Wednesday night we contemplated changing our tickets and leaving Vietnam early because we were over the crowds and the noise and the traffic and the constant hawking and begging. We decided instead, however, to give our guide book one more chance and hopped a bus to the little town called Ninh Binh that the book said was the number one place to get lost in Vietnam.
About 15 minutes before the end of the two hour bus trip from Hanoi to Ninh Binh a young Vietnamese man got on the bus and started chatting us up. We knew what was coming. A couple of minutes before pulling in to the bus station our new friend Duon asked us to get out and take a look at his hotel. He was much friendlier than the millions of people in Hanoi that followed us around the street asking the same. He assured us that if we didn't like it, the hotel we had been planning on going to was easy to get to nearby.
A quick look at the hotel (and a chance meeting with two lovely Belgians we had met the same morning back at our hotel in Hanoi) and a negotiation from $8 per night down to $7 (less than half what we were paying in Hanoi) and we were settled in our new home.
Ninh Binh was what we expected out of Vietnam. We stayed in this quaint little town for three days and two nights, and enjoyed practically every minute. The food was better, the people were better, the scenery was better. Everything was amazing.
First look at the town was by foot after a long lunch and a chat with the Belgians. It was almost getting dark by the time we ventured out and saw the cute little town. Everywhere we went people smiled and said "Hello". We'd see tourists at the occassional bar, but other than that around the streets we only saw locals.
Through the gates into a big semi-modern church we found a group of high school kids practicing some hip hop dancing. Some younger kids saw the camera on Eliza's neck and formed a group pose. "fotograh, fotograh" they kept saying. "Hello!" the little kids would say, and then run off giggling after we returned the greeting.
That night a New Zealander called Craig coasted into town on a sleeper bus. Next morning the three of us rented bicycles and took ourselves to another rowing trip. This time we were prepared and when the rower told us two minutes in about her two babies, we replied in kind and told her about our two babies. We rowed through some beautiful overhaning caves and saw amazing landscape--beautiful mountains jutting out in layers and layers 360 degrees around us.
When we got to the turnaround point and a boat there was selling soda-pop for tipping the rowers, we produced a can of coca-cola we had brought on our own and gratefully handed that to our rowers. They then were able to sell us some baby t-shirts (really for our neice and nephew, but they can believe they are for our two babies if they want to) for a very fair price and we tipped just over the going rate. They chanced trying to sell us some more, but all in all treated us much better than our previous experience.
In the afternoon and evening we learned a new card game and played it with the New Zealander and later he and I joined a Dutchman and an Israli in their version of the game. It was so nice to continually meet people from all over the world in our travels (although by far the most common people were Dutch [or Dutch Belgian] and Melbournites).
Next morning Eliza and I rented a motorbike for $6 and did what we came to Ninh Binh for--got lost. And yes, it was the most amazing place in the world to get lost. One time the landscape so amazed me that I stopped the bike suddenly, saying "Oh my God!" and hopping off to take it all in. Sorry, I can't describe it. You'll see pictures later, which will speak a thousand words, but really you just have to get out and see the world for yourself!
We were sad to leave Ninh Binh that afternoon and head back to the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. We were surprised to find ourselves a little bit sad to leave the hustle and bustle of Hanoi the next day as we headed to the airport. It was a crazy place, but a crazy place we were getting used to. And we did get along so well with the manager of the hotel we stayed at in Hanoi that I ended up on the brochure (and am supposed to be on the website soon!).
Tell you what though, landing in Frankfurt to a clean, peaceful, quiet Europe was a relief.
Monday, 10 December 2007
Saturday, 8 December 2007
Taken Good
On to Wednesday and Perfume Pagoda. All started out well enough. Our bus arrived at a nice stream after a bumpy two hour ride. We were rowed by a 40-something Vietnamese woman who promptly after our getting in the boat informed us that she had "two babies".
After about 15 minutes of rowing, she gave our friend Davina a go at the rowing because of a blister she showed us on her hand. Davina failed miserably at getting us anywhere, rather pivoting us in place. The rows went back to the woman being paid for the job.
Our rower was quite social with us even though we really could not understand each other. We grew to like her a lot and felt bad about the blister on her hand. She rowed much quicker than any of the other rowers and we arrived at the bottom of the mountain which we were to hike in record time. We had a coffee while we awaited the other boats and happily agreed when the cafe owner asked if we wanted to buy a drink for our rower.
When the other boats and our "English speaking" guide whom we paid extra for arrived, she asked us to pay more money (was supposed to be an all-inclusive trip) to take the gondolas up the mountain instead of hiking. A few of us were resistant and up for a hike, but she insisted until all of us agreed (I think because she didn't want to hike up).
Up top, we hiked a few sets of stairs up and down until we got to a beautiful temple built inside a cave (they sure like their caves here). The guide left us alone as we made our own way through the cave, catching snippets of what other guides were telling their tours. When we got out of the cave, our guide pointed out a carving of an old man carrying a baby on the outer cave wall. From memory that's the only thing she pointed out to us (other than a temple map at a later temple) the entire day.
We began our hike down the mountain and someone in the group realized the guide was not with us. Someone else said, "Oh, yeah, she took the gondola down with my dad". So we had no guide to let us know what we were meant to stop and see on the way down.
Lunch was the best part of the day. I love the springrolls here, and the fried noodles and beef ain't half bad either.
Before getting back on our boats, our tour guide let us know that our rower was very lowly paid, so we should tip her $2 (which was supposed to be about 1 1/2 times her daily wage). We were very happy to do so...
... About 20 minutes before arriving back at shore our guide herself started asking for a tip. Although that was a little off-putting, it didn't bother us that much. All we had on us was a 50,000 dong note, just over 1 1/2 times the tip our tour guide had told us to give. We decided to just give that to her as we were very grateful for her rowing and we did feel bad about her blister. (Did anyone ever tell you that if you give someone an inch, they'll take a mile?)
We were going to hand her the money when we got to shore, but she kept asking and asking for it so we finally just gave it to her about 10 minutes before landing. Her academy award winning reaction was "Whoa! That's much too little. I have two babies. Viatnamese people are stingy and give no tip. You must give me more." In much more broken English of course.
We felt horrible. We figured we must have misunderstood the tour guide and that we were supposed to give $2 EACH (and there were four of us). Here we thought we were being generous and it turned out we were being super stingy. Problem was, we actually had no more money as I had left my ATM card in an ATM a few days earlier and had yet to recover it from the bank. I gave her the $2 Australian I had and Eliza and Davina emptied their wallets of the 50 or 60 cents each they had in Viatnamese dong.
Still our guide begged and begged and told us that was much too little. She looked very sad, as if the whole day had been for nothing. She seemed not to believe our story about having no more money even as we showed her our empty wallets. She asked us to give money to our tour guide once we got back to Hanoi (two hour bus trip) to take back to her. By this time we were not liking our rower much anymore. Davina said, "Just tell her we'll send money back even though we won't." But I couldn't make her hope money was coming back and have her hopes be dashed (Keep in mind, I still thought we had misunderstood and were tipping slightly too little).
Back on shore, she got angry at Len when he so "rudely" hopped straight out of the boat while she was still begging. The rest of us quickly followed (including our rower). Up on the street, she seemed to finally be believing our story about not having any more money, so she told us to borrow some from the other tourists on our bus (whom we did not know other than the bus ride in and lunch). We refused, of course, and I still felt a bit bad even though the blatant begging had been offputting.
I felt bad no more when our rower no longer thought we were watching and she was laughing and showing the other rowers how much we stupid tourists had given her. We looked down at her and she looked up and laughed heartily. We had been taken. Taken good.
I guess we should have read the guidebook before we left for the day. When we read it on our arrival back in Hanoi, it warned us about EVERY single thing that had happened, including the lazy tour guide, the begging rower (and apparently the going rate for tips is 5000 dong, about 15% of what our tour guide even suggested we give), the ask for the drink (which apparently the rowers never drink, but just split what we pay for it with the vendor) and the fact that the guide would be so lazy as to neglect to even take us to our paid destination, the Perfume Pagoda! We had assumed one of the two temples we'd been to had been it, but apparently it was a further hike up the mountain after the cave temple!
After about 15 minutes of rowing, she gave our friend Davina a go at the rowing because of a blister she showed us on her hand. Davina failed miserably at getting us anywhere, rather pivoting us in place. The rows went back to the woman being paid for the job.
Our rower was quite social with us even though we really could not understand each other. We grew to like her a lot and felt bad about the blister on her hand. She rowed much quicker than any of the other rowers and we arrived at the bottom of the mountain which we were to hike in record time. We had a coffee while we awaited the other boats and happily agreed when the cafe owner asked if we wanted to buy a drink for our rower.
When the other boats and our "English speaking" guide whom we paid extra for arrived, she asked us to pay more money (was supposed to be an all-inclusive trip) to take the gondolas up the mountain instead of hiking. A few of us were resistant and up for a hike, but she insisted until all of us agreed (I think because she didn't want to hike up).
Up top, we hiked a few sets of stairs up and down until we got to a beautiful temple built inside a cave (they sure like their caves here). The guide left us alone as we made our own way through the cave, catching snippets of what other guides were telling their tours. When we got out of the cave, our guide pointed out a carving of an old man carrying a baby on the outer cave wall. From memory that's the only thing she pointed out to us (other than a temple map at a later temple) the entire day.
We began our hike down the mountain and someone in the group realized the guide was not with us. Someone else said, "Oh, yeah, she took the gondola down with my dad". So we had no guide to let us know what we were meant to stop and see on the way down.
Lunch was the best part of the day. I love the springrolls here, and the fried noodles and beef ain't half bad either.
Before getting back on our boats, our tour guide let us know that our rower was very lowly paid, so we should tip her $2 (which was supposed to be about 1 1/2 times her daily wage). We were very happy to do so...
... About 20 minutes before arriving back at shore our guide herself started asking for a tip. Although that was a little off-putting, it didn't bother us that much. All we had on us was a 50,000 dong note, just over 1 1/2 times the tip our tour guide had told us to give. We decided to just give that to her as we were very grateful for her rowing and we did feel bad about her blister. (Did anyone ever tell you that if you give someone an inch, they'll take a mile?)
We were going to hand her the money when we got to shore, but she kept asking and asking for it so we finally just gave it to her about 10 minutes before landing. Her academy award winning reaction was "Whoa! That's much too little. I have two babies. Viatnamese people are stingy and give no tip. You must give me more." In much more broken English of course.
We felt horrible. We figured we must have misunderstood the tour guide and that we were supposed to give $2 EACH (and there were four of us). Here we thought we were being generous and it turned out we were being super stingy. Problem was, we actually had no more money as I had left my ATM card in an ATM a few days earlier and had yet to recover it from the bank. I gave her the $2 Australian I had and Eliza and Davina emptied their wallets of the 50 or 60 cents each they had in Viatnamese dong.
Still our guide begged and begged and told us that was much too little. She looked very sad, as if the whole day had been for nothing. She seemed not to believe our story about having no more money even as we showed her our empty wallets. She asked us to give money to our tour guide once we got back to Hanoi (two hour bus trip) to take back to her. By this time we were not liking our rower much anymore. Davina said, "Just tell her we'll send money back even though we won't." But I couldn't make her hope money was coming back and have her hopes be dashed (Keep in mind, I still thought we had misunderstood and were tipping slightly too little).
Back on shore, she got angry at Len when he so "rudely" hopped straight out of the boat while she was still begging. The rest of us quickly followed (including our rower). Up on the street, she seemed to finally be believing our story about not having any more money, so she told us to borrow some from the other tourists on our bus (whom we did not know other than the bus ride in and lunch). We refused, of course, and I still felt a bit bad even though the blatant begging had been offputting.
I felt bad no more when our rower no longer thought we were watching and she was laughing and showing the other rowers how much we stupid tourists had given her. We looked down at her and she looked up and laughed heartily. We had been taken. Taken good.
I guess we should have read the guidebook before we left for the day. When we read it on our arrival back in Hanoi, it warned us about EVERY single thing that had happened, including the lazy tour guide, the begging rower (and apparently the going rate for tips is 5000 dong, about 15% of what our tour guide even suggested we give), the ask for the drink (which apparently the rowers never drink, but just split what we pay for it with the vendor) and the fact that the guide would be so lazy as to neglect to even take us to our paid destination, the Perfume Pagoda! We had assumed one of the two temples we'd been to had been it, but apparently it was a further hike up the mountain after the cave temple!
Friday, 7 December 2007
Borrowed Scenery
Next morning, we went kayaking through some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. Here's someone else's piture of it --> http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Vietnam/photo27164.htm.
There is a little fishing village commune there where the people live in houses fixed on floating docks and the children row to the village school. Most of the docks had dogs sitting around on them. I was hoping those dogs liked to swim, else I couldn't figure out how they get any excerise. Eliza and I mentioned that we'd love to live in this tranquil place and our Viatnamese guide said "Are you kidding? I've been working here for two months and I'm already bored of coming out here everyday!"
We "landed" (docked) at a floating museum about the village and her villagers. The most interesting thing I saw at the museum was a government concept plan to turn the village into a solar powered village (Do the villagers even care to have power? Our guide said, "Of course!" I'm not so sure they want their village turned into solar cells.)
The rest of the trip consisted of lunch and the boat and bus trip back to Hanoi.
There is a little fishing village commune there where the people live in houses fixed on floating docks and the children row to the village school. Most of the docks had dogs sitting around on them. I was hoping those dogs liked to swim, else I couldn't figure out how they get any excerise. Eliza and I mentioned that we'd love to live in this tranquil place and our Viatnamese guide said "Are you kidding? I've been working here for two months and I'm already bored of coming out here everyday!"
We "landed" (docked) at a floating museum about the village and her villagers. The most interesting thing I saw at the museum was a government concept plan to turn the village into a solar powered village (Do the villagers even care to have power? Our guide said, "Of course!" I'm not so sure they want their village turned into solar cells.)
The rest of the trip consisted of lunch and the boat and bus trip back to Hanoi.
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Dragons and Melbournites
Wow! What more can I say? Ha Long Bay was absolutely amazingly beautiful. In one spot where we were kayaking through the mountains in an incredibly serene location, I named Ha Long Bay one of my two favourite places in the world (the being a mountain field near Nelson, B.C.).
We (Eliza and I and the Melbourne couple we met on the aeroplane--Davina and Len) departed our hotel just after the breakfast of my last post. The four hour van ride (with an additional four couples [another from Melbourne, a Swiss German couple, a couple from Italy, and a couple who live in German Switzerland but are from Holland and Germany], our driver, and one of our tour guides, Kiem) was fascinating. Again with the "interesting" lack of road rules. When we missed our highway exit, our van driver simply backed up in our lane to get back to the exit (with everyone behind us honking and swerving around us of course). We saw lots of interesting buildings. For the most part, they were thin and long (like Native American longhouses) and made of concrete. The fronts were painted with different facades--some Elizibethan, some Victorian, some Spanish, some French, etc. The sides and back were just left as white concrete. It felt like they were movie sets out of MGM or Universal Studios.
When we arrived at the bay, we were escorted onto a beautiful mini-cruise boat. There, we waited 45 minutes for the captain to check our passports and for a few more people to board (one of which was an American originally from Boston, but who has been working around the world for the last nine years). We then enjoyed a tasty lunch as we departed.
Our first stop was a small cave that we hiked through and then out the other side up a cliff to a magnificent view of the bay. Then we reboarded and went on to the "Cave of Surprise", which is a cave full of rocks that look (completely naturally so they claim) like different animals. The biggest is a dragon in the ceiling who laid down to rest and formed Ha Long Bay. We were led through the caves by our second tour guide, a cute little 22 year old named Chi.
Breakfast again, more later ;)
We (Eliza and I and the Melbourne couple we met on the aeroplane--Davina and Len) departed our hotel just after the breakfast of my last post. The four hour van ride (with an additional four couples [another from Melbourne, a Swiss German couple, a couple from Italy, and a couple who live in German Switzerland but are from Holland and Germany], our driver, and one of our tour guides, Kiem) was fascinating. Again with the "interesting" lack of road rules. When we missed our highway exit, our van driver simply backed up in our lane to get back to the exit (with everyone behind us honking and swerving around us of course). We saw lots of interesting buildings. For the most part, they were thin and long (like Native American longhouses) and made of concrete. The fronts were painted with different facades--some Elizibethan, some Victorian, some Spanish, some French, etc. The sides and back were just left as white concrete. It felt like they were movie sets out of MGM or Universal Studios.
When we arrived at the bay, we were escorted onto a beautiful mini-cruise boat. There, we waited 45 minutes for the captain to check our passports and for a few more people to board (one of which was an American originally from Boston, but who has been working around the world for the last nine years). We then enjoyed a tasty lunch as we departed.
Our first stop was a small cave that we hiked through and then out the other side up a cliff to a magnificent view of the bay. Then we reboarded and went on to the "Cave of Surprise", which is a cave full of rocks that look (completely naturally so they claim) like different animals. The biggest is a dragon in the ceiling who laid down to rest and formed Ha Long Bay. We were led through the caves by our second tour guide, a cute little 22 year old named Chi.
Breakfast again, more later ;)
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Boy, Interrupted
Up for an early breakfast again today before heading out on a two day, one night house boat tour of Ha Long Bay. Even though we are pretty poor, we decided to splurge on the luxury boat for $65 all inclusive. As I said, this is the only time for awhile we'll be able to afford the luxury of a beautiful twelve room boat. --Breakfast is ready. More later.
Ni devis multe da kafo hodiaux.
Woke up before the birds at 5.30am when Australian time kicked in. Couldn't go back to sleep so got up early and started the day with noodle soup and 3 cups of coffee.
In vietnam coffee is served black with sweetened condensed milk. Sugar and Milk in one!
Walked through the labyrinth of the old quarter today, dodging motorbikes at every step and knocking back a steady stream of requests to purchase army-green caps with a big red communist star on top (amongst other offers for sale).
Hanoi's old quarter is divided into streets offering specific wares for sale. We strolled down roads lined with silks, wools, steels, beads, strings, mats, toys and strangely santa costumes. It's easy to get lost, but also easy to find yourself back somewhere familar.
We visited a restored historic traditional house owned back in the 19th century by a chinese merchant that sits on Ma May street, somewhere in this midst of this jungle of retail.
In vietnam coffee is served black with sweetened condensed milk. Sugar and Milk in one!
Walked through the labyrinth of the old quarter today, dodging motorbikes at every step and knocking back a steady stream of requests to purchase army-green caps with a big red communist star on top (amongst other offers for sale).
Hanoi's old quarter is divided into streets offering specific wares for sale. We strolled down roads lined with silks, wools, steels, beads, strings, mats, toys and strangely santa costumes. It's easy to get lost, but also easy to find yourself back somewhere familar.
We visited a restored historic traditional house owned back in the 19th century by a chinese merchant that sits on Ma May street, somewhere in this midst of this jungle of retail.
Saturday, 1 December 2007
The main point is to see the world
Hey all,
Who knows whether I'll get the time to update this much, but as I woke up at 5:30am this morning, might as well create it in case there are other times I get a chance to write. This way if I happen to get lots of time you can read at your leisure instead of me flooding your inbox...
We'll start with the two emails I've sent to the immediate family:
Saturday afternoon:
Got to Vietnam safe and sound. Just hoping our luggage follows soon (did not make it on our flight) :(. Met a nice couple from Melbourne on the plane, shared a taxi to Hanoi with them, and found nice hotel rooms for $15 per night. Had a nice lunch with them and our bags are supposed to be delivered to the hotel tonight. Cross your fingers for us.
Talk soon!
Saturday evening:
Alright, got the bags.
Wow, you should see the way traffic works here. I really don't think it can be explained in a way it can be understood without experiening it. Suffice it to say the only road rule it seems has any semblence of a following is to sort of stay to the right two-thirds of the road. Pretty much, everyone just weaves around just as you would when walking on the sidewalk--even at intersections. No stopping, just weaving around other vehicles. Of course everyone's constantly giving courtesy honks (not rude honks) to make sure people know they are there. When crossing the road on foot, you just have to go for it realizing that vehicles don't stop, they just weave around pedestrians. Insane, but we got used to it in about 15 minutes.
More later.
--Jerm
Who knows whether I'll get the time to update this much, but as I woke up at 5:30am this morning, might as well create it in case there are other times I get a chance to write. This way if I happen to get lots of time you can read at your leisure instead of me flooding your inbox...
We'll start with the two emails I've sent to the immediate family:
Saturday afternoon:
Got to Vietnam safe and sound. Just hoping our luggage follows soon (did not make it on our flight) :(. Met a nice couple from Melbourne on the plane, shared a taxi to Hanoi with them, and found nice hotel rooms for $15 per night. Had a nice lunch with them and our bags are supposed to be delivered to the hotel tonight. Cross your fingers for us.
Talk soon!
Saturday evening:
Alright, got the bags.
Wow, you should see the way traffic works here. I really don't think it can be explained in a way it can be understood without experiening it. Suffice it to say the only road rule it seems has any semblence of a following is to sort of stay to the right two-thirds of the road. Pretty much, everyone just weaves around just as you would when walking on the sidewalk--even at intersections. No stopping, just weaving around other vehicles. Of course everyone's constantly giving courtesy honks (not rude honks) to make sure people know they are there. When crossing the road on foot, you just have to go for it realizing that vehicles don't stop, they just weave around pedestrians. Insane, but we got used to it in about 15 minutes.
More later.
--Jerm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)