Saigon to Hanoi
June 2008

Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City ( Saigon) right on evening rush hour we passed through a huge motorcycle engulfed roundabout. There looked to be more motor bikes on that roundabout than in the whole of Phuket. As in other Asian countries the motor bike is the main method of transport, sleeping children, livestock, ice, water, furniture, you name any item and in a day in Vietnam you will probably see it being carried on a motor bike or even a push bike. The bravest person I saw in Vietnam was a street sweeper in Saigon. This person was sweeping up leaves off a tree encircled roundabout. Swarms of motor bikes buzzed around her every time the traffic lights changed an intersection away. She kept on calmly sweeping no orange cones, no flashing warning lights just a yellow coat and faith in the careful driving of the bikers to protect her. For us crossing the road was a nightmare although by Hanoi we had become reasonably confident. In the Old Quarter of Hanoi the roads are very narrow, motorbikes are parked on the pavement, pedestrians walk on the road dodging the traffic. One rush hour I saw 2 old ladies strolling arm in arm down the street, having a gossip, oblivious to the bikes dodging around them.

The alleyways around our Ho Chi Minh hotel were very narrow and each time a bike needed to pass us we had to squash up by the wall and hold our breath to let it past. The fact that every household seemed to have a little food or coffee shop outside their house didn't help but it did add to the ambience and aroma of the place. These street vendors set up little plastic tables and chairs, the size three year olds sit on for their tea parties, then sell hot noodles for breakfast, coffee for chatting over, fresh pork or chickens, head included, for home cooked meals. Perching on these little stools took a little getting used to but we soon realized that when we were sitting on these we were paying local prices or close to them.

From Saigon we took a day tour to the Cu Chi tunnels where the Viet Cong hid from the American forces and set vicious traps for their enemies. There were many such tunnels during the war, these ones have been turned into a tourist attraction. Alan went to go down one but decided they were too small for him. On the same trip we visited a Cao Dai temple, the soothing singing of the congregation while there was in sharp contrast to the war memories at Cu Chi. The Cao Dai religion is hard to figure out, it takes bits from Muslim, Bhuddism and Catholic religions. Sun Yat Sen, Victor Hugo and some Vietnamese man from the 1700s are the saints, one big eye adorns all the temples we saw. Considering all that mixture they do know how to build an eye catching temple, bright yellow, red and blue inside and out with large pink and black pillars inside. That sounds a bit of a mish mash but with the entire congregation dressed in white and the leaders in red and blue, the view from the balcony was quite majestic.

Another must see in Saigon is the War Museum, parts of this museum require a strong stomach. There are examples of the affect of agent orange on fetus, and photos of war atrocities as well as the usual tanks and planes all with Russian markings of course. This is not a place to be a proud American. The most interesting section is that dedicated to the photo journalists, especially those that died or are still missing. I pointed out to Alan that a group of photo journalists went missing in Cambodia in 1971 the same year he was there and that perhaps he had been quite lucky. He agreed it was a bit of a sobering thought.

From Saigon we moved onto Dalat with the idea of traveling north to Hoi An through the Central Highlands rather than up the coast. The bus trip to Dalat took us up a steep range of hills, the start of the highlands. Our bus was nearly empty as we left Saigon, so we decided to sit in the front seat for a change and have a good view of the country. The trip was another of those " whoa that was close" encounters but sitting in the front meant the view of these encounters was sometimes too close for comfort! After the first hour we realized that our driver was very competent and didn't always pass on a blind up hill corner even when the truck in front indicated it was safe to do so!

The cooler mountain temperatures of Dalat attracted the holidaying French Colonials and today it is advertised as the honeymoon centre for Vietnamese. The European style hotels and French villas give the town a definite European Alp atmosphere. The produce at night market was a little different from elsewhere in Vietnam, huge baskets full of glossy green avocados, potatoes, strawberries and large beetroot. We hadn't seen beetroot since Australia and then it was tinned. What a pity we had no where to cook one.

Hotels in Vietnam also tend to be travel agents, which makes life easy as buses can be booked, hotel pick ups arranged with out too much hassle. Our Hotel in Dalat arranged for us to meet Hieu to talk about the trip we wanted to do through the Central Highlands. With a little negotiating we arranged for Hieu to take us on a 3 day trip ending in Hoi An. The next day we set off on our tour Hieu our guide, Khun the driver and the two of us. We had suggested to Hieu the night before that he could drive and guide but he thought that would be too hard work. It would have cost us less too but we were the only ones who liked that idea. The next three days we travelled through the Highlands near the Cambodian and Lao Borders along parts of the Ho Chi Minh trail, through a very prosperous looking area of Vietnam. Coffee plantations and acres of rubber trees gave way to hills covered in pineapples. Rice paddies squeezed between hills on every bit of available land. Towns dotted with building sites, opulent colourful new villas and house renovations indicated a burgeoning middle to upper class on ground where thousands of people from both sides had lost their lives 30 odd years ago. I kept wondering what Uncle Ho would have thought of his Vietnam now. Perhaps he wouldn't be so happy but his people seem to be embracing capitalism with enthusiasm.
Every day we passed a couple of huge War cemeteries and every town had large War Memorial Statues in the town centre. We drove past bill boards with quotations from Ho Chi Minh, banners with more quotations from Uncle Ho fluttered from town light posts. I wonder if the people have time to read them, they all seem to be working so hard.

We arrived in Hoi An late afternoon of our third day. Another great tour, we hadn't managed to get a word out of Khun, no English but he had a beaming smile. We had learnt a lot more about Vietnam, its history and its people. I think we also taught Hieu that even "old tourists" like to eat and drink as the locals do, no flash restaurants for us please. Alan had another haircut adventure in Buon Ma Thuot, where the shopkeepers called their kids out to look at us, not many westerners come through this way still. But at Hoi An we were back on the tourist trail.

Hoi An, the old city the Vietnamese and Americans agreed not to bomb, now a UNESCO site full of tailoring shops. Pretty all the same. This is the place in Vietnam to get clothes made, backpackers on the way to Europe get winter coats and suits made. Anything can be made overnight, draw it, take a picture or copy the dress you a wearing. You could just arrive in the clothes you are wearing and by the next morning you could have clothes for every occasion and season ready to wear. There is a little more to Hoi An than that though. Old buildings to visit, a white sandy beach , fresh (draught) beer to sample and great food. And as we discovered you never know who you might meet there.

Wandering past old shop houses on our second day in Hoi An and I looked down the street to see Bryce from Silver Fern (naturally, a NZ boat with that name) biking towards us. Bryce and Martha had left the marina 10 days before us to do a similar trip as ourselves. We sat down on the steps of a shop for a catch up chat. While we were chatting street vendors came along to join in and to try and sell us all sorts of things, the pineapple and mango ladies were the only successful ones. The steps we were chatting on belonged to a tailor, their lovely display of clothes and silk material drew Martha and I in. Martha saw a skirt she liked so ordered it to be made. The clothes on display in these shops are not for sale they are samples of what can be made. I had ordered some dresses earlier in the morning at a shop near our hotel. One fitting, a bit of adjusting and they were ready all in 24 hours.
The Silver Fern crew had hired push bikes to go to the beach, we had already arranged to hire a motor bike for the same purpose. We couldn't see them when we got to the beach, probably because we spent most of our time there dealing with the hordes of very determined beach vendors, "you buy memories of Vietnam". When that didn't work it was ...
" you have children?"
"yes, two"
"you have daughter?'
"yes, one girl, one boy"
"oohh you very lucky, I have 3 boys, your daughter she like this (bangle), you give her present, memories of Vietnam".
"no she has been here, she has her own memories"
" but she have birthday soon?".............And so it went on.
The first few times it's okay, a bit of a game but then its time to harden up and try not to even make eye contact. The problem is once you have bought from one then all the other vendors think you are going to buy from them as well.

We met Bryce and Martha for Hoi An Fresh beer and dinner and the next day we shared a car and driver for the day trip to Hue. We stopped at Marble Mountain just south of Danang and admired elegant marble statues that could be shipped to anywhere in the world. At Danang we had stuffed squid and rice for lunch, and visited the museum. We strolled on China Beach which in a year or two will be lined with huge hotels being built by Americans just across the road from the concrete bunkers of their wartime air base. Instead of taking the long tunnel through the hills we wound our way up to the top and were rewarded with a beautiful view out over the bays surrounding Danang.
Being yachties we looked for possible anchorages in the bays below. Vietnam is not really open to cruisers yet, there is some charter yachts down at Nha Trang, hopefully in the future the Vietnam coast will be opened up.

Hue was a surprise to me, there was lot more to do and see there than I thought. Our stay in Hue turned out to be an unexpected pleasure, we stayed 3 days. We visited the historical citadel, decorated with flags for the biannual Hue festival. Hired bikes for a day and negotiated the leafy streets to visit more historical sights. Toured old tombs and temples. A boat trip on the Song river took us past live aboard boats and floating shops. Wandering down side roads and alleyways we came across a group of builders having lunch so Alan had to stop and chat about the hotel they were building. The owner took him on a guided tour of the 4 story concrete shell that is to become a small hotel. A top builder earns $8 a day, one of the cruisers here has just flown to Perth to earn $500 dollars a day as a foreman builder!

Because of the Hue Festival getting away from the town was difficult all buses were booked. 4 seats on the sleeper bus to Hanoi were not possible, Martha and Bryce left a night before us, we managed 2 seats the next night. The sleeper bus to Hanoi left Hue at 6pm and we got into Hanoi at about 8am. A sleeper bus has 3 rows 2 high of recliner beds, these buses seem to be more popular than the train now and there are many bus companies using them for long distance travel in Vietnam. From stories told us by young backpackers we didn't expect to have a comfortable trip but it turned out not so bad. We older backpackers are perhaps made of sterner stuff than our much younger traveling companions. We left Hue with a full bus, well so we thought. On the outskirts of Hue the bus picked up about 20 more passengers, local people who then made themselves comfortable in the aisles and slept soundly until we reached Hanoi. While they slept the bus driver counted the cash he had got from them, his tip for the night. Conveniently all those aisle sleepers had got off the bus by the time we arrived at our official stop.
We arrived in the outskirts of Hanoi at about 8am, we off loaded into smaller buses because the small streets of the Old Quarter where we were to be taken were too narrow for the big bus. We arrived at Elizabeth hotel just in time to join Bryce and Martha for breakfast.
Five days left in Vietnam to enjoy Hanoi and take an overnight trip to Halong bay. Hanoi is another story all of its own but I have written enough for now, Hanoi and developments back at Rebak regarding Talitha will have to wait until the next blog.