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The SE
Asia tour 12 June 2000 Vientiane
We're currently in the
Lao capital, Vientiane, which is more like a large village, though the
internet speeds are lightning fast. I liked Ho Chi Minh City more than I
expected. It turned out to be more international than anywhere else, and
despite the reports, we has less hassle there than anywhere else in Vietnam. Our first stop up the
coast was the beach resort of Nha Trang. US GIs were often airlifted here for
R&R during the Vietnam war (or American War as it is known locally). We
got the overnight bus there, arriving at about 5am. After dumping out stuff
in our hotel (Hotel O-Sin - apparently nothing so untoward as a Japanese
film), we headed down to the beach to see the sunrise. We were joined by the
rest of Nha Trang, minus any whites. The beach, and beach road, were packed
with people sitting around, running, stretching, playing badminton and a sort
of football 'keep me up' with a strangely enlarged shuttlecock thing. All
this at 5.30 in the morning. When we returned, after a snooze, at about 11
am, it was deserted bar a handful of caucasians. Soon after arriving in
Hoi An, we got friendly with an Australian couple (one of whom turned out to
be the unlikely combination of anti-drug policeman and club DJ). They had
seen children being solicited for sex in Nha Trang. I hope this can be nipped
in the bud. After an all day mini-van trip, which enabled us to see more of
the country, we arrived in Hoi An. Vietnam is substantially more developed
than Cambodia so where those in the country had grass huts, now there were
brick and concrete houses. Two-thirds of the population work in rice paddies,
including children. I don’t remember seeing any schools in many places. Hoi An is a lovely old
town with a strangely Mediterranean feel to it. It's a medium-sized place set
on a river with narrow streets and houses and shops painted in dusky yellow
hues with a just the right amount of fade to give it charm but not so that it
looks run-down. Perhaps it's 'distressed'? It's charm is enhanced by the fact
that cars are not allowed in the central area at all. It's dominated by the
clothing and art industries. We succumbed. I'm now paying the price by
lumping around an extra bag with all the clothes Samantha and I bought. This
included 3 suits, 4 pairs of trousers and 6 shirts. At $30 for a tailor made
suit, who could resist? Not us. Anyway we're just thinking about how much we
saved. The ancient city and
former capital of Hue was the next stop up the road. Again on a river
(everywhere is) this city was completely destroyed in the Tet Offensive,
early in 1968, though you couldn't tell now. The Citadel, where the North's
flag flew for nearly a month then, seemed untouched. Perhaps it was well
restored. You can sense the university feel of the town. It has the only
other university in the old south Vietnam, other than Ho Chi Minh City. On our second day, we
hired a motorcycle and ride out to the Japanese bridge, a few kms east of the
city. The best thing about these sorts of trips is the chance to go out past
the workers in the paddy fields who almost never see foreigners and haven't
been corrupted by any association. People often stop and wave or shout a
friendly 'hello'. This was in stark contrast to those Vietnamese who are in
regular contact with tourists. The latter almost always try and overcharge
you or rip you off in some other way. It gets pretty tiring. More on that
later. The overnight bus to
Hanoi wasn't much fun. The entire stretch of road from Dong Ha (at the 17th
Parallel - the old DMZ) to Vinh is being dug up for resurfacing. I think we
averaged about 15 kmh for that 200 km stretch. In case anybody was wondering
why we didn't take the "reunification express" train, it was too
expensive. The cheapest HCM City to Hanoi train of any comfort was about
US$80, and stopping would have been more. Foreigners are charged five times
the local fare. It makes it almost as cheap to fly. Hanoi is a beautiful
city. It is full of tree-lined avenues, parks and lakes. It has a
French-colonial feel, but you never doubt that this is a completely
east-Asian city. It has a slower pace than HCM City in the south, but much
more charm. We also discovered (thanks to Lonely Planet) a
cafe/restaurant/patisserie called Hua Sua. It's run as a training
establishment for street children and orphans to enable them to qualify as
chefs and other restaurant staff. The food was outstanding and very cheap. We
ate there lots - why go anywhere else? We also visited the very
dead Ho Chi Minh himself in his Soviet-style mausoleum. I don't think the
orange-red glow did much for his complexion. His museum was professionally
done, but completely bizarre. Many of the exhibits were, at best, tentative
links to his life. A whole display on Picasso's Guernica was there because of
its apparent influence on Uncle Ho, as he affectionately known. The grand
prize went to the surreal pieces of plate glass in a circle which represented
the 'resistance of the Vietnamese people to external aggression'. Hmmm. We
spent two days in Ninh Binh, further south and saw the karst rock formations
on the rice paddies, which was okay, bar the inevitable hassles and rip-offs.
Perhaps the apparent increase in this should have warned us. The hotel staff
were great though. Then started our great
overland trek to Lao. We arrived in Vinh at 2am and hung around at the bus
station for a couple of hours with a nervous Dutch bloke until it opened.
Later it transpired we were at the wrong bus station. We took a couple of
cyclos down to the other bus station - a slightly hairy ride where you get a
felling that you may not be coming back. I think maybe it was just a power
cut rather than ominous gloom. Easily confused. When the bus to a town
near the border rocked up, the driver tried to get us to buy 'tickets' from
him directly at $5 rather than the 'official' $6 to the border (about US 70c
to the main town of Trung Tam, and $5 to the border) . We were naturally
suspicious of such a high fare. The official ticket desk said the fare was $6
(after having been primed by the bus-driver). We asked why such a discrepancy
in price to be told that the last part of the journey was hilly and was
150kms - lies but we knew that - it's 35 kms). It didn't add up, but you
either pay or stay there. We paid and were kicked out about 5kms short of
Trung Tam, as this was supposedly where we had to change. It turned out that
the waiting minibuses were in league with everyone else and wanted $10 to the
border (about 35kms). We refused, showing them our tickets with the border
destination town of Cau Treo scribbled on them. Not interested. They wouldn't
go away. We hitched a ride with
the next bus into the original destination town. Obviously we were supposed
to pressured into going with the minibus guys and fork out more money. Never.
When we got to Trung Tam, it transpired that no bus to the Cau Treo border
existed. All a deliberate ploy. We were supposed to bow to the pressure of
being left in the middle of nowhere and taking the minibus. That whole
incident got Samantha and my hackles up. One of the minibus drivers followed
us and kept on hassling for the ride to the border, dropping his price to $6.
We told him that we would walk the entire way before we ever got his bus. He
never seemed to quite grasp this concept. Another example of Ben &
Samantha's principled obstinacy. Eventually, I persuaded another bloke in the
town to take us in his minibus for $5, though not before the hassling bloke
had stuck his oar in and upped the price for us. So the three of us
(including the increasingly nervous Dutch guy) and some other locals set off
up the road only to find our way blocked by the old minibus driver. Harsh
words were exchanged followed by fists. We eventually got on the way to be
told that perhaps we should have gone with the local hood to keep everything
quiet. Never. We’d heard about smuggling
at the Cao Treo border, but this was special. Around a kilometre before the
border, armies of young guys and women were emerging from the forest loaded
with boxed consumer goods that were loaded onto motorcycles and driven off.
Once in no-man's land, we could watch the smugglers walk through the Lao
border post before disappearing into the forest with the goods strapped to
their backs, just before they got to the Vietnamese border post. You couldn't
miss it. They even had an informal cafe to provide refreshments! The stuff
being carted around was amazing. It included rice cookers, printers, colour
TVs and even people with refrigerators strapped to their backs. More
obviously through the border were the continuous trucks with the trunks of
majestic teak trees. It's illegal to log them in both Laos and Vietnam. The jumbo (mini-truck
with seats) from the border to the first town in Lao was way too expensive,
but what's the option? Obviously some of the Vietnamese attitude had smuggled
it's way back. It got better though. Our ride to Vientiane was uneventful,
though the scenery was stunning. Great mountain cliffs covered in greenery
dominated the tranquil valleys with vertically projecting rock formations. We
arrived in a downpour but eventually dried out. Vientiane seems fine so far.
We can watch the football too! Vietnam turned out to be
pretty disappointing. It's beautiful, but for every friendly cheery person,
there are plenty who just try and rip you off or deceive you. It gets tiring.
The worst part is the menacing element in leaving you stranded with no
options. The more vulnerable you are the worse it is. We met one guy here,
who we'd met before who had a similar experience going over the other Vietnam
- Lao border. He been to Vietnam five years earlier and loved it "they
couldn't do enough for you". He wanted to see how it had changed. He
hated it and would never go back. I don’t think I'll go back nor would I
recommend it. It's shame because I wanted to like it. I hope Cambodia and
Laos don't go the same way. Get there soon! I'm sorry too that I didn't get
to do more of the war related stuff. There wasn't time, and now I'm not
convinced I'll come back. We'll be back in London
on 1 July. See you all (nearly) then! This page hosted by |
