Vietnam Day 7 & 7.5

Our last full day in Vietnam & a one final adventure the morning before our flight home:

After a rough night of sleeping on the floor in the aisle of a bus on a plastic mattress- well (a) we were just about ready for this adventure to be over- and (b) we arrived in Nha Trang at 6AM. Phew.

Nha Trang is a beach town and we only were staying for the day. That night we were catching a sleeper train to Saigon & the airport. So, we had no hotel to check in to nor were there any famous sites that we wanted to see. All we wanted was to relax on the beach for the day. We just hoped the sun would show itself for the first time that trip.

With no where else to go and our only goal to lay on the beach, we literally followed our noses to that salty ocean (or China Sea) smell.

There were some locals doing morning radio exercises before it got too hot.

Our breakfast view

Instead of radio exercises, some people opted for a morning dip in the sea. But then they would wear these really funny looking flotation devices around their midriffs. 

Gasp! Were we really gonna get that lucky on our last day?! Was the sun going to cooperate?!
We were able to watch the sunrise at least!

Waiting for the world to wake up.

If our plan was to go swimming, we would definitely want to be able to shower before we got on the plane tomorrow. So we decided to check out a few different hotels and see if they would let us maybe rent a room for just the day, at half price?, or maybe just stash our stuff and use their shower?

The first 2 hotels turned us down but then we spied across the street a gleaming beacon of hope- a hostel! Sure enough, the woman at the check in counter showed us where we could stash our stuff and said we could totally use the shower.  I could even charge the camera and phone when we came back to shower.  Score!We did just that and changed into our bathing suits.

We set back out for the beach and on the way grabbed a pork sandwich (finally! It was what we had tried to order back in Dong Hoi but, if you recall, I had instead been served that mystery sponge) from a street vendor. Tasty!

We were on the beach for maybe a half hour- just enough time for one dip and then the rain from yesterday caught up with us and it positively poured. We got drenched!

Some beach day. At least the bags were staying dry back at the hostel!

Well, what did we want to do now? We hadn't made a rainy day plan for this place.

We went back to the hostel, showered and got in to dry clothes. It was a good thing this was our last day now that we had all these wet (and heavy!) clothes in our bags. We referenced the guide book and found a few more things to do in this town.

Walked passed this scooter. Those are eggs on the back of it!

Let's get massages! So we found a place recommended in the guide book and went all out for the 50 minute, full body massage. For $10. And it included a free drink at the bar next door. Can't beat that! 

Feeling nice and relaxed after the massage, we enjoyed our free mojito and LIIT. Never mind that it was still only 10 AM.

Nick think's I'm really attractive.

It was a good thing we were so relaxed because we noticed that the rain had completely cleared up by now and it was looking like it might be good beach weather again. Did we really want to go back to the hostel, change again, go back to the beach, and then have to shower again?

You betcha! That's why we were in Nha Trang, after all!

We stopped at a convenience store for some beach snacks and stumbled across this gem:

Instead of super sized, they are SUPPER sized!! Too funny!

The beach was awesome!! It never got especially sunny but the clouds were thin enough (and our skin pale enough!) that we were able to catch some rays and waves. We even ran into the Irish girl from our night bus and made plans to meet up at this microbrewery just down the beach later.

Starting to feel the sun burn, we did indeed head back to the hostel to shower and change for the THIRD time that day and then set out to meet our new friends.

The little lounge area by the showers were we spent several hours that day.

The Vietnamese microbrewery "Louisiane"

New friends at dinner!

After dinner and drinks (not necessarily in that order), we headed back to the hostel for the last time to get out bags and catch a ride to the train station.

The train (of course) was running late but it did eventually show up, we did eventually figure out how to read the ticket to figure out what car we were supposed to be in, and found our beds. Definitely a little higher class than the sleeper bus, eh? Comfy too! I slept great with the gentle rocking of the train.

We arrived back in Saigon at another unreasonably early hour: 4 AM. Why don't they just have the trains leave a few hours later so they get in at a more decent hour? Oh well, we were almost done with this country.

We didn't have to be to the airport until 9ish so we had to make one last big decision: did we want to just go straight to the airport and wait for 5 hours or do a little more exploring of this crazy city?

Even though it sounded so appetizing to just head to the airport and be done, we remembered how little there was to do at the Saigon airport and figured time would probably pass more quickly if we walked around some.

We were tired. We were getting a little crabby. The walk from the train station to the city center was absolutely disgusting - smelly and filthy- and reminded us of all the reasons we wanted to just cut and run to the airport. But we stuck with it and were, actually, greatly rewarded

Walked passed this woman who is straight up carrying a basket of fire.

Nick was able to take photos of a lot of the propaganda that was all over Saigon and that we hadn't had the chance to photograph yet.

And then we stumbled upon this absolutely gorgeous, well maintained, clean and pristine park! Wow! We parked it on a bench for a few minutes and an amazing scene unfolded before us.

It was time for morning exercises, Saigon! There were people doing an up beat dance class, others doing slow tai chi, and still others playing badminton! Someone had brought a radio to blast the dance music and others were setting up tons of badminton nets!

So, we said, let's try it out!! I just hopped in to the dance class.

And Nick asked to join a game of badminton.

And the people were really nice and welcoming! It was a supremely positive experience to end our trip on. Even after the fiasco with the sleeper bus, we were back on really good terms with this place. Like I said, a rollercoaster.

After we had our fill of exercise (and it was getting humid again), we continued on our walk. We were now looking for a place to eat breakfast.

Chicken on a leash in a park. Where was his owner? Why was he kept in the park?

We found this gorgeous place but they weren't opening for quite some time and we would soon have to head to the airport.

We ended up just eating at a local coffee shop. Rather uneventful but it was full of Vietnamese people so it's where the locals ate, right?

Finally, I try to capture a lesson we had learned our very first night here: how to cross the street. You just have to walk into traffic and keep moving at a steady pace so they can go around you. It's terrifying to see cars and motorbikes coming right at you though!

But it was now time to head to the airport. Nick haggled a price one last time and we headed for the international terminal. It was a good thing we told him which terminal to go right away because as soon as the cab got moving Nick and I passed out, we were so tired. And it was only about a 10 minute ride!

We got out of the cab, gave Vietnam one last look, and headed into the airport. 

And honestly, we were so glad to be going home. It had been an extremely busy week of putting ourselves outside of our comfort zones and trying new things. Of our 7 nights in Vietnam, we only stayed in 3 hotels. The rest of the time we were in motion on a bus, boat or train. We also utilized almost every form of transportation available in Vietnam: airplanes, taxis, mini buses, vans, coach buses, boats, kayaks, private car, sleeper bus, sleeper train, regular trains, and cyclos. Really, the only one we missed were the motorbikes! But that just was not an option. We had tried food from very unsavory looking places and been constantly hassled as tourists.

We couldn't wait to go home. If anything, we were head over heels for Japan now, and so glad that we were stationed there and not Vietnam. Japan is such an amazing and unique country. 

Was it a good trip? Overall, yes, it was a positive experience. We wanted adventure and we sure got it! And we knew we were getting ourselves in to some of this craziness but we definitely learned a LOT about how to do it better next time. (For example, give yourselves at least 10 days to try and tour the whole country. Or just stick to one area at a time. If we were going back, we'd skip Hue and do Hoi An instead. We'd also try to get in a tour of the Mekong River Delta.) But, it was what it was. We met some really awesome people, too!

Will we go back? No time to! The reason we did the whole country in 7 days was to cross it off the list. There are just so many other places yet to see!

Stay tuned for our next adventure!

Vietnam: Day 2

Day 2:

We woke up before sun rise on Day 2 and caught a cab back to the airport- this time the domestic terminal. Wow. What a difference from the first class international terminal. The domestic terminal had more line-budgers like we had seen at the visa office, a flight of stairs, a security check point, some gates, and not much else. Very different. 

The whole check in took about 30 minutes so we got to our gate and walked the whole place with plenty of time to spare. A short while later, we boarded our plane, fell asleep again and woke up landing in Hanoi!

As we got off the plane we were greeted by that same odor of Saigon but we immediately started to notice many differences  First and foremost, the temperature. It was about 20 degrees cooler this far north, granted it was still around 75F but in comparison to the 95 w/ humidity we had had an hour ago in Saigon, I found myself reaching for my jacket. (The MN in me was appalled. 75? That's shorts weather!) I digress...

We got out into the main airport area and had a seat. We were in Hanoi, but where did we want to go? With my initial plan, I hoped to only spend the day in Hanoi and catch a late bus to Ha Long Bay and sleep there somewhere. But without a hotel to direct the cabbie to, how would we tell him where we wanted to go? We pulled out the handy dandy guidebook (already proving to be worth its weight in my backpack) and picked a hotel listed in an area of Hanoi known as the "old quarter." The should have labeled it "tourist central" but more on that later.

So we hailed a cab (pretty easy thing to do since they come up to you and escort you over to their cab), negotiated a price and were on our way in to the city center. Here are our initial views of Hanoi from the cab:

Once we were dropped off, I had a minor anxiety attack as I began to realize exactly how unrealistic my initial itinerary was proving to be but quickly recovered. Where were the bus or train stops? How does one get to Ha Long Bay from Hanoi? If we didn't make it to Ha Long Bay tonight, would we have time to get there and back the next day? Because according to my initial itinerary, we needed to get our butts moving if we wanted to sight see and make it the 1100 miles back to Saigon by the time our plane left on Friday. What to do?

First things first, it was time for breakfast.

When in Vietnam, eat Pho for breakfast! (and lunch and dinner, as you will read). Pho is a beef noodle soup that is quite simple and delicious. That Chin Su sauce there was a spicy sauce we found on the table. No idea if it was supposed to go in the soup but it was delicious!

OK. So with bellies full of pho we set out again to try and figure out this city. We were shortly faced with a decision. There were travel agencies everywhere offering day trips to Ha Long Bay and tickets on overnight buses and trains that could get us back to Saigon but there were no public transit stations in sight. We had to decide, do we cheat and use a travel agency since we seemed to be having such a hard time figuring out this city? Or do we stick with our guns and just muscle through it, although that would be much more stressful?

Nick, realizing that I do not do well under stress whilst travelling saved the day (my hero) by making the decision: we would cheat and use a travel agency. We actually happened to be standing out front of one as we made the decision so that's the one we went in to. It was called "Sinh Cafe." We sat down and a Vietnamese lady named Thinh (pronounced "Chin") sat patiently with us as Nick and I tried to decide which trip to Ha Long Bay we wanted to book and how that would affect the rest of our trip. We finally made a decision and booked a 2 day, 1 night trip to Ha Long Bay that would leave the next morning. We then bought tickets on overnight buses from Hanoi to Dong Hoi, Hue, Nha Trang and Saigon. (We had to cut out Hoi An and Dalat as a result but it was going to work, we were actually going to be able to travel the whole length of Vietnam!

Tickets in hand and in high spirits we left the travel agency glad that we had decided to 'cheat.' We didn't have to be anywhere until tomorrow sometime between 7:30 and 8 when a van would pick us up from the Sinh Cafe and take us to Ha Long Bay. So now, we could wander the streets of Hanoi, take it all in, and leisurely find a place to stay for the night.

Here are some more photos of Hanoi, by foot.

Their electrical wiring system was absolutely bonkers! Just look at that rats nest of wires. Nick kept saying that he found it comforting. "If they could have that many wires and the transformers hadn't exploded or caught on fire, then we're really safe back in the US (!).

There were buildings in all states of (dis)repair.

Leaning Tower of Vietnamese Hats

Trying to capture the essence of these streets here. This photo is missing the absolute chaos of it all but you did see these vendors carrying everything from A to Z on their bicycles and motorbikes. I have plenty of pictures coming of everything from chickens to eggs to mannequins to families of 4. Nuts! 

SO many motorbikes!

A lot of popular clothing stores have their clothes made in Vietnam so we saw shops like this all over selling cute and (sometimes questionably) name brand clothes for cheap! 

Surprisingly, though, I didn't actually buy anything. The were a few problems. (A) I was travelling with a man so he didn't want to shop. But mostly because (B) the store owners and workers were a little too friendly with wanting you to buy their stuff. You simply stand out so much as a tourist here that if you even glance in the direction of their store/restaurant/stand/cart, they approach you with $$ in their eyes saying "You wanna buy? You wanna buy? Try on!" And just come right up into your bubble! This happened throughout our trip and really turned Nick and I off. 

Furthermore, there was a "foreigner" price to everything. Like I said, they know you are a foreigner and capitalize on it (ha! it's funny because they are commies). They will first say a price that is WAY to much and you are expected to haggle the price down. It was hard sometimes to remember though because even though the price is far too high based on the exchange rate and what it was worth to them, it was still cheap in terms of US (and Japanese!) prices. So, I mean, we could afford the initial price but it's just the principal of it all, ya know? Plus, it was uncomfortable to be so blatantly discriminated against and bothered all the time.

Off to sell her produce to unsuspecting tourists who will pay too much for it.

It's kind of  hard to tell but that pile of stuff just to the left of the woman is actually all strapped to a bicycle being peddled down the street!

Another reminder we were not in Japan anymore- piles of rubble and trash everywhere. (Probably adding to this country's distinct smell.)

That there is a restaurant, did you know? Not the building, just the man sitting on the teeny plastic stool next to his fireplace. He was cooking up something to sell.

We saw things like this all over: people with their little ovens or cook fires of very questionable cleanliness just chillin on the curb selling food. Our guidebook recommended we try what ever looked good to us but after seeing some of the food (for example, raw meat just hanging out in the sun) we were very wary of all of it. We had seen stands like this in Saigon too so we figured we would play it safe and eat in places that looked a little cleaner for now. It was only our first full day in Vietnam, after all, and we did not want to be sick for the remaining days. We would let ourselves get a bit more acclimated to this style of cooking before trying it ourselves.

The traffic was a little more tame here than in Saigon we thought. However, the streets were narrower and you couldn't walk on the sidewalks because that is where everyone parked their motor scooters. You also wanted to avoid the gutters because we saw more than one person using the gutters as a toilet. We basically had to walk in the street with traffic the entire time- dangerous and scary!

There were also a lot of random super specific 'specialty' shops. This one (above) looks like some sort of motor repair, but the one below looks like it is selling only glass display cases, the one below that only specialty pans, and the one below that only metal boxes of various sizes.We found it very odd.

We had pulled out the guide book and were looking for lodging (and a place to drop our bags) that was nearby. We tried a few but they were booked up but then we came across a Hanoi Backpackers Hostel! Hooray! It was clean hostel and had a fun bar on the first floor that had a good happy hour and a beer pong tournament later. We rented the bed stat.

The hostel also doubled as a booking agency for trips out to Ha Long Bay and overnight buses. The clerk asked if we wanted to book anything but we told him how we had booked with Sinh Cafe. 'Oh,' he said, 'There are actually lots of Sinh Cafes around and some of them are scams. I hope you booked with a legitimate agency."  Oy ve! We hoped so to! It was too late now though. Only time would tell if they had taken our money and run or were actually going to pick us up in the morning... We would soon see!

Pretty nice for $12 total, including breakfast!

The beautiful view from our window.

The even more beautiful view looking down from our window.

After we dropped off our backpacks we explored the hostel a little. We found the fire escape stairs and climbed them up to the top. They were on the backside of the building and this is that lovely view.

At the top was a lounge area and a balcony. Neat! In every place we go to Nick and I try to get to the top of the tallest building to see the city from above. This one wasn't quite to tallest building but at 7 stories was was tall enough for Hanoi!

Cheeky sign

Hanoi form above.

After resting we set back out to explore the old quarter.

Why yes, that's is actually the perfect place to have your barber's shop.

All that on the back of a motor bike!

This is where Nick and I got really sick of the whole taking-advantage-of-the-tourist deal. There was a women carrying this basket-rope contraption selling pineapple. I wasn't interested in buying her pineapple but she just came up and put it my shoulder. "Take a photo," she says. So naive little me poses while Nick snaps the photo. Afterwards, she tries selling us the pineapple. "No thanks" we say. To which she said, "you take picture, you buy pineapple." Oh. That's her game. In Japan they wouldn't do this to you! They would honestly just let you take a photo :( I supposed we couldn't just not buy pineapple from her but Nick was pretty frustrated with it all so we forgot to haggle the price down and ended up paying her initial price for it. Afterwards, we were disgusted with ourselves.
Looking back, it was only our first day and something like this was bound to happen but at the time we were just disappointed.

Our destination was this lake with a museum on the island (the red bridge connects them).

We didn't end up actually going in the museum because again, there was the foreigner price which we didn't want to pay so we snapped a few photos from the bridge and walked the rest of the way around the lake.

After a bit of walking, we stopped to take a break and pick out where we wanted to eat dinner. We hadn't sat down for 30 seconds when we were approached by these two locals. At first, since the whole pineapple swindle had occurred so recently, we were very wary of their intentions. But they turned out to be just university students who wanted to practice their English with us so we had a bit of a cultural exchange before our tummies got really rumbling and we went for dinner.

 But this is why I feel that out trip was like a roller coaster; it was just a series of positive and negative experiences with the Vietnamese people (which, truth be told, made us glad we were stationed in Japan and not Vietnam).

Also on our walk around the lake, we saw about 5 different couples in their wedding attire (gowns and tuxs) with a photographer. Popular place for wedding photos, I guess!

We were already a little tired of pho and we wanted something substantial for dinner so we cheated again and ate Italian for dinner. Or maybe it was just that we couldn't see the state of cleanliness of the kitchen at this restaurant so we didn't have to think about how safe the preparation of our food was.

Some of the restaurants we could have gone to looked like this with all outdoor seating on teeny plastic kiddy chairs and tables in bright colors.

Stumbled upon a random cathedral with a 3 wise-men mural.

We had wanted to go to this former war prison turned museum where John McCain and folk were kept as POW. Alas, it took us 5 minutes too long to find it and it had closed for the evening.

All along the top of the fence surrounding the prison grounds there was broken glass cemented to it and barbed wire hung above that.

Saw this fly past on a motor bike. Again, so many questions and no answers.

This looks like just a big uncontrolled intersection with traffic flying in all directions but actually, if you look close, you can see there is a small circle of cement curbs with arrows on it. It's actually a round-about! Who knew?

We'd had enough of walking the Old and French Quarters so we headed back to the hostel for happy hour (BOGO drinks!) and the beer pong tournament. 

With the BOGO drinks of happy hour, we were drinking 59 cent beer!! Amazing!! Especially in comparison to the $6 (500 yen) beer they sell in Japan. We were once again on the up swing of the roller coaster of Vietnam.

The beer pong tournament was really cool! Perhaps not the most "Vietnamese" of experiences but still an international one! We played against backpackers from all over the world and were doing well in the tournament before we retired for bed. We gave up our place to some new friends who we had played against earlier. We checked back with them the next morning and they hadn't end up winning but some other team had. Nick had watched that team play and believes we could have beat them (a fact of which he is very proud) if only sleep hadn't got the better of us (and probably if I wasn't his teammate ;) I made a cup each game but he made the other 9).

In retrospect, we realized that playing beer pong in a bar in Vietnam was probably not the best idea. If you think about it, we played with communal solo cups with complete strangers who had who-knows-what-germs from Vietnam; the ping pong balls bounced and rolled all over the floor of that bar which these same strangers' feet had walked all over- we knew we had walked past people using the gutters as toilets so who can say what they had walked through; and then to top it off, the water to 'rinse' your ball after it rolled all over that floor was definitely not changed between games. In fact, who can say if it was changed at all?
Ha oops.
And after we had been so careful with picking out where to eat!

We fell asleep praying our stomachs were made of iron because we were gonna be on a boat for the next 36 hours!

Check back tomorrow for the story of Day 3- Ha Long Bay!