Vietnam, September 2006 - Kim


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After Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia it was time for me to go on and I went straight to the old capital Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City. On the way to the border from Cambodia to Vietnam the bus driver had a lunch break. All the passengers just had to wait for an hour or so and I was hungry too. I got off the bus and just followed my nose to a street market where, like everywhere else in Asia, is food. On a BBQ were a few sticks with some meat in between and it smelled nice so I gave it a try. In the meat were a lot of small bones so I was afraid that I was eating rat or something. I did not ask before I ate it (It tasted fine) and when I asked I did not understand. When the lady saw my stupid expression she started to bark.... I just ate dog….

All well, the trip went on and I arrived in Vietnam. Imagine a city with 4 million motorbikes, everyone ignores all traffic regulations and are on the street the same time… welcome to Ho Chi Minh City. A nice thing to do was, just sit on a corner with a beer and watch the traffic go buy. Unbelievable that everyone drives like mad men and hardly any accidents happen. If you cross the street, don’t slow down, don’t stop, just keep walking in a steady pass and you will not be hit. (mostly)

From Ho chi Minh I went to the Cu Chi tunnels. Better know as Viet Cong (VC) tunnels. There was a hole in the ground not much bigger than a cutting board. This was the entrance of  a whole city under ground.
Almost on top of it was an American army base stationed. All the time undetected. For the tourist they made one tunnel bigger so we could get trough. I cant say I am claustrophobic but it was not a very pleasant experience. I also visited a temple where three religions were combined. Kat holism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Now, I don’t believe  in anything, but I thought it was a nice thing that they are able to mix up without arguing or killing each other about what’s right or not.

Of course I visited the Mekong delta. With a little boat, I visited a candy factory where all sweets were made from coconuts. And next door was a rice paper factory. Here I got a few glasses of rice wine. Even I was a bit tipsy afterwards, I still really enjoyed the floating market on the Mekong river.

That night I slept in a “fancy hotel”, but I did not feel like having dinner there with the rest of the tourists and decided to go to of the suburbs to find my self a meal. I found one but they did not speak any other languages, so with gestures and a imitation of a chicken I ordered…… something like chicken. Just when my plate was coming, there was a power blackout and quickly the candles were placed on the table. I just started on my meal and while I was having a chicken leg the light came back on and I saw what I actually was chewing on. It was chicken all right, but the wrong end. I had the head in my mouth. Yummy. Now I ate dog, chicken heads and on the way all kinds of insects, including scorpion, beetles (fried and raw) spider and snake. I told you, I ate a lot of strange things and I am still alive. Have not been sick once

It was time for me to move on. I bought a ticket for the coastline from south to north. It was very cheap but, horrible for your body. With envy I thought back about my complaining about the fancy bus to Kuala Lumpur. My first stop was in Nha Trang. My dad had a girlfriend here and she had a restaurant. I promised him to find it to say hi, but first I wanted to dive in the south Chinese sea. See the pictures how nice it was. If I made three dives, Icould get a days boattrip the next day for free. I did and the next day I took the Island hopping cruse. We snorkelled a bit and had a great lunch while the crew was entertaining us with music. After the lunch we had to go all in the water to get a free drink at the floating bar. I don’t have pictures of this (I was to busy getting drunk in the water) but Mikael has. Check it out!.

The day after I went to find the restaurant of my dads girlfriend. I was not sure if I found the right one until the lady looked at me and started to hug me. I look like my dad and she recognised me immediately. Of course she was informed that I was coming. I did not need to worry about food, drinks or entertainment any more. I just had to come there and I got it all for free. It was a bit of a strange feeling being treated as a princess while I had money enough and they did not have much. But all the things I offered back were simply refused. She took me to a spa, hire up the village. Here I had my first mud bath ever in my life and I loved it. But also here I had to go on and I went on to Hoi an.

This town is famous for silk and cheap clothes. I let made a lot and most of it send home to my mom, which I later found all to big when I came back home. After my buying frenzy I went on to Hue. I did not like it here, so after one day renting a scooter I decided to move on again to the capital Hanoi. Something went wrong with my reservation, so I was forced to stay another day in this place.

Next day I did get on the bus and the first thing I did when I arrived was finding a place to sleep. The guesthouse II found also had a tour office so I booked three trips. One to Halongbay, one to Sapa and one out of the country to Laos. I gave my passport to the tour operator to arrange a visa for Laos. It did not feel right but I had no other choice.

The next day I went to Halongbay to get on a boat. The surrounding was stunning. Rocks sticking out from the water in all kind of formations. Fish farms floating in between. Blue clear water and also nice warm to swim in. it was a trip from two nights. The first night was in a hotel on a island. The day after the boat went to a place where one of the James Bond movies was shot. Here was a island with a nice aquarium in the shape of a pirates ship. The walk up to the mountain should be beautiful, but it started to rain and the rocks were getting slippery and very dangerous. As a result that I did not see the environment but just my hands and feet. At one point I slipped and got a huge cut in my wrist. No more swimming for me for a few days. The second night I should stay on the boat but the rain changed in to a big storm and we were forced to stay in the same hotel again.

The next day the storm was gone and the boat went back to solid ground. I took the bus back to Hanoi and just in time to take the train to Sapa. While booking the trip I could choose from a 6 or 4 person sleeping cabin and hard or soft chair. I wanted to sleep, but still cheap so I picked the 6 person cabin. This turned out to be just a wooden plank to sleep on and my roomies were smelly and one lady had a 2 day old baby, so no sleeping.

After a shower my guide was waiting for me and a French couple. We were going for a walk through the rice fields and have a home stay. Just 17 km…. What the guide did not tell was that it was up and down and up again. I was broken and dying . But it was to die for. I cant remember that I had such a beautiful view before in my life. In the evening we arrived in a little village in the mountains were the hmong tribe live. They live like 300 years ago and the beds provided for the tourists were just planks and a pillow. The next day I had a lot of muscle pain, but I was still in the middle of mountains and rice fields, so we walked again. We walked through creeks, rice fields and a swampy area. Later in the afternoon we came back to Sapa.

Even if I was dead tired it was well worth it. After a good nights sleep I wanted to take the train back to Hanoi. There was some thing wrong with my ticket. By accident they booked not a bed but a seat. I asked if it was a soft seat. And it was… so he said. It was not however, and I sat on a wooden bench for the whole trip. You can understand that I was pissed off. So I went back to the place where I booked the trip.

The boss was not in and I had to wait. They gave me a key to use a shower while waiting and I thought it was a nice gesture. After a few hours the boss came and he explained that normally I would get a compensation but because I used a room for free….... that was the end of discussion. Bastard! With no time to argue, my bus to Laos was waiting for me and I had to get to the bus station.

The ride to the bus station was included in the ticket. This ride turned out to be a motorbike. So in front of the driver, my big backpack. Me on the back with a small backpack and the driver driving 70 km/ph with one hand on the phone. He was having a good time because he noticed me squeezing my legs trying to avoid to hit the bus on the left and the car on the right site. He just smiled. I, on the other hand was just scared.

When he dropped me off, I noticed that there were not so many tourists, 8 to be precise. We were put in the back of the bus along with the rest of the luggage. I had to put my feet on top of a box. On the right site of me was a satellite dish, and on the left site the hammock from the second driver. After a while it started to stink in the bus. It turned out to be a box of fish oil who was leaking. The bus was full, but the driver seemed not to notice because every time he pulled over to pick up more and more people. So small stools were placed in the middle for them to sit on. Maybe it was more comfortable than my position. Most annoying was the ass of the second driver bumping in to me for 24 hours in a row. The first thing we did (the 8 tourists) was getting a beer to celebrate we made it alive to Laos.

This story continues in Laos >>