Apr 2007

Hello everyone!

We have finally inserted piccies into all of our entries!!!!

Hey Sylvie, have a brilliant 30th birthday night out. Do everything that I would do!!!

Latas peeps.

Cardie & Gav xxxx

Tuesday 17 April
Hoi An was just a half hour cab ride away from our hotel in My Khe Beach. The driver even put on a CD of love songs for us to listen to during the journey,all together now...aaaaahhhhh. Once we arrived he then drove us around for a further half an hour whilst we tried to find a hotel with rooms available and he didn't try to rip us off with the fare either (belive me that's a first). We ended up at Thanh Van hotel which even had a pool for our nine pounds a night and was just a couple of minutes walk from Hoi An's old town.

Hoi An is a really lovely riveside town that was left virtually undamaged from the War and so has retained it's beautiful 'Old Town'. The Old Town is a World Heritage Site and very pretty indeed with buildings that date back to 19th century. As with Hanoi, the French influence is apparent in the buildings, baguettes, pattiseries and coffee shops.

Us in Hoi An

Apparently there is a really lovely beach there too but we never actually made it to the beach. We spent ours days in Hoi An strolling around the Old Town and mooching through the markets.

The Old Town

The streets are literally filled with tailors where you can get absolutely anything made to measure. I now you may be surprised at this but I actually resisted the temptation to go clothes shopping. My backpack is heavy enough already thank you and it's fairly expensive to send stuff home. Anyway I'll be a superwaif by the time I get back so nothing I bought now would fit me then (what? A diet of beer and baguettes isn't slimming!?!). I didn't buy clothes but I did buy almost an entire dinner service in the market which I now have to lug around until I can send it home and I imagine it will be destoyed during transit - where's the logic in that!

We did manage to squeeze some culture into our time in Hoi An. On Friday 20 April we set off at the ungodly hour of 5.30am for our trip to My Son, the site of the Cham intellectual and religious centre.

The Cham people origionated from Java, Indonesia and occupied the central section of Vietnam from 2nd to 15th centuries. They were forced South when the Vietnamese migrated from the North and there are now just 110,000 in Ho Chi Minh City. Their religion, Hinduism, and Indian influence apparent in artwork came from commerical relationships that the Chams had with India.

Oh how funny and original we are!

The trip we had booked was the sunrise tour although as the sun was rising whilst we were waiting for the minibus to pick us up we realised that we would have had to leave at 4am to get there in time for sunrise. Never mind, the most important thing was that we would get there before the hordes arrived and would be able to enjoy the site and take our pictures unobstructed. It was perfect, other than our group of 7, there were only 4 other people there. Another good reason for visiting so early is the heat. By 8am it was very hot indeed so it would have been unbearable by midday.

It's unknown how the bricks were fixed together as no apparent mortar was used however it is thought that they may have used a sap from trees in the area to glue the bricks together. The carving was all carried out after the towers were constructed. Amazing aint it! Unfortunately the site was almost completely destroyed by bombs during the War and the craters are still very visible today.

The Cham language is now completely lost so the script seen here cannot be translated

Apparently if a man rubs the linga....well we'll let you work it out!

Our guide for the day was delightful, a real character and very informative. I wanted to adopt him by the end of the day!

Whenever we are out in Vietnam we are approached by hawkers selling sunglasses, postcards, books etc. Most are good natured and simply move on if you do not engage in a convesation. However, I was not prepared for the children in Hoi An though. We've already established that I think Asian children are exceptionally beautiful, so put a Vietnamese 8 year old in front of me selling something.....I'm a lost case......

Gav and I were out in a lovely riverside restaurant for dinner (not very backpackerish I know but dinner two nights ago was baguettes and peanut butter in our room so that balances it out a little) and were approached by a succession of cute little kids selling crap. Initially I was firm but could see that Gav was buckling, and so could they. Upon seeing Gav's weakness one little girl turned her back on me and with all the cuteness that is physically possible asked him "but why wont you buy". It was too much for me "Ah man, okay, okay I'll buy". Then the business woman emerges from the child and she is fleecing us for evey penny she can get. I now have a wooden whistle that cost more than dinner - fine. But no, that's not the end. She then runs off to tell her mate, or sister or whoever it was who in turn comes over to our table to ask "why wouldn't you buy from me but you bought from her" and then would not leave our table for a good 15 minutes whilst putting on the saddest face that is humanly possible. Oh no. Needless to say we will not be suckered like that again (actually that's a lie because we were the other night but I'll talk about that in the next entry). Anyway, a dodgy wooden whistle thing that was vastly overpaid for will be winging it's way to my Neice and Nephew in due course.

And so our time in Hoi An came to an end and on Saturday 21 April we left on 10 hour train journey to the beach resort of Nha Trang.

School's Out-School Children in Hoi An

Cardie's hair is getting bigger.......

Well hello there. How the devil are you all?

On Sunday 15 April we departed Hanoi for Da Nang. We still hadn't fully recovered from the epic 3 day train journey that we put ourselves through at the beginning of our trip and therefore decided to fly. What? You don't expect me to slum it all of the time do you?

Our hotel was in My Khe beach which I have to say we had mistakenley assumed was walking distance from central Da Nang however it wa in fact a cab ride away (oops, my mistake).

My Khe beach (also known as China Beach) was used by American solders for a little rest and relaxtion during the war. It is quite undeveloped currently although judging by the construction sites it wont be long until it is.

The view from our hotel room

On Monday 16th we headed into Da Nang for the day to do a little sight seeing. The most interesting thing we saw was the Museum of Cham Sculpture which houses the best collection of Cham sculpture in the world (more on the Cham people in the next entry).

The Museum of Cham Sculpture

We did also hunt for the Ho Chi Minh Museum but after a very, very long walk (what is it with us and all this walking) in the searing heat, Gav lost it! He was walking no further and that was that. So after everything I've said about the dangerous roads and the motorbikes, what did we do? Yep, we got motorbikes back. I was holding onto the guy driving so tight that he was hysterically laughing at me (the only thing the girls here hold on to when they are on bikes is their sunglasses or hats). We made it in one piece though, phew.

Da Nang

We were not blown away with My Khe or Da Nang although there was nothing wrong with either place as such. A good thing about not having a strict itinerary is that we can just move on if we are not particularly enjoying ourselves and that's exactly what we did. We had origionally planned to stay for a week but in fact stayed for just two nights and on Tuesday 17th April we headed off to Hoi An.

No, we are not talking about the book by Mark Haddon and actually our incident didn't happen at night either......

I suggest that those of a delicate disposition do not read any further and Karen, you should most definitely not read this section to the boys.

We all know that the Vietnamese eat dogs right? Gav and I have seen one or two caged up and it has been apparent what lies in store for them. Apparently dog is quite an expensive meat and is therefore only eaten on special occassions although some like to eat dog once a month as it is thought that it brings luck. Sandy coloured dogs are said to taste the best. I believe it is an honour if a local asks you to dine on dog with him. We have spoken to a few travellers who have tried dog meat and said that in fact it is fairly tasty. Until recently it's fair to say that we have had no objections to the eating of dog, I mean how can we really? We eat animals so how can we judge? Don't get me wrong, neither Gav or I had any intention of actually eating any but surely us Brits eating our battery farm chickens is no better???

Anyway, back to the story. As I have mentioned we did experience some rain during our time in Ha Long Bay, in fact on the morning of Saturday 14th April we were subjected to severe thunder storms. Oh well, thats fine, we'll just stay in bed then is what we thought to ourselves.

The resort has a number of exceptionally friendly German Shepard guard dogs and at around 9am the dogs started going crazy. All of the dogs where barking at the same time and after around 10 minutes or so it was obvious that something was upsetting them.

I managed to drag myself out of bed to have a look at what was going on. At first all I could see was the young staff member, kitchen hands and the like, gathered around the volley ball pitch which was directly below our bungalow. One of the staff had a stick in his hand, similar to a broom handle. The dogs where all in the same area and seemed to be all looking in the same direction.....and so my gaze fell on what all the comotion was about.

On the sand volley ball pitch was a smallish sandy coloured dog. It looked like a greyhound type of dog although a little stockier. At first I could not work out how the dog's body was contorted in such a way although it was soon apparent that it's front legs had been twisted up behind it's back and tied together. The poor thing was terrified and was repeatedly lurching forward on it's hind legs trying to escape.

Oh God, it was awful. Gav told me not to look anymore as he knew how much I would be upset by what I was seeing. However I did once look back to see that the stick that the young staff memeber had been holding now seemed in someway holding the dog to the ground.

After some time, it became a little too much for both of us. The dog we squealing with fear and the noise of the other dogs barking at it and the staff shouting was overwhelming. What should we do? Eventually Gav shouted down to the group below that if they were going to kill the dog could they just get it over and done with and put the animal out of it's misery! We do understand that we are in Vietnam and whilst we are travelling we should respect the local customs and traditions and therefore maybe this was inappropriate action for us to take?? I'd actually like to know what other people's views on this are - what would you have done?

The group of staff then dragged the dog away out of view and, as Gav saw one of the boys pick up a meat cleaver, we assumed that was the end of it and that the dog would be killed and cooked. Erm nope! In fact what they actually did was just move the dog so that it was out of view and placed it into a shed area that was to the rear of the private beach. Throughout the rest of the morning we could hear the dog whimpering although stangely most acted as though they could not. I have no idea how long a dog would be left like that before it dies but it upsets me to think about it.

We have sinced been informed that the Vietnamese believe that the slower the death the tastier the meat becomes. They believe that the adrenaline released during death improves the flavour. Hence the treatment we witnessed and the reason why they were reluctant to give the dog a more humane death.

Chien, the owner of the resort, had asked us on the previous evening if we could email him with any suggestions as to how he could make his resort most appealing to western tourist. he asked for ideas or music CD's that he should buy, medicine that he should keep on-site etc. The resort had only been open since November and so was still a work in progress of sorts. At the time we imformed him that we loved it the way it was. It had a sort of rustic charm that would be lost if he tried to improve it too much. However with this conversation in mind we decided to approach him for a chat before we left (well Gav did the approaching). Gav basically took him aside and quietly said that we understand the dog is included in the Vietnamese diet however the treatment that we had witnessed that morning was hard for most Westeners to comprehend, whatever animal it might be. After initially denying he knew anything about the dog he was then very apologetic indeed.

If I am being honest I have come away feeling quite guilty as the guys at the resort tried so hard to make us as comfortable as possible and I think they felt that all their hard work had been undone. Maybe we shouldn't have said anything? However, if it stops the next guests having to witness the same thing, maybe we should have?

Gav and I wanted to go travelling to have new experiences and learn about other countries and cultures. We are certainly doing what we set out to!

Thursday 12 April 2007

What a gorgeous place!

Ha Long Bay

First let's discuss the 3 hour minibus journey to the harbour. There are more deaths in Vietnam due to road traffic accidents than for any other reason. Gav and the rest of our group saw a particularly horrific accident on the way. Luckily I was asleep so missed the whole thing although I was unlucky enough to see one on the return journey though. It's no wonder there are so many accidents as the locals drive like freaking lunatics - overtaking an overtaking vehicle is common practice so drivers are clean on the wrong side of the road driving into oncoming traffic. We have learnt that the best thing to do is simply not look ahead!

There are a ridiculous amount of boats moored at the harbour. Boarding your boat involves clambering over numerous other boats in a mad scrum of tourists until you reach the boat that will take you out into the bay. I suspect that risk assessing is not common practice in Vietnam. This part of the trip is a little grim as the pollution caused by the boats and tourists is evident in the colour of the water and the amount of litter floating on it.

Ha Long Bay Harbour

Anyway, all of that aside, Ha Long Bay itself is breathtaking and well worth the journey. There are around 3,000 limestone islands rising from the sea, some of which have little beaches and contain cave structures. The unusual shapes of the islands along with the mist that often surrounds them gives them an almost mystical appearance. They are very similar to the limestone rock formations that we mentioned seeing during our train journey from China to Vietnam (we have since learnt that this area is called Guilin in China).

Halong translates as 'where the dragon descends into the sea'. According to local legend the islands were created by a great dragon that lived in the mountains. As it ran towards the coast, it's tail gouged out valleys and crevasses, as it plunged into the sea, the areas dug up by the tail became filled with water, leaving only the high land visible.

Our Captain!

We sailed around the islands for around 2 hours on the way to our resort and stopped off half way at a floating settlement of boathouses. I am unsure as to the authenticity of these though as the 'locals' seemed to earn their living from selling ciggarettes and tubs of Pringles to tourists rather than fishing! Gav spent an hour kayaking and watching the wildlife, whilst I wondered around the houseboats (I was feeling far to lazy for any physical activity - as per usual). We also stopped at one of the numerous cave systems which lead to a secluded lake (pictures soon we promise!).

Kayaking in Ha Long Bay

The Lake

At around 7pm we arrived at the Ocean Beach Resort. Guys it was gorgeous! It comprises of 6 bamboo beach bungalows, all hand made by local craftsmen. Our bungalow was set into the hillside overlooking the whole resort. The only sounds we could hear from our room was the lapping of the waves and the insects in the forest behind us. Meals were served in the main house with our first meal being BBQ'd seafood caught fresh that day.

Ocean Beach Resort

In total there were 12 guests in the resort although not all were staying for the 2 nights as Gav and I were. We spent the evening with the rest of the group, chatting over a few beers....aaaaahhhhhh.

Okay so at midday the next day it started to rain. Damn it. Although even with rain the place was still great (well of course I'm going to say that). The 6 of us that were left in resort gathered in the main house with our gracious host, Chien, the owner of Ocean Tours. He along with the two guides, Tien and Tuong could not do enough for us. They went out of their way to make our stay perfect and we can't thank them enough. We sat drinking tea in the traditional fashion with Chien as he explained each part of the process (later in the evening we also drank Tequila slammers with him although there was no explanation required to participate in that). Apart from the Dog Incident (more on that on a seperate entry) we had a fantastic time.

Our Neighbours

Our Host and Guides

By midday on our final day the weather was perfect! The boat journey back to the harbour allowed us to see the bay again in a whole new light as rather than being shrouded in mist as it was on the way in, it was now glorious sunshine and we could see how beautifully green all of the islands were.

The Return Journey

Back to the chaos of the city......! We had one night in Hanoi before departing for Da Nang.