of it.
When we got back to the Cai Rang floating market most of the activity had already ceased so we continued towards an orchard along the smaller canals. The Mekong Delta is extremely fertile and there are plenty of orchards producing all kinds of fruit. At the orchard we visited we tasted some fruits and had lunch.
And then we slowly made our way back towards Cantho via the small canals instead of the Cantho river. As it was still upcoming tide the canals were sometimes nearly too shallow to pass.
March 1
The minibus that we'd booked to Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City although everyone still calls it Saigon) didn't show up so we rushed to the bus station in a tuk-tuk to take the public bus to Saigon (27000 VND pp). This bus was really quite comfortable, it only dropped us off at a bus station 10 km from Saigon. And the taxi into town to Pham Ngu Lao, the backpackers' area cost more than the bus ride... Pham Ngu Lao is an area with one small hotel next to the other, with restaurants and internet cafes in between - luckily it is not as tacky as Khao San road in Bangkok. We paid for an aircon room in Hotel 72 (there are so many of them that they go by the house number) 10 USD. In the afternoon we shopped around a bit for a trip the next day to the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels (1 day 4 USD pp - but all the agencies charge the same rate). The prices asked for tours and transport are incredibly low, e.g. Mekong delta 1d 7 USD, 2d 15 USD (incl. food and accommodation). Also the "open bus tickets" are very cheap: Saigon - Hanoi is 28 USD and with the tickets you can stop at all the places along the way. There are however also a lot of disadvantages attached to these tickets as we would find out a few days later.
If in Cambodia we were amazed at the copied books, Vietnam really beats everything: you can choose between current bestsellers (John Grisham, Harry Potter...), books about Vietnam and the war (we bought "Sorrow of War" by Bao Ninh and "When heaven and earth changed places" by Le Ly Hayslip) and the full LP assortment (phrasebooks, guidebooks, books about the food...). The copies are amazing in quality: the new 2003 Vietnam edition even has color copies of the photos - but what they look like after being carried around for 1 month we'll have to find out later (we bought the new edition for 45000 VND). And if Thailand and Cambodia had already quite an offer in backpacks of North Face and the like, in Vietnam there surely must be plenty more of factories who produce the copies and also the real thing (available at a quarter of the price in the west).
March 2
We were loaded in a full minibus for the day trip to the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels. Caodaism is a sect created in the beginning of the 20th century that combines elements of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, Islam... The main temple in Tay Ninh is a very colourful building with the big eye watching everything. The priests wear yellow, blue and red robes and the prayer ceremony at noon is very photogenic.
The Cu Chi tunnels are the tunnels dug by the Vietcong first during the war against the French and then expanded during the Vietnam war. The tunnels (250 km in total over 3 levels) allowed the VC to deploy their guerilla tactics. We went to the Ben Dinh section of the tunnels which are the original ones (there is also a part that is a full-scale reconstruction), only enlarged in places so the foreign tourists can fit through them. The entrances to the tunnels are very small and were covered with leaves to camouflage them. Under the cover a mine was attached so if the Americans would try to enter the mine would explode. Some entrances were also in rivers. At the site you get after a very heroic video a full demonstration of the techniques the VC used to secure their territory: booby traps, bamboo traps with bamboo spikes at the bottom, a collection of really gruesome homemade traps that would mangle you if stepped into... They also used American bomb shells and unexploded ordnance to create their own mines and explosives.
You can also fire an M16 or AK 47 at the shooting range (1 USD per bullet). The actual parts of the tunnels you can get into are very short, but you get to see the kitchen, meeting room, hospital...
In the evening we went by cyclo (bicycle taxi) to a French restaurant, La Camargue, in a restored colonial villa. The food ranks with the Pansea in Yangon among the best western food we've eaten in Asia.
The cyclos are a very charming way to see the city - they don't go very fast and the whizzing of motorcycles all around you can be nerve-racking, but it feels so colonial... They are however in my opinion doomed to disappear, or only to remain as a tourist attraction.
March 3
We chartered for the day 2 motorcycles with driver to do some sightseeing in Saigon. Experiencing Saigon on the back of a motorcycle is really a thrill. Traffic lights are only there to be ignored, priority rules do not exist, driving on the wrong side of the road is standard practice - if I would have to drive here I wouldn't last more than 5 minutes ... driving yourself is absolute suicide. There are millions of motorcycles in Saigon (90% of the people drive a two-wheeled vehicle) and it's really a survival of the fittest to get on and off a roundabout or cross the street. It's nerve-racking, but very exciting. Cyclo is charming, but this is really experiencing Saigon like the Saigonese.
We first visited Giac Lam and Giac Vien pagodas. Both are Chinese, hence a totally different style than what we've seen until now. The many images of gods, Chinese lettering, incense... make both temples for an oasis in the city. At Giac Vien we met the head monk who immediately offered us tea, gave us his business card (very popular in Vietnam) and put incense sticks in our hands to offer ... try leaving then without a donation... He also showed us how incense sticks are made.
We also visited the church of Cha Tam, built by the French and in a very colonial courtyard. All around Saigon there are still plenty of colonial buildings, most of them turned into government buildings.
In the Chinese quarter of the town, Cholon we browsed around the market. It's a nice building with clock tower. For lunch our drivers dropped us off in a very typical "pho"; (noodle soup) shop.
The other pagodas we visited were Khanh Van Nam Vien pagoda (a Taoist pagoda), Vinh Nghiem pagoda (Saigon's most recent one and thus not very atmospheric) and the Jade Emperor pagoda. The incense smoke in this Chinese temple is so thick that you have to look well to see the huge outrageously decorated statues of all kinds of gods and the woodcarvings.
The Reunification palace is the building of the former South- Vietnamese government. It's here that after the Fall of Saigon in 1975 the power was taken over by the North Vietnamese. The building is kept as it was then with all the original furniture and decoration. It's in a typical 1960's style with big, airy rooms. You can also visit the living quarters of the president and in the basement there's a whole bomb proof tunnel system with war rooms etc.
Finally we drove with the bike past the waterfront of Saigon which s nicely laid out with benches. Our drivers then dropped us off at the Dan Sinh market, also called the army surplus market because you an get all kinds of army equipment there, including souvenirs from the American war such as Zippo lighters, dog tags... I think there were more Zippo's on the market than there ever were Americans in Vietnam.
March 4
Today we discovered Saigon on foot, mainly the markets. Ben Thanh market is the biggest indoor market. On the streets towards the old quarter there are lots of souvenir stalls selling T-shirts, lacquerware... The old quarter is dominated by the old Hotel de Ville which is the biggest building the French made here. There are also various vintage hotels such as the Rex hotel, Grand hotel, Majestic hotel... We were also pretty amazed to see a whole series of high quality photo shops in Saigon - after looking over half of South East Asia for an extra battery for the digital camera (which we'd seen only in Bangkok so far) we found here at least 3 shops who had it readily available.
That evening we took a cyclo to Mandarine restaurant, offering what LP refers to as "gourmet Vietnamese", and it was just that. The Vietnamese food has really given us back our taste for oriental food - if you don't like spicy it's actually better than Thai cuisine.
March 5
We did some more sightseeing: the central Post Office (a big art deco building) and the Notre Dame Cathedral. Next I went to the War Remnants Museum, which apart from the necessary propaganda offers some superb photographs of the war. It was of course the last war where journalists were left free to do what they wanted (the list of casualties among journalists is also very impressive). The pictures in another part of the museum of the children born with birth defects caused by Agent Orange were on the other hand quite sad.
We decided also to give the "open bus tickets" a try so we bought a ticket from Saigon to Dalat to Nha Thrang.
March 6
The 7.30 bus left from the backpackers' quarter but most passengers turned out to be Vietnamese. Apparently the wealthy Vietnamese don't mind spending a bit more to travel in comfort. Already during the ride the driver said that we only had to tell him what we were prepared to pay for a hotel and he would recommend a few to us. But when we got to Dalat and we told him we wanted to go to another hotel (where I assume his company did not get commission) he got very angry and refused to drop us of there (although they're supposed to drop you at any hotel of your choice). Very childishly he dropped us off at the other side of Dalat which meant still a nice walk. So the comment about these "open tickets" is absolutely true: there is such a price pressure the companies do not make money on their core activity, transportation, and thus try to gain everything on side activities, mainly commission businesses, as such causing a lot of harassment for tourists.
But the hotel business in Dalat suffers from the same illness. There are so many of them they compete on the price of the room (we paid 6 USD in Peace hotel) but then try to make money on selling you unnecessary maps, offering (expensive) laundry or trying to get you to eat in the attached caf�. I can imagine if you experience Vietnam only in the hands of these guys your impression will not be very good.
Although we were contacted near the market and at the lake by motorbike guides for a trip around Dalat for the next day we really did not have much faith in them so asked at the hotel for 2 reliable guides (who happened to be sitting in the cafe next door), Stephane and Thinh.
March 7
We did some sightseeing of the least commercialized sights around Dalat. Dalat is very popular with Vietnamese tourists, especially for honeymoons. Since the Vietnamese show a certain tendency towards kitsch, the highlights around Dalat include riding on a horse accompanied by a Vietnamese cowboy, having your picture taken with someone in panda bear costume and the like and buying incredibly cheap looking souvenirs.
All of these were already present at the Bao Dai's Summer Palace, the residence of the last Vietnamese emperor. It's a villa in 1930's style with also the interior very much d'epoque. The Vietnamese apparently love to have their picture taken sitting behind the desk of Bao Dai. We were also a curiosity since we were the only western tourists there.
Next we drove through the outskirts of Dalat on the way to Paradise Lake and Truc Lam pagoda past some remaining French buildings such as the cathedral, the railway station (a really charming building) and a school. In the center very little colonial buildings remain but along the edge of town there are still many villas to be seen - it's a shame a lot of them are government property and as such abandoned. The potential to make these into nice hotels is huge. Dalat was once called "Petit Paris" and there's even a mini-telecommunications-Eiffel tower-antenna to sustain the claim.
Paradise lake was created by the construction of a dam mainly used for irrigation. Truc Lam pagoda overlooking the lake is a Chinese pagoda which gets a lot of support from Viet Kieu or refugees who started a better life overseas and are now trying to do something for Vietnam.
Many of them were boat refugees and prayed that in case of safe arrival to their destination they would one day repay it - hence the many donations from Vietnamese in the US and Canada.
Chicken village which we visited next is the village of a minority people called Koho. The village name comes from the absolutely huge concrete statue of a chicken (of which apparently no one knows the reason why it's there). The minority people grow a lot of different crops such as coffee. The government encourages these ethnic minorities to settle down so they can control them (in the American War they supported the VC and apparently now the government is frightened that they might support another revolutionary group). Our guide walked around in the village handing out loads of candy so we got to visit several houses with him.
We had lunch near the Datanla Falls which we shortly visited also. Down at the falls there are some more proofs of the Vietnamese penchant for kitsch: plastic like statues of a tiger threatened by a gigantic eagle.
The Chinese Pagoda is as the name says the main Chinese pagoda in Dalat with several huge statues inside. Our last visit (again accompanied by busloads of Vietnamese tourists), was to the Domaine de Marie Convent, a big pink coloured catholic monastery with nice gardens.
We agreed with our drivers to go for the next 4 days on a tour from Dalat to Nha Trang for 120 USD per person.
March 8
We set off on our motor trip through the central highlands. These used to be covered completely with jungle, but what Agent Orange started (many hills only have grass and shrubs on them) the Montagnards (the name the French gave to all the ethnic minorities living in the highlands) are finishing with their slash and burn agriculture. There are only little pieces of forest still left.
Nevertheless the ride up is quite beautiful. We stopped in villages of several minorities: Ede, Lak, M'Nuong... In all villages the people were very friendly and curious and you have a full time job waving back at the children with their huge smiles.
In the highlands a lot of coffee is cultivated, we visited the house of a coffee plantation worker (a handicapped army veteran migrated from the North). Apparently the North Vietnamese government still treats the South as a colony to punish them for being on the wrong side in the war: there are only war memorials for North Vietnamese soldiers, the veterans from the north get a pension while those from the south do not... Good government jobs are still exclusively reserved for the North Vietnamese. For our 2 guides practically the only way to make a decent living is by being a motorbike guide. Stephane worked as a helicopter mechanic for the Americans and Tinh was a student of French literature. Tinh's father, a high officer in the South-Vietnamese army, spent 8 years in prison and died 6 months after his release. His sister, also a high officer, escaped with help of the Americans and now lives in the US. She does come to visit regularly. Strangely enough the 2 highest classes in Vietnamese society today are first, the corrupt government officials and second, the Viet Kieu refugees and their family.
Other things we visited along the way were a mushroom farm and a silk worm farm.
By chance we met along the road also some Hmong people (in traditional dress) who had also migrated from the north (Sapa) to the highlands.
In the late afternoon we arrived at Lak lake where we spent the night (10 USD). We ate again together with Stephane and Tinh, which proved also interesting because you really eat the Vietnamese way.
March 9
We visited Jun, a M'Nuong village on the lakeside with typical longhouses surrounded by rice paddies. Later we stopped at a market on the way to Buon Ma Thuot, which was also very different from the visits on our own before: with a guide you can at least have a conversation with these people. Here once more the digital camera proved to be a phenomenal success when you show pictures of themselves to the people...
Buon Ma Thuot looks like a very communistic town with many new very 70's buildings. We did some shopping for our picnic later at the pond and waterfalls in Dray Sap. The natural pond was a pleasure to swim in and the different sets of falls were very nice. At one of the falls we got some fruit from a Vietnamese group of friends who also insisted on having our picture taken with them. Vietnamese are definitely much less reserved and much more Italian-like in their behaviour than the other South-East Asians. They quarrel in the street, are very touchy feely, laugh at you...
March 10
Along the way we stopped at a rubber tree plantation, tasted some sugar cane juice, took pictures of schoolgirls in white ao dai's, had coffee in a shop where we discussed a bit with the son, a high school student... We also visited a musical instrument maker. The descent towards the coast wound its way through some very beautiful hills.
We had decided to spend first a night on Doclet beach, a secluded beach away from the hustle and bustle of Nha Trang. On the way there we passed salt fields and stopped off in a very colonial village which had a lot of really charming buildings still standing - but I don't think many tourists make it there because we were followed all the way during our walk through the village by a whole bunch of children.
To get to the place where we would stay the night, Paradise Bungalows (14 USD incl. food) the motorbikes drove over the beach and we followed on foot, which gave us time to admire the bay with lots and lots of fishing boats and see some fishermen coming ashore using the oversized tarred round baskets which they paddle.
March 11
We spent the morning swimming and relaxing.
On our way to Nha Trang we stopped to take pictures of rice harvesting and visited an industrial factory for basket making. Near Nha Trang we toured the Po Nagar Cham towers.
In Nha Trang we stayed at Don Phuong hotel (14 USD). It was with much pleasure that we wrote recommendations in Stephane and Thin's notebooks, because this trip was really a highlight of our whole voyage.
March 12
At 7 we were picked up by the bus of the Rainbow Divers, where we'd booked the evening before. The whole day we had rather cloudy weather, but luckily under the water you can still enjoy the very nice corals and different fish (40 USD for 2 dives, 10 USD for snorkeling).
By 2 we were back again which gave us plenty of time to visit the market, internet, walk along the beachfront and get something to eat before stepping on the night train of 19.39 to Da Nang (soft sleeper AC 18 USD pp).
As the condition of the compartment, sheets and blankets was only so so we fished out our sleeping bag liners and for the rest slept quite well. It's strange however that the train doors are padlocked from the inside by the guards - together with the metal bars before the windows I don't know what would happen in case of an emergency.
March 13
We arrived in Danang at 7.30. With the people we'd shared a compartment with we shared a taxi for 10 USD to Hoi An. Hoi An was in the 15th to 18th century a major trading centre with considerable Chinese, Japanese and European influence. This is immediately clear when you walk through the streets of the old quarter: there are Chinese temples, assembly halls of the different Chinese congregations, a Japanese covered bridge next to very colonial brick buildings and old wooden houses. The town is really very charming - there are of course the necessary souvenir shops and tailor shops (a big specialty in Hoi An) but it feels very authentic. The old quarter is pedestrian friendly (no cars allowed, unfortunately this is not the case for motorcycles). There's a very lively market with very typical scenes and a nice waterfront. With the entrance ticket of 50000 VND you can visit one of the old houses (we picked Tan Ky house), a handicraft shop (where we enjoyed a free traditional music performance) and a museum and assembly hall (which we left for later).
We stayed the first night in Cua Dai hotel (20 USD) - they had only a room for 2 nights, so we changed the following day to Ha An hotel (same price). Both are very nice buildings with lots of sitting areas.
March 14
The day before we'd booked a tour (3 USD) to the temples of My Son. The complex of My Son was a contemporary of Angkor and Bagan, but the ruins are a different order of magnitude. The setting is very nice however: from the parking lot you first have to cross a bamboo bridge, then you're transferred with an old jeep through the forest to the site of the ruins. The backdrop of the hills and the jungle sounds create a special atmosphere. Several of the monuments were destroyed during the American war and so far there hasn't been much restoration.
We returned by boat (lunch consisted of "white rose" - shrimp in rice paper) and stopped off at a carpentry village where apart from furniture they also make boats.
We had dinner in Caf� des Amis which has something of a reputation for the surprise menus, but we weren't overwhelmed.
March 15
We used up the remaining coupons on our tickets for visiting the Quan Cong temple, the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese congregation and the museum of trading ceramics which is housed in a restored wooden building. We also visited a cotton mill with automatic looms.
March 16
With one of the open tour companies we went by bus from Hoi An to the imperial city of Hue (2 USD). It was again a splendid example of how these companies treat you like dirt. We had booked the trip with stops at Marble Mountain, Hai Van Pass and a stop at the beach. These turned out to be 15 min, 10 min resp. and the beach was actually behind the restaurant where we were dropped off for lunch at 11. On the same bus were people who had booked a trip without stops (they had to get to the airport) and people who thought they would have 1 hr to visit Marble Mountain and 1 hr swim stop at the beach... In Hue the bus stopped before a hotel and the hotel manager tried to get everyone into his hotel. Once again, when we asked to be dropped off at another hotel, "the streets were too small for the bus" so they could not drop us off.
We toured around by taxi and finally settled in the Phong Duong hotel (13 USD).
For dinner we went to Tropical Garden restaurant, with live traditional music.
March 17
We were picked up by a boy with a bicycle for the boat trip on the Perfume River to visit the Imperial Tombs (2 USD pp). We stopped at Thien Mu pagoda, a 7-storey pagoda which has become the emblem of Hue. Next we stopped for the tomb of Tu Duc. Again these cheap trips prove to be a mafia without any scruples: we were told by motorcycle drivers waiting upstairs that the tomb was 4 km, and as we had only 50 min, for 30000 dong they would take us there and back. Some people actually paid this, but as we had started walking we finally paid 10000 dong. The tomb (55000 dong entry pp) is really worthwhile and when you take one of these cheap boat trips you have actually too little time to visit it properly.
It's in fact not just a tomb but a whole huge landscaped compound with lakes, temples and several tombs. The complex is very beautiful and impressive and blends really well with nature.
The second tomb we stopped at with the boat is the one of Khai Dinh ( again 20000 dong for motorcycle, 55000 dong entry). Dating from the beginning of the 20th century, it's an impressive concrete stairs with huge steps leading to it. As with the tomb of Tu Duc there's an honour court with stone statues of elephant, horses and mandarins (Vietnam has been under Chinese influence so long they took over the whole administrative system of China).
The last tomb we visited was the one of Minh Mang (55000 dong entry). Again this is a beautifully landscaped compound with several lakes, bridges and temples leading to the huge burial mound (now covered with grass and trees).
All in all, I would advise anyone who is remotely interested in these tombs to charter a motorcycle from Hue and do it on your own instead of with a boat trip.
March 18
Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam. In the center the old citadel is surrounded by a huge wall. The whole citadel and the imperial enclosure (55000 dong entry) which contained the main palace was the scene of heavy battles during the French and American wars. Consequently a lot was destroyed - inside the citadel there are huge areas being farmed. Also the imperial enclosure and especially the forbidden purple city were heavily damaged. Nevertheless, the few buildings that remain are so impressive that you can only imagine what it must have been in its glory days.
The main gate, Ngo Mon gate still stands, as do one palace, the halls of the mandarins, a temple dedicated to the worshipping of the nine emperors (and the huge dynastic urns outside) and the residence of the queen mother. In the forbidden purple city everything has been rased: only the emperor's reading room and an administrative building survive.
But, as said, what remains is impressive.
In the afternoon we just hung out on different terraces, reading and waiting for the night train of 21.30 that would take us to Hanoi. By cyclo we went to the train station, and luckily this train was a lot cleaner than the previous one (25 USD soft berth AC).
March 19
We were supposed to arrive at 12.30 but at 10 am the train stopped in a station and did not move anymore until 8 pm - apparently a train had derailed between where we were and Hanoi and since it's single track, there was no way to get through. The food served on these trains is undoubtedly the worst food we have tasted in Vietnam. Moreover it rained the whole day (in the north March is rainy and cloudy) so that did not add to the joyous atmosphere.
When we finally arrived in Hanoi it was past midnight ... after a ride in a metered taxi which took us round half of Hanoi instead of going straight to the hotel we had to wake up the people in the hotel to get a room (Phan Thai, 12 USD incl. breakfast and internet).
March 20
When we woke up the sky was cloudy and it was a lot cooler here than in the south - so we dug up again trousers instead of shorts and long-sleeved shirts instead of T-shirts.
The hotel is situated right in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. The Old Quarter is an area of narrow streets full of colonial buildings, Chinese temples and shops. Every street used to be the area of a certain guild. Today shops of a certain type are still located in one specific area, e.g. silk shops, herb sellers (including dried geckos and sea horses), jewelers, tin box makers, stamp makers (we had 2 customised stamps made for 1.5 USD each)...
It's a very lively scene with plenty of photo opportunities and possibilities to shop till you drop.
As restaurant for dinner we chose Seasons of Hanoi, excellent Vietnamese food in a restored colonial villa.
March 21
We continued our walking tour along the streets of the Old Quarter. In the afternoon we went to the performance of the water puppets. This art form is very old and was developed by farmers to be performed in rice paddies. The scene is a box filled with water and a traditional theater background. The puppets are moved via sticks under the water surface. Everything is accompanied by live music and singing. The scenes depicted all have to do with water: rice farming, water buffaloes, the cat and mouse game between duck keeper and a jaguar, birds, dragons (including fireworks)... The performance is extremely entertaining and definitely a must. We also did some shopping: lacquer ware, lamps, silk sleeping bags, silk pyjamas (to be made to order), CD's (copies of course, but at 10000VND for one it's cheaper than a blank CD in Belgium)...
We also trailed along several travel agencies (there's no shortage of those in Hanoi) to rent a jeep for a tour to the Northwest. Finally we settled on a 5-day trip with a Russian jeep to Bac Ha, Sapa, Lai Chau, Son La and back to Hanoi for 150 USD (incl. petrol and driver).
March 22
We set off with our jeep at 7. 30 am. The first stretch out of Hanoi goes through the Red River Delta so it's rice paddies as far as the eye can see. After lunch the ride became a whole lot more interesting when we arrived in the foothills. The road winds along tea plantations, Black Zao people with heavily embroidered dark blue clothes cutting bamboo to make fences and very friendly villages. At one we stopped to take pictures of a very nice house on stilts and were promptly invited inside for tea. Luckily the house was big enough to fit in the half of the village population that turned up to take a good look at the foreigners: comparing heights; skin complexion colour of the eyes... I left behind as a present the 2 little rattan rings I'd bought in Cambodia. Judging from how pleased they were I was sorry I didn't buy any more - it's cheap and is much more personal gift than handing out candy.
Further along the road we saw flower Hmong people with extremely colourful skirts and blouses (the only women in Vietnam wearing skirts are those of ethnic minorities). We walked around in one village before continuing to Bac Ha, site of a weekly Sunday market. The last stretch up the mountain to Bac Ha makes clear why you definitely need a 4WD for this trip. There are road works going on however all over the Northwest so I suppose it's only a matter of years before you can do this whole trip with a normal car.
We arrived in Bac Ha in the dark, rain, mist and cold ...March in fact still is winter here so we put on layer over layer before going out for dinner (Cong Phu restaurant). The hotel was Minh Quan hotel (10 USD).
March 23
The market in Bac Ha starts early and goes on for the best part of the day. There are hundreds of flower Hmong (and lesser numbers of 2 or 3 other hill tribes that we did not manage to identify) attending. The range of goods sold is impressive: livestock such as water buffaloes, horses and pigs, but also dogs (a delicacy in the North) ... it's strange to see these cute puppies being weighed and handled as if it were chicken. The flower Hmong also sell and buy their traditional clothes here (not for the tourists).
After lunch we left for Sapa, in time to catch the remnants of the market there. In Sapa the main hill tribe people are Red Dzao (related to the Yao with huge red turbans) and Black Hmong (with dark blue and black clothes, hats, leg caps and huge silver ear rings). Whereas in Bac Ha you are offered things to buy only sideways, the Dzao and Hmong in Sapa (which is a favourite spot for tours from Hanoi) are much more persistent. Nevertheless they stay friendly. Striking about the Hmong is that also the men wear a typical dress (in most hill tribes only the women still dress traditionally). And they really wear it out of conviction: when you pass road works along the way the Hmong work in their dress. Really hill tribe dress is still the norm here and Vietnamese dress a big exception.
March 24
We left Sapa in the morning for Lai Chau. Different hill tribe people we saw along the way included the Zao Quyen (with silver triangular head dresses), white Hmong (like Black Hmong but with white skirts), blue Dzao (like the Red Dzao but with big blue turbans), and again some that we did not manage to identify.
The digital camera proves again its weight in gold: initial reluctance to have their picture taken turns into amazement, curiosity and more than one posing session.
The road before and after Lai Chau is really very, very scenic with valleys where every flat square meters are cultivated as rice paddies in terrace form, and wide vistas (the mountains are further apart than e.g. in northern Laos). Lai Chau is as a town not much to look at (Lan Anh hotel, 15 USD).
March 25
The final destination for today was Son La. Ethnic minorities here included some other subtribe of Hmong (with red ribbons attached to their black head dress) and Black Thai. The Black Thai wear long skirts with tight blouses with silver clasps in front and embroidered shawls on their heads. It is really incredible that in Laos we found Muang Sing so extraordinary because there you could find 3 or 4 ethnic minorities living together, and here in Vietnam we saw on this 5 day trip over 10 different hill tribes in considerable numbers - this really is the ultimate where hill tribes are concerned.
In Son La we stayed at the Trade Union hotel (state owned) - and even here you have to bargain for the room fare...
March 26
The final day of our jeep trip took us from Son La back to Hanoi. Along the way we saw many more Black Thai (we stopped in a village to go to the market) and Hmong (again a different kind). Thanks to the different road works we only got to Hanoi at 7 pm.
But what a great trip this was! One or two days more to include some trekking would be even better - the 5 days now consist mainly of a lot of driving on roads that really ask for 4 WD so it's not really physically easy.
March 27
In Hanoi we continued our shopping expedition by buying 2 big Jack Wolfskin backpacks (17 USD each). We then went to the post office to post our old ones plus the whole lot of souvenirs and guide books that we didn't need anymore back home. They were a lot more flexible here than in HCMC/Saigon: in half an hour we filled in the forms, had the lot inspected by customs (I still don't know if the 15000 VND "customs fee" is an actual fee or not but in any case it went very smoothly) and wrapped in a huge box. For 22 kg we paid around 50 USD which is much cheaper than Thailand. Hopefully it arrives as well as the 3 Thai ones have in the mean time.
We booked for the next day a bus and boat trip to Cat Ba island, the jump-off point for trips around the famous Halong Bay (4.5 USD pp).
March 28
We found ourselves on the bus with people doing 1, 2 and 3 days organized trips around the bay. After lunch in Halong City we stepped on the boat with the 2-day trippers for the trip from Halong City to Cat Ba through the Halong Bay. The weather was quite cloudy so a lot of the pictures we took then were almost black and white photography ... nevertheless the bay is very impressive. The hundreds and hundreds of huge karst rocks rising steep out of the sea are a very impressive sight. Because the rocks are made of limestone they are subject to erosion (they are all cut out at the water's edge) and there are a lot of caves. We visited one of the biggest ones, the Surprise Cave, with 3 huge chambers lit in kitschy colours.
There are many people living in the bay in floating houses or on small boats - sometimes families of 5 people live on a small bamboo fishing boat, trying to make a living by selling seafood such as crab, prawn and squid. Very often the children of these families don't go to school.
We arrived in Cat Ba around 6 pm. Walking along the water's edge one hotel owner offered his rooms, normally 10 to 15 USD, for 5 USD. So we stayed there at the My Ngoc hotel. As we were quite late we did not get any offers for boat trips from freelancers, so we enquired at different hotels and restaurants to see what was possible.
We finally reached agreement with the owner of our hotel for a 3 day-2 night trip with overnight on the boat for 100 USD for the 2 of us including food and drop off at Halong City on the last day.
March 29
We did some last minute shopping in the market (big towel, bottle of wine, water...) for our boat trip and then set off. We cruised around Halong Bay to visit 2 more caves (absolutely untouristy) and then returned to Lan Ha Bay to have a swim and a try at kayaking near Monkey Island.
We also slept in Lan Ha Bay after a dinner with fish and shrimp. The boat is a converted fishing boat with these typical jonk sails which we didn't really use because of no wind.
Lan Ha Bay is the bay between Cat Ba island and the Halong Bay - the waters are more shallow than the Halong Bay or Bay Tu Long Bay, the less touristy neighbour of Halong Bay.
March 30
We spent time cruising around Lan Ha bay, gliding with the boat over very shallow coral gardens where we also did some very good snorkeling, continuing on to a site where we could kayak all the way through a cave ending up in an inner sea, connected by 3 of these passages to the rest of the Bay. When we got back to the boat there were 2 fishing boots moored to our boat and we bought as an extra treat some live and kicking crab and prawns.
March 31
We had agreed with the hotel owner that we would cruise the second day around Bay Tu Long Bay, but as the English speaking captain had taken off the first evening to visit his children and only gotten back the evening before, we could only remark this then - so he agreed to take us the third day.
The weather was a bit rougher with patches of drizzle and strong winds so when we crossed the straits is was quite sporty to sit in front on the bow.
We again bought some fresh shrimp for lunch and headed back to Halong City at 3 pm. Contrary to what he'd promised the captain dropped us off at Hon Gai, which meant that we still had to take a motorcycle taxi and a ferry ride to Bay Chai to get to the bus station to Hanoi. The bus in Hanoi also refused to drop us off near the Old Quarter but insisted on driving all the way to the bus station, where of course a lot of "friends" with motorcycles and taxis were waiting...
At times like this our tolerance limit for the Vietnamese and their tendency to promise you the moon as long as they want to sell you something and then later treat you like dirt was severely crossed. A lot of Vietnamese are lovely people and I admire them because they have a lot of spunk, but by God there are a lot of aggressive, arrogant, looking-for-profit bastards out there also, especially around touristy areas. I can imagine that some western tourists never want to set foot in Vietnam again - I suppose it's a love-hate kind of thing for me: at times I really like them, but at times I also want to hit them.
April 1
Today we finished our shopping list: we picked up my silk pyjamas (2 were custom-made as agreed but we finally refused the third one which was a badly finished confection model and the shop refused to change). We also went to the big market to pick up a small North Face backpack (as expected cheaper than at the lake).
We stopped for the third time at the Malaysian airlines office (we'd rerouted our tickets from Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi-Kuala Lumpur) to enquire about possibilities to get to Malaysian Borneo. We'd also changed the return date to Europe to April 16 (instead of in May, thanks to the bastards at my job who fired me in March) so this left us with less than 2 weeks to see some of Malaysia.
We both had a haircut, which at 30000 VND must be about the cheapest one I have ever had...
April 2
For some last minute sightseeing in Hanoi we went by cyclo to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex. It's a big park with several buildings related to Ho Chi Minh in it: a museum, a stilt house where he would have lived, the beautiful colonial presidential palace and of course the Mausoleum. To visit the mausoleum where you can see the embalmed mummy of HCM you have to be dressed decently, so I had to put on a skirt again. Moreover you strictly have to walk on the white lines and follow the guide (in the mausoleum a white-clad honour guard dictates the pace). It is not advisable to mock with any of this because the serieux with which the Vietnamese handle all this is considerable.
Also in the complex is the one-pillar pagoda, as the name says a pagoda resting on a single stone pillar. The whole park is situated in the old residential quarter - it's a very nice coherent set of streets with beautiful colonial buildings in good shape (now mostly embassies). This quarter is as a whole the best preserved and best restored colonial quarter we've seen in SE Asia.
For our goodbye dinner in Hanoi we went to Brother's Caf�, set in the courtyard of a estored Buddhist temple.
April 3
As our flight was only at 14.40 we still had the morning to wander around and do some last minute shopping: T-shirts a 15000 VND, some more malaria pills (doxycyclin, at 7000 VND for 10 even cheaper than in Thailand)... We'd arranged for a taxi the day before (120000 VND) and right on time we left for the airport for our flight to Kuala Lumpur.