Day 8 - Danang & Hoi An

When we got to the airport this morning, we were surprised to find out that we had been upgraded to Business Class. It was the first time my mother or I ever flew in business class and we both giggled like school girls as we were given access to the Business Class lounge and then were escorted to the front of the line when boarding time came. The seats were spacious and I managed to sleep on the plane for the first time since we boarded for Vietnam. We were so comfortable that we said we'd try to get an upgrade for our plane ride home - even if it costs us more money. :)

When we arrived in Danang, we were greeted by our tour guide, Huan. He drove us to a local cafe and said that we had to wait for an hour at the cafe until the rest of the group arrived from Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City, I should say). While we were there, my mother had an iced coffee and I had a Soursop Milkshake (Sinh tố mãng cầu). This is one of my favourite milkshakes, next to the avocado one.

Once we left the cafe, we headed towards Hoi An because it was too late to explore Danang (we'll be returning there the morning before our flight on the 29th instead). As we drove through Danang, I was surprised to see how much development is taking place. It is a mountainous region that is also right by the ocean. The amount of resorts that are being built in this little city is amazing...the resorts rivaled any that I've seen in the Caribbean!

It took us a while to get to Hoi An because the roads aren't as straightforward as they are in more developed countries. Most of the time, what should only take about 15 minutes may take about an hour - with a lot of stops and honking along the way. When we got to Hoi An, our hotel was across a tiny old bridge so our tour bus couldn't go over it. Instead, we stopped in a nearby parking lot and were transported in minivans across the bridge to our hotel while our luggage followed in another small truck. We stood out like sore thumbs on the streets of Hoi An where cyclo drivers and bicyclists rule the streets.

We stayed at the Van Loi Hotel in Hoi An, which was fairly nice for a 3-star hotel. My mother asked to be on the lower level so she didn't have to climb stairs but when we got to our room and turned on the air conditioner, about a litre of water started to drip out of it...right over the television. The hotel sent a repair man who arrived in what seemed like 30 seconds and the only thing he was equipped with was a screwdriver, a towel and a tube so he could blow out the water. My mother and I laughed and she said, "Oh my goodness, he doesn't even have tools! We're going to get electrocuted." It took us about five minutes to call the front desk and move to another room.

After getting situated in our hotel and taking an afternoon nap (I'm starting to get used to these), we headed out to town on a walking tour of the different pagodas within Hoi An's downtown area. The downtown core is saturated with clothing stores as Hoi An is known for its expert tailors. I'm told that you can get a whole new wardrobe sewn for you here in a matter of days. I set out determined to find another maxi dress tailored to fit me perfectly. There are a lot of tourists in the area too - more than I've seen anywhere else, which made it a little difficult for bargaining. I found that almost ALL of the vendors knew a little bit of English and that meant that my mother and I couldn't share our desired price in English before bargaining! hehe!

When I finally found a dress that I wanted, after what seemed like visiting a hundred different stores, the sales lady (at Thu Van Tailors) told me to go try it on in the back. Excited, I ran to the back with the dress only to find a half naked lady trying on another dress in what seemed like a back storage area of the store! She gave me an annoyed look and continued to undress! The sales lady nudged me and said, "Go ahead. Take off your clothes and try it on!" Then she laughed and said, "Oh ok, if you're shy, I'll just turn around." You can imagine the look on my face - half horrified and half embarrassed, totally mortified. After the other lady left, I hurried put the dress on and went out to the front of the store so they could measure me. She asked me to put down a deposit and said she would have the dress altered within an hour and will deliver it herself right to my hotel. Now, that's customer service!

Hoi An is really beautiful, with the Thu Bon river passing right through it and the many colourful vendors that line each street on both sides of the river. You will not find a more happy and light place - it caters to tourists with the many cafes, bars and bright hotels. In between the businesses, there are historical pagodas that are centuries old and you can pay a minThe best part is, many of the historical buildings have been preserved even through development and natural disasters. At night, the entire city is lit up with paper lanterns and soft Christmas lights. Floating paper lanterns are sold along the river and you can find children sending them into the river with their well wishes.

Life feels different here - people work hard but they also have time for play. All the retail vendors close at 9pm and there is a band that plays music by the river every other night. We went down to the river yesterday night and enjoyed the fun atmosphere a little. When we got a little tired and decided to head back to the hotel, my mother suggested that we try taking a cyclo back. I was hesitant at first because the men who ride the bikes look like they are all of 95 pounds and there's no way they can push my mother and I both the whole 5kms back to the hotel, especially across the arched bridge. For those who don't know what a cyclo is, click here.

We chose a young cyclo driver who we thought could handle the both of us and he gave us a quoted price only to turn around and tell one of the oldest cyclo drivers on the lot to take us! My mother sat in the back and I had to sit on her lap. You can only imagine how ridiculous we looked on this cyclo being driven by what seemed like a 70 year-old man. The worst part was, because we were too heavy for him, he was going incredibly slow and only picked up momentum when we went down a small hill. To get people to get out of his way, he insisted on yelling at the top of his lungs, "Yo yo yo! Yo yo yo!" You can see it here in this video... note that the little fat boy on the left outran our cyclo:

Day 8 - Scooters & Other Vehicles

This morning on the way to the Hanoi airport, it was raining outside and we were picked up in a tiny Hyundai. As we drove to the city, I kept noticing the different ways that the Vietnamese deal with the rain - especially on their scooters!

I've seen a lot of situations on the scooter that amaze me and crack me up at the same time. It just goes to show that the Vietnamese will always find a way to make it work. Check out this picture I found on the internet. I've actually SEEN this in the city before.. no joke...but I'm usually going to fast to snap a picture!

I know it's not the safest way to travel but I have yet to see one accident since I've been in Vietnam. In Saigon, there are officers standing at almost every street corner, ready to give out tickets for any and every traffic violation! And it's not just people that get piled on to these scooters, I've seen everything from large electronics to livestock to boxes of merchandise! You name it, I've probably seen it being hauled on the back of a scooter.

Today, however, was the funniest. With all of the rain, I didn't see more than two people on one scooter - but I saw two people sharing one raincoat! I saw another man was wearing a raincoat but to avoid getting his feet wet in the rain, he had his legs pulled close towards his chest so that the only part that could get wet were his hands. He was almost in fetal position...It was hilarious! Here are a couple more pictures that I took:

Day 7 - People & Food

Travelling with my mother has proved to be a bit overwhelming at times but overall, I'd say we're getting along pretty well. It's been a VERY long time since I've spent this much time with her... in fact, I haven't lived with her in over a decade (with the exception of a 4-month co-op work term back in 2004). She is not the most active or physically strong person but I think her sheer excitement has energized her on this trip.

On this leg of the tour (4 days in Northern Vietnam), we've been fortunate enough to meet some very generous and fun people. My Vietnamese is not the greatest but I'm managing OK on my own. I met a couple of friends and while we departed on separate vehicles tonight, we managed to get each other's contact information. I met a woman named Ha and she is on the tour with her 82 year-old grandmother. If you saw how fast she moved, you'd be amazed. I keep staring at her because she reminds me of my own grandmother...in ways, I feel like my own grandmother is very much here with me in spirit, making sure that my mother and I are OK. Ha's grandmother is putting my mother to shame...you should have seen my mother's face when we got to the temple in Yen Tu and Ha's grandmother said to my mother, "Let the kids go up - there's no way you and I are going to make it up those stairs. Let us old people stay together." LOL My mother actually got so embarrassed that she was being compared to an 82 year old that she put her hat on and walked off the bus with me...only to be discouraged by the cobblestone steps and eventually went running back to the bus.

I was sad to leave the bus this evening after dinner as everyone continued on to Sapa. It was bittersweet because I know that there wasn't any way my mother could have climbed up the hillsides in Sapa but I know that Danang is going to be beautiful too.

You've probably wondered why I haven't written anything about the food here on the tour... well, it's because I haven't been too impressed with it. We've been eating in nice restaurants and it's a lot of the same thing because we are all sharing together. I don't think I've come upon a dish that has been spectacular. The one thing that my mother's been impressed with is the coffee (...but of course, it's the same in Saigon too. (@Dean - in case you don't know already) The way that Vietnamese coffee is made is fairly simple... Brew your favourite strong coffee and add about two tablespoons of condensed milk. Stir. If you want Vietnamese iced coffee, follow the previous steps and then add ice. :)

Condensed milk is used in a lot of Vietnamese drinks - including the fruit shakes. My favourite fruit shake is the avocado shake (or Sinh tố bơ) It's basically an avocado, ice and condensed milk blended together. I know for some, avocado isn't the first thing you think of when you want to have a milkshake but if you like avocados, this is definitely something you have to try. It's delicious!

I've been really careful about eating fruit here in Vietnam - although it's very delicious, I've been told to watch out for worms. Today, our bus made a stop at the street market for people to jump out and buy fruit. You could get a kilogram of lychees (a plastic bag FULL) for 6000 dong, which is about 30 cents. It was cheap for a reason!! The vendors let you taste the fruit before buying but they will give you the best looking fruit to taste and pack your bag full of the spoiled ones... the entire tour group learned this the hard way! About 20 people got off the bus, bought a bag full and then discovered that half of the lychees were spoiled as the bus drove off and it was too late to complain. My mother was hilarious... she carried the bag back with us to the hotel and then offered it to our taxi driver. He turned it down! Heck, even HE knew that the fruit was no good!!!

I did, however, have my first beer in Vietnam today - I'm surprised that I've last this long with my mother without having to consume alcohol but here it is...It was ordered for the table at dinnertime and boy, it went down pretty nice. Also, when you're drinking beer in Vietnam, the people here like to add ice to the beer to keep it from getting warm (not necessarily to water it down) and they like to touch glasses before every sip. I managed to to figure this out later, when I had already finished my entire beer and the other tourists were still on their third sip! My mother said something under her breath that sounded a little bit like, "I can't believe you're drinking with the men...you must have had some practice!" LOL

I'm ready for bed as we have to get up at 5am tomorrow to get to the airport for our flight to Danang...nite nite!

Day 7 - When It Rains, It Pours in Vietnam

When we woke up this morning, the sky looked dark and gloomy and we knew that today would be the day of rest... it is the seventh day, after all :) Here were were, in Ha Long Bay - our hotel overlooking the bay...so close, yet so far away.

Here's what we would have seen had we been able to go..

Instead, we slept in until 11am, then checked out of the hotel and headed towards Yen Tu again. We managed to make it to the Lower Yen Tu pagoda, which was still about 50 cobblestone steps up the mountain side before it started to pour again. My mother stayed in the bus as soon as she walked to the cobblestone stairway and said she couldn't do it because of the uneven flooring. I sprinted up the steps, past everyone who had raincoats and umbrellas and then was huffing and puffing like a smoker when I finally got to the top (no offense to smokers).

The picture above is one that I found on Google because my pictures turned out so blurry with big raindrops in the center. :) It was so serene in there and I felt like I was intruding on a very calm, peaceful place with all my heavy breathing. I took some pictures of the inside of the pagoda and then went back down.

We've stopped at a couple of nice pagodas in Vietnam and I'm sure that there will be plenty more. Although the French came in and introduced Catholicism a long time ago, there are still many many followers of Buddhism and from what I've seen, there are more pagodas than there are churches here.

I've been going to the Chinese pagodas (or temples) in Toronto for almost all of my life and I find that they are all pretty much the same - open to the public, very welcoming and serene. They are also very beautiful structures architecturally - the ones here in Vietnam are a lot larger and some even have several courtyards. Here are some pictures of the pagodas we've seen so far...

Day 6 - Ha Long Bay and Rain!

We left for Ha Long Bay this morning at 8am after having a Vietnamese style breakfast which consisted of spring rolls, fried rice and even Pho (vietnamese beef noodle soup). Our hotel was located in a narrow alleyway that the bus could not get to so we had to walk out to the main road. Here's some footage I have of the crazy traffic. Note: On the right of the screen, there is a lady crossing the street with her boy. Keep in mind that this is a one lane street!


The tour has been good so far and today was the first day that we ran into a glitch - although you can't really call it a glitch because one cannot control nature! Before heading out to Ha Long Bay, we made a stop at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. This is were Ho Chi Minh rests, preserved in a glass case and protected by what seems to be about a million soldiers in white. We couldn't take pictures of him inside the mausoleum but the site itself is beautiful - there is marble everywhere. What is it with great leaders of poor countries having to have these beautiful structures built for them while the country suffers! (Opps.. that might be a rant!). It was extremely hot outside and the line up took us about an hour to get through...and walking through the mausoleum took about 60 seconds! Well, at least it was air-conditioned. :)

On the way to Ha Long Bay, we had a scheduled stop for lunch in the mountainous region of Yen Tu, which is the Buddhism capital of Vietnam. There is a trek to take up the Yen Tu Mountain but we didn't quite make it there because we were going to try to go to Ha Long Bay to get to the cruise in case it rained tomorrow.

We took a scooter partially up the mountain to the restaurant that served us a vegetarian meal with rice. We hurried with lunch because we didn't want to miss the cruise in Ha Long. My mother and I abandoned all safety rules (and perhaps logic) and decided to take one scooter all the way back down. She, wedged in the middle of the driver and myself, looked a little freaked out but it was too much fun to pass up. Here's a video:

We didn't quite make it on time to Ha Long Bay and it wasn't meant to be because when we got back on the bus, it started to rain. I remember being a child and my mother would tell me that whenever it rained in Vietnam, people would come out from their homes because it cooled the entire city. Children would play in the rain and adults would pull up chairs on their verandas and watch! Although it is true that the rain cools everything down, I'm not quite sure that people on the tour were ready to go play in the puddles!

Last minute arrangements were made and we ended up at a hotel for the night. After dinner, the rain stopped so our tour guide decided he would take us around town to see some local sites. We stopped by a shop that specialized in pearls and I lost $60 to a great sale. LOL.

The rain has put a bit of a damper on the second day of the tour but I'm confident that there is still much to see and all is not lost. We weren't meant to see Ha Long Bay this time if the rain continues and I'm OK with that... we are on vacation after all and you can't get upset about these things. The tour guide is sympathetic but there's really nothing that he can do - you cannot control nature. If the weather is good tomorrow, we've got quite the adventure coming - a four hour cruise on Ha Long Bay and a 20-minute trek up Yen Tu Mountain where we are going to see the pagoda at the top of the mountain and then go zip-lining all the way down. :)

Let's hope that my prayers at the pagoda this afternoon are heard....

Day 5 - North and South

When we first arrived in Vietnam, my mother and I had to go through the customs counter where they checked our passports. There was an officer there with a very thick Northern Vietnamese accent and I could see my mother's reaction change instantaneously. He checked our passports and literally shooed us through, acting as though he was annoyed with us. When I asked my mother what that was all about, she said, "This is how most of the Northern Vietnamese people are...oh, and you're supposed to put money in your passport so that they don't give you any trouble. Your grandmother does it all the time but, I refuse!"

I couldn't help but feel as though my mother was just a tad prejudice and I told her to give people a chance: Vietnam is a very different country than when she left almost three decades ago. From what I gather, there are definitely still some hard feelings in the South about people from the North. It makes me wonder if it goes beyond just what happened in the war, though.

In my family, we have a blend of people - we have North/Southern Vietnamese and Chinese. However, we all reside in the South and have Southern accents. Well, mine is a bit of an amalgamation of South, Chinese and a little bit of English. I know, it's muddy. :)

I just wanted to write a little bit about this topic because what I've seen in Hanoi so far isn't much different than in Saigon. It's definitely not as wealthy as Saigon, the people speak differently but they are still just people. I think there is quite a stigma about Northern Vietnam and I'm not quite sure if it's always justifiable. I could tell our tour guide was a little apprehensive too because the entire group is travelling from Saigon. In the beginning of his introduction, he said that times are different now and that the Northern Viet people are not as rigid as they used to be. In fact, most of them like to exercise their right to do whatever they want, way too often. He then pointed to a Vespa that had three people on it with no helmets and said, "See? We can do stuff like this and get away with it now!"

Vietnam as a whole is made up of different parts and all of those parts co-exist together. I know that war changes people and during those times, you have to pick a side. I can see it with my family whenever they talk about those years with such animosity. I am hoping that as my mother sees more parts of Vietnam, she can also start to see that there's a possibility for change and that acceptance is a good step towards forgiveness.

Coming into Hanoi today, my mother was very nervous. She said that it took her 55 years to come to this part of her own country. On the plane ride in, she held my hand and said, "You know, I have my opinions about Hanoi but I am a person who really does love my country. I want you to one day love it too - all of it." I think I've already fallen in love - I am excited to see it - North, South and everything in between.

Day 5 - Wicked Hat Tan and Humidity in Hanoi

We left for Hanoi at 6am this morning and have been going ever since. It is about 7pm right now and my mother and I are resting. We are getting used to taking ice cold showers to help make this incredible heat more bearable. It is 36°C right now in Hanoi and the humidity makes it feel even hotter. It actually reminds me of being in Delhi, India when I was there last March.

My uncle Hung picked us up this morning and took us for breakfast - he must have had a direct line into my stomach because he took me for what I've been craving since I got to Vietnam - Bánh cuốn, which is a wide, thin rice sheet filled with a mixture of ground pork and mushrooms and rolled. You eat it with fresh basil, blanched sprouts and pork sausage (well, more like ham) and you drench it in fish sauce. I have to say, I was in heaven for the five minutes it took me to inhale this dish. LOL

The plane ride was about 2 hours and we slept through most of it because of the early morning start. I always find it interesting to know what they serve on plane rides in other countries. On this domestic flight, they served us sticky rice with pork for breakfast! I didn't eat any of it because I was still full from the banh cuon but my mother did have a bite and said it was all right. I have no idea what vegetarians would eat on these flights.. there really were no other options!

When we got to Hanoi, we literally jumped right into the tour. There are 28 people on the tour, which makes it more fun and my mother is already trying to make friends. Because we booked this tour through a Vietnamese company, we found out quickly that the tour caters mostly to the locals. There were no other foreigners in the tour group, which meant that we would go to local restaurants and the tour is entirely in Vietnamese. Herein lies the main problem though - I cannot understand the Northern Vietnamese accent at all! The other problem is, my mother is the worst translator ever. She actually said to me on the bus as I struggled to understand what our tour guide was saying: "Now you know what it's like for me in Canada!" haha!

Our first stop was lunch at a local restaurant where we were served some local dishes. In the Vietnamese culture, we basically get a bowl of rice each and then a number of side dishes are placed in the middle of the table to share. It's a free-for-all and if you don't eat quick, no one will save a portion for you! It's customary for the younger ones at the table to wait until the elders take their first pick. We all use chopsticks and there's no serving spoons - no fear of germs or shared spit!

Our second stop of the day was at Hoan Kiem Lake (Hồ Hoàn Kiếm), which is a major site in Hanoi. When you walk over the Huc Bridge, there is a little pagoda where they keep the Hoan Kiem tortoise that apparently came from the lake. It was found in 1967, weighing 200 kg (440 lbs) and measured 1.9 meters long (6 ft 3in).

Here's my mother being sassy in front of the lake entrance. Note that we are wearing the bright pink hats from our tour, which you can spot from a mile away. It is also the hat that gave me this wicked hat tan - my forehead has a clear horizontal division now (sorry, no pictures were taken of that).

The weather in Hanoi is absolutely horrid right now and if you're going to travel to Vietnam during this time, make sure that you bring sunscreen and that you're not afraid to walk around drenched in your own sweat. Everything that we drank was absorbed by our clothes in the two hours that we spent walking around town. There are many people walking around selling fans and cold water but the problem is, with the humidity, ice melts as soon as it hits your cup and everything becomes room temperature. There is no relief from the heat.

The third stop of the day was the Temple of Literature (Quốc Tử Giám). This is also the site of Vietnam's first University. The people who were on the tour with their children found this place fascinating and my mother told me it's because they believe that coming here will help the children with their studies - most of them stopped at the Stalea of Doctors to touch the stone turtle heads that would give them luck. We walked through the five perfectly groomed courtyards within an hour and by then, it was already five o'clock and we had to head out for dinner. It was also scorching hot and most of the tourists were dying to get back on the air-conditioned bus!

After dinner, the tour bus dropped us off at the hotel and we are going to call it an early night at just a little past 8pm. We are leaving for Ha Long Bay tomorrow at 8am and I'm told it's going to be beautiful. The tour guide told us that we might be sleeping on the boat tomorrow night so I'll wait to find out if he's telling the truth - I mean, I think that's what he said! LOL

Good night and I'll talk to you tomorrow.. :)