Not because of all the history but because this is what I imagine Vietnam was like maybe 20 or 30 years ago... simpler, dirtier, smaller... but it still has its charms
Just a quick check-in from an internet cafe as we had to stop in to book a hotel for tomorrow, as we are somehow getting to Siem Reap a day earlier than planned... easy to lose days here and there when travelling but we seem to have gained one.
Our arrival in Cambodia was the same way I left last time, via bus between Phnom Penh and Saigon (ho Chi Minh)... it was all a little overwhelming for Lala I think, especially since I made her run the gauntlet of touts and tuk tuk drivers and walk to our hotel, which was somehow again nowhere near as close to the bus stop as she anticipated... the hotel didn't help her sanity either, being a "bargain" place with a good location but facilities a bit more "rat hole" like than our previous hotels so far... but it serves our purposes and will keep us dry until we move on.... the luxurious curtains over the large window also handily stop people who are walking up the internal stairs from looking in on you sleeping!! All the mod-cons!! Also have to remember never to go to the bathroom without someone in the other room, as the door handle comes off...
Anyways, a good day walking today has nearly wrecked my companion but we have seen the ancient history museum and S-23, the Killing Fields war crime museum, converted from an old prison and torture centre that was originally a high school... sobering indeed, memories of the atrocities not too many years ago still haunt the country quite a bit and are a major part of their recent history. Now I think it might be off to one of the local tourist bars or the FCC for a drink or two as the rain clouds roll in...
Off on the bus tomorrow and then we will be seeing our dearest Eve in a couple of days and will check out the sights and sounds of Siem Reap.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Hoi An... extra day...
So after all the effort to get in and out I figured it only made sense to stay another night, the hotel staff were kind enough to advise to go into the computer room and book online as it is cheaper than the rate they can offer (something to do with local tax I am guessing... good to know...) so got another cheap-ish night off Agoda.com or whatever it is... not that I endorse any particular companies but it really does pay to shop around a lot.
Sadly due to issues with every computer I seem to come across this time around I can't actually access my own blog (apart from through writing updates) and uploading anything like pictures seems hopeless, but you can jump online and see Hoi An beach which we found via bicycle this morning... stunning spot, although somewhat over-policed by nazi hotel guards who chase non-guests away from "their" part of the beach. Still, had an awesome swim in water thankfully cooler than any hotel pools so far. The burning heat is just going out of the day again as the thunderclouds start to build in the hills to the north, looking forward to another awesome thunder and lightning show tonight, hopefully our 'two for $1.20' ponchoes bought from an old vender lady during the monsoon the other night will protect us again.
I am somewhat parched so I may have to head to the bar before another trip into town, although I have to say I am just about getting sick of the local beers, many of which are bearable but none of which are good... but cheaper than the 'fancy' foreign stuff!!... also have to think about arranging a car to Da Nang airport tomorrow which should be entertaining... catch yous later!
Sadly due to issues with every computer I seem to come across this time around I can't actually access my own blog (apart from through writing updates) and uploading anything like pictures seems hopeless, but you can jump online and see Hoi An beach which we found via bicycle this morning... stunning spot, although somewhat over-policed by nazi hotel guards who chase non-guests away from "their" part of the beach. Still, had an awesome swim in water thankfully cooler than any hotel pools so far. The burning heat is just going out of the day again as the thunderclouds start to build in the hills to the north, looking forward to another awesome thunder and lightning show tonight, hopefully our 'two for $1.20' ponchoes bought from an old vender lady during the monsoon the other night will protect us again.
I am somewhat parched so I may have to head to the bar before another trip into town, although I have to say I am just about getting sick of the local beers, many of which are bearable but none of which are good... but cheaper than the 'fancy' foreign stuff!!... also have to think about arranging a car to Da Nang airport tomorrow which should be entertaining... catch yous later!
Monday, August 27, 2012
Checking in from Hoi An
Nice little historic town just out of Da Nang (famous for Americans, China Beach etc)... bit of a tourist trap but genuinely nice place, lots to see and one of the best places in Vietnam to see and old style area that hasn't been leveled for hotels, corporates or skinny houses. A few adventures to get here, the first real ones of the trip... an interesting and scenic (also possibly referred to as "smelly" by some) day train from Hue brought us to Da Nang where we and a Brit couple entered into some heated bartering with taxis and "private car" drivers to get to Hoi An... the winning bidder got us for US$16 (already more than the fare is supposed to be) but he then got accosted by the other drivers as he tried to load our gear, for undercutting the "going rate"... we got a couple of km down the road before he started saying he needed more money because he was going to get beaten up when he got back... while it was only a couple of dollars sometimes you have to stand on principle and after a head-on row the car stopped and I stayed in the cab (good tip to remember) while the Brit guy got out and pulled our bags out and we politely told him to "have a nice day" and sent him on his way empty handed... from there some locals pointed us onto a "local bus" to Hoi An, which believe it or not led to another long and heated argument as the bus tout got us on board then told us we had to pay "foreigner rate" which was twice what the locals paid. We got to Hoi An and decided it was not worth the drama (this was over less than $1 difference) and handed over the cash... you have to pick your battles in these places and after an hour on a rough, hot bus I just needed beer... and beating up a local who is two feet short of you is not going to achieve much other than exciting the local cops and getting a very exciting spell in a local "jail".
Once here we trekked through town with packs on and thanks to a bit of mis-navigation from my companion and a friendly local telling us our hotel was "ten minutes", we ended up walking about five km at the peak of the midday heat carrying all our worldly goods... fun and games all round... but hey, that's what makes it interesting!!
Hoi An is a pretty town and a UNESCO World Heritage site, preserved and restored with sites dating back to the 1600's and early trading with China, Japan and further afield... also home to dozens of silk shops, tailors, suit makers etc (it's where the Top Gear guys got their suits done I think?)... like Hue also beautiful food and the beaches are apparently great (will see). Many tourists (comparitively) and becoming a real destination of choice (mostly for Aussies).
After a day looking around I think I might extend the hotel another night and take the time to head to the beach tomorrow and chill a bit, the hotel here is advertised as "one of the top resorts in South East Asia" (Hue Beer is also apparently widely known as "the best beer in the world"... hmm) ... it's not, but it's nice enough, and it has a pool which is a big bonus in these parts!! From here it will be on to Cambodia, likely via a flight from Da Nang to Saigon (toyed with doing the train again but the arrival times in Saigon are all middle of the night and sadly flying is not much more expensive, which is a shame as I still love trains) and then probably cross country into Cambodia and north.
I hear (from an Aussie) the rugby was worth a watch, sady no place to watch in Hue... the main local ex-pat bar has heaps of Aussie sports channels but oddly none of them were playing the rugby!! Hope all is well where you are...
Once here we trekked through town with packs on and thanks to a bit of mis-navigation from my companion and a friendly local telling us our hotel was "ten minutes", we ended up walking about five km at the peak of the midday heat carrying all our worldly goods... fun and games all round... but hey, that's what makes it interesting!!
Hoi An is a pretty town and a UNESCO World Heritage site, preserved and restored with sites dating back to the 1600's and early trading with China, Japan and further afield... also home to dozens of silk shops, tailors, suit makers etc (it's where the Top Gear guys got their suits done I think?)... like Hue also beautiful food and the beaches are apparently great (will see). Many tourists (comparitively) and becoming a real destination of choice (mostly for Aussies).
After a day looking around I think I might extend the hotel another night and take the time to head to the beach tomorrow and chill a bit, the hotel here is advertised as "one of the top resorts in South East Asia" (Hue Beer is also apparently widely known as "the best beer in the world"... hmm) ... it's not, but it's nice enough, and it has a pool which is a big bonus in these parts!! From here it will be on to Cambodia, likely via a flight from Da Nang to Saigon (toyed with doing the train again but the arrival times in Saigon are all middle of the night and sadly flying is not much more expensive, which is a shame as I still love trains) and then probably cross country into Cambodia and north.
I hear (from an Aussie) the rugby was worth a watch, sady no place to watch in Hue... the main local ex-pat bar has heaps of Aussie sports channels but oddly none of them were playing the rugby!! Hope all is well where you are...
Friday, August 24, 2012
24 Aug - Hue, another day...
Thought I would say hi as we are taking time out after a late poolside lunch and hotel tour to check up on emails etc... hard life I know, but I would recommend to anybody coming to South East Asia that every so often you should budget for two or three nights in a nice hotel just to regain some sanity and rest up a bit... My companion is doing well but the pace of the last week has definitely got her a little ragged so this is just the tonic to get her back up and raring to go.
She did learn today that if you leave the sliding doors open even in a very nice hotel in Vietnam, unwanted locals are likely to turn up... even on the third floor overlooking the pool and river. She was quick to shut herself in the bathroom when she saw me chasing something around the floor with a jandal, afterwards she asked if I had got the bug out and I had to point out I wasn't sure if it was an insect or a mouse of some sort...
We have had some rain this afternoon which has broken the back of the oppressive heat, we almost melted walking around the Citadel today (I am guessing +35C in shade, and +40C in the sun) as I showed Lala around what is left of the old areas, complete with bullet holes all over the stone walls... Much of the old damage of two wars and a couple of natural disasters has been built-over since my last trip and new reproduction temples and palace buildings are slowly (very slowly) taking over the old site. Everything moves slow in Vietnam except for the traffic, and they are still working on some of the buildings they had half completed five years ago when I was here.
Tonight we may just chill I think, last night we sampled some of the awesome local food Hue is famous for (and both of us ate for about NZ$15 including beer, which makes a very welcome change!!) and Lala took several years off my life as I watched in terror while she tried to ride a bicycle on Vietnamese streets.
As much as we complain about traffic and the government, it must be said the people remain friendly and charming... foreigners are an interesting oddity still to many, probably an annoyance to some, but it is rare to find anyone unpleasant or hostile (apart from the mini-Hitlers you run into in civil servants and the occasional train steward... but you get those everywhere). Tourists could do a lot more to make themselves welcome that is for sure, but then with low-budget travel still the major drawcard, it's fair to say that not all the Aussies and Kiwis coming through are exactly high class.
Sadly due to some computer issue here I can't even update the obscure music list or recall what I have or haven't mentioned in the past, so at the risk of repeating myself I am going to throw one out there and say check out Scout Nibblet, only because just before I left I found a replacement copy of her album 'This Fool Can Die Now' which I lost somewhere long ago... try the title track on for size on Youtube and watch the video with Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy), a long-time favourite of mine... the video always puts a smile on my face, she is super-quirky... then check out 'Let Thine Heart Be Warmed' and 'Your Last Chariot' to hear her making big noise with a friend or two a-la White Stripes... (speaking of which 'Blunderbuss' is super good)
Hope all is well where you are, cheers for the comments (some published, some not!!) glad someone out there in radioland is tuning in...
She did learn today that if you leave the sliding doors open even in a very nice hotel in Vietnam, unwanted locals are likely to turn up... even on the third floor overlooking the pool and river. She was quick to shut herself in the bathroom when she saw me chasing something around the floor with a jandal, afterwards she asked if I had got the bug out and I had to point out I wasn't sure if it was an insect or a mouse of some sort...
We have had some rain this afternoon which has broken the back of the oppressive heat, we almost melted walking around the Citadel today (I am guessing +35C in shade, and +40C in the sun) as I showed Lala around what is left of the old areas, complete with bullet holes all over the stone walls... Much of the old damage of two wars and a couple of natural disasters has been built-over since my last trip and new reproduction temples and palace buildings are slowly (very slowly) taking over the old site. Everything moves slow in Vietnam except for the traffic, and they are still working on some of the buildings they had half completed five years ago when I was here.
Tonight we may just chill I think, last night we sampled some of the awesome local food Hue is famous for (and both of us ate for about NZ$15 including beer, which makes a very welcome change!!) and Lala took several years off my life as I watched in terror while she tried to ride a bicycle on Vietnamese streets.
As much as we complain about traffic and the government, it must be said the people remain friendly and charming... foreigners are an interesting oddity still to many, probably an annoyance to some, but it is rare to find anyone unpleasant or hostile (apart from the mini-Hitlers you run into in civil servants and the occasional train steward... but you get those everywhere). Tourists could do a lot more to make themselves welcome that is for sure, but then with low-budget travel still the major drawcard, it's fair to say that not all the Aussies and Kiwis coming through are exactly high class.
Sadly due to some computer issue here I can't even update the obscure music list or recall what I have or haven't mentioned in the past, so at the risk of repeating myself I am going to throw one out there and say check out Scout Nibblet, only because just before I left I found a replacement copy of her album 'This Fool Can Die Now' which I lost somewhere long ago... try the title track on for size on Youtube and watch the video with Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy), a long-time favourite of mine... the video always puts a smile on my face, she is super-quirky... then check out 'Let Thine Heart Be Warmed' and 'Your Last Chariot' to hear her making big noise with a friend or two a-la White Stripes... (speaking of which 'Blunderbuss' is super good)
Hope all is well where you are, cheers for the comments (some published, some not!!) glad someone out there in radioland is tuning in...
Hanoi and on to Hue...
Well I have to say Hanoi was much more enjoyable second time around... certainly the ridiculously wonderful hotel on the first night helped... (finely crafted iced Daquiris by the pool are apparently very acceptable to the other half...) but having had a good look around this time it turns out it is a nice town, and probably not far behind Saigon in many ways. Auckland/Wellington comparisons are probably valid in many ways...
We spent our second and third day wandering the streets, seeing a few sights... made it just too late to see Uncle Ho's corpse laid up in his mighty impressive mausoleum. Had a good look around the VN Army Museum which was predictably glorious in its glorious praise for the glorious struggle of the glorious people against all manner of foes... but not Pho's, which they like here. I am not sure they saw the irony of fighting off the Chinese aggressor for hundreds of years before welcoming their Chinese comrades in helping them fight off the West...
So then it was onto a night train for travels southward... I dearly love train travel but have to say the new "luxury" service that has been set up was a far cry from the pictures on the website. Considering air travel is now cheaper here than the train it is something of a sad state of affairs but there is still something awesome about boarding a train and thundering through the darkness, this time complete with and amazing lightning storm that blazed for hours out our window. I am not sure what the two Vietnamese businessmen we shared a sleeper cabin with made of us but they were nice enough given "hello" was all any of us could manage in each other's language. My traveling companion is as always an object of some fascination (South East Asian men give "eyes for Christmas" true meaning) and when she is in jandals her foot decoration is a source of considerable amazement (I keep reminding her only senior gang members have tattoos here...)
Our train finally rattle, jolted, squealed and clanked into Hue right on time at 0805 and we descended into a much quieter scene than we had left in Hanoi. A fairly large contingent of tourists (there are a LOT more white folk here than on my last trip, although still nothing compared to Thailand and the like) debussed and made their way to various taxis... I have been telling Lala for weeks that we are playing it by ear the whole way and there is nothing organised, but having made her carry her pack for about 2km after we left the Metropole the other day I decided that may be all the "roughing" she could handle for a while, so I piled her in a taxi and we took the short ride through quiet, serene Hue to La Residence (once the French Govenor's residence, now a rather nice hotel), which I booked weeks ago but didn't tell her about. I have to say the place is once again stunning and a fitting way for her to say "bye bye, I love you" to luxury travel before we start "doing it the hard way" for real.
www.la-residence-hue.com
So once through the formalities of meeting the management etc (ok I pitched it as a possible story, did the whole "travel journalist" thing and they gave us the first night free) we got shown to our (upgraded, thankyou) room overlooking the Perfume River and then we set out to explore a bit. Hue is exactly the tonic you need after Saigon and Hanoi... it's quiet, friendly, peaceful, hugely historic, the home of ancient kings, amazing food, awesome historic ruins, and it's right near the DMZ and lots or war stuff...
So here we are, a pleasant rain is falling outside, bringing the oppressive heat down a notch or two (I am slow to adjust these days, still sweating like a...) and a wicked thunder storm is brewing. Over the next couple of days we will explore the Citadel ruins and various other bits and pieces, and then from here we really ARE making it up as we go because my planning has run out and someone is going to have to learn to rough it Asian style (the hotel we stayed in the night after the Metropole was nicer and more expensive than anything I stayed in last time I was here and apparently the bathroom was "gross")... wish me luck!!!
Obscurely musical references today are brought to you by things I forgot to put on my iPod, chiefly the much-missed and insanely talented Sufjan Stevens... I would urge you to go listen to "John Wayne Gacy Jr" before anything else, and then go find some of his much happier tracks to clear that chill from down your spine.
We spent our second and third day wandering the streets, seeing a few sights... made it just too late to see Uncle Ho's corpse laid up in his mighty impressive mausoleum. Had a good look around the VN Army Museum which was predictably glorious in its glorious praise for the glorious struggle of the glorious people against all manner of foes... but not Pho's, which they like here. I am not sure they saw the irony of fighting off the Chinese aggressor for hundreds of years before welcoming their Chinese comrades in helping them fight off the West...
So then it was onto a night train for travels southward... I dearly love train travel but have to say the new "luxury" service that has been set up was a far cry from the pictures on the website. Considering air travel is now cheaper here than the train it is something of a sad state of affairs but there is still something awesome about boarding a train and thundering through the darkness, this time complete with and amazing lightning storm that blazed for hours out our window. I am not sure what the two Vietnamese businessmen we shared a sleeper cabin with made of us but they were nice enough given "hello" was all any of us could manage in each other's language. My traveling companion is as always an object of some fascination (South East Asian men give "eyes for Christmas" true meaning) and when she is in jandals her foot decoration is a source of considerable amazement (I keep reminding her only senior gang members have tattoos here...)
Our train finally rattle, jolted, squealed and clanked into Hue right on time at 0805 and we descended into a much quieter scene than we had left in Hanoi. A fairly large contingent of tourists (there are a LOT more white folk here than on my last trip, although still nothing compared to Thailand and the like) debussed and made their way to various taxis... I have been telling Lala for weeks that we are playing it by ear the whole way and there is nothing organised, but having made her carry her pack for about 2km after we left the Metropole the other day I decided that may be all the "roughing" she could handle for a while, so I piled her in a taxi and we took the short ride through quiet, serene Hue to La Residence (once the French Govenor's residence, now a rather nice hotel), which I booked weeks ago but didn't tell her about. I have to say the place is once again stunning and a fitting way for her to say "bye bye, I love you" to luxury travel before we start "doing it the hard way" for real.
www.la-residence-hue.com
So once through the formalities of meeting the management etc (ok I pitched it as a possible story, did the whole "travel journalist" thing and they gave us the first night free) we got shown to our (upgraded, thankyou) room overlooking the Perfume River and then we set out to explore a bit. Hue is exactly the tonic you need after Saigon and Hanoi... it's quiet, friendly, peaceful, hugely historic, the home of ancient kings, amazing food, awesome historic ruins, and it's right near the DMZ and lots or war stuff...
So here we are, a pleasant rain is falling outside, bringing the oppressive heat down a notch or two (I am slow to adjust these days, still sweating like a...) and a wicked thunder storm is brewing. Over the next couple of days we will explore the Citadel ruins and various other bits and pieces, and then from here we really ARE making it up as we go because my planning has run out and someone is going to have to learn to rough it Asian style (the hotel we stayed in the night after the Metropole was nicer and more expensive than anything I stayed in last time I was here and apparently the bathroom was "gross")... wish me luck!!!
Obscurely musical references today are brought to you by things I forgot to put on my iPod, chiefly the much-missed and insanely talented Sufjan Stevens... I would urge you to go listen to "John Wayne Gacy Jr" before anything else, and then go find some of his much happier tracks to clear that chill from down your spine.
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