Hanoi, big Hanoi

Last days were dedicated to Hanoi. After having travelled South to North, there were no more expectations left; rather curious time for how much relax can one get in busy Hanoi. See the central map below? Some reference points marked in green, including History Museum and Geology Museum. Geology Museum was really far out and I think I just didn't have the energy to go through the motion of changing buses and relying on the local advice. I decided no to do it and instead wander around the city to get the feel for it.

Hanoi City Map with points of interest.

Museum of Vietnamese History admission

In order to compensate for not going to the Museum of Geology I went to see the Museum of History, looking for some cultural experience after weeks of bush walking and wilderness. I did not take a tour guide and I think it was a mistake. If you are ever going to be there, spent the 10$ to get a comprehensive overview of the place. It is definitely worth it. Even without a guided tour it took a good couple of hours to see things and try to understand the historical value. Most transcriptions were translated but I left the place hungry for more knowledge. Besides it is much better absorbed listening to the story than reading a scientific explanation of the same story.

At the end of my tour a surprise - a questionnaire for tourists conducted by students. Wanting to be helpful I took a pen and started going through pages of questions. You could think they will be asking for historical value of the place from tourist perspective and such things. They did of course in first few questions, together with asking for reference points to the region in questions like: which of the following capital cities would you consider visiting for cultural experience? And there was like 15 cities named, but of course as I have not travelled Asia extensively before, it did not mean much to me, whether it is Hanoi, Shanghai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or something else...I know little about cultural experiences in those places. No worries, I have time! I will get my own opinion on it once I have visited all of them!
Afterward the questions changed direction. Suddenly they were asking me for my occupation, place of work, annual salary, amount of money spent on holidays... Unbelievable, isn't it?

Nevertheless I finished my questionnaire, leaving some blanks, and left the place. Just as I was leaving the front gate I bumped into a bunch of gymnasium girls with a request to interview me. It was so funny to be seen as "a rare occasion" to get the opportunity to speak in English and ask a tourist some questions. This time it was much more reasonable asking though.
They asked me what I have seen in Vietnam, what cuisine I tasted, was it enjoyable etc... One girl was interviewing, the other was shooting me with her camera, the third one was making notes. Then they changed and the other girls started asking me similar questions. They were very polite and shy, and only after a while they got more comfortable to start smiling and giggling like girls do. It was all very funny experience to be perceived as an interview object :-).

Busy morning I had!

Around lunch time it was the time to relax. And the relaxing spot was Temple of Literature, a place to be in!

Temple of Literature admission

A little bit on the right to the History Museum there is  the Temple of Literature - a very pleasant place, full of open space, gardens, courtyards and nice little benches to sit on and admire the place. If not the sudden rain, it would have been a rather lazy afternoon. But with the rain approaching fast, I decided not to hang around for too long and instead try and get back to the hotel while still dry.





Fourth Courtyard - Temple of Literature

 

Beautiful tree in front of the gate to the Altars



I love trees..beautiful example this one.

The Temple of Literature - Confucius Altar

Cleaning Lady - Hanoi was much cleaner than HCMC, at least that was my feeling. But the number of cleaners on the streets seemed to be aligned by subjective judgement.

Third Courtyard of the temple with the Well of Heavenly Clarity and the red Constellation of Literature pavilion (by Wikipedia)

Home stay with minority people

Going down from Sa Pa to the minority village. The view is one of my favourites.

Mountains, here I come!!!

I have been waiting to this all the 2 weeks, I left the best part for the last. Without talking much, my favourite photos were taken there. I enjoyed it the most and I had fun all the three days non stop.

On the way to the minority village

A day at Lan Ha Bay - Vietnam rock climbing

Have you ever done the rock climbing? And deep water soloing?
Well, never have I. But Cat Ba island seems to be the place to do it. With a great advertising from the SLOPONY guys I did not stand a chance to refuse them. I stayed at Noble House hotel, which was as far from being noble as one can imagine ;). Anyway the good point was that on the second floor the Slo Pony guys had their office and whole floor was occupied with adventurers, backpackers and tourists looking to have active time at Cat Ba.

 

Vietnam rock climbing with Slopony



There were 5 of us on the boat plus the driver and one Slo Pony guide.

On the way to Cat Ba island

Emotionally exhausted after the DMZ, finally there was a time for full relaxation at the Halong Bay - descending dragon bay! The Mekka of all the tourists travelling or passing by Vietnam. The place to be, the one and only must see. The only spot in whole Vietnam that got recommended from every blogger, every agent, every person who ever visited...UNESCO World Heritage Site. So it must be good, right?

Halong Bay http://myvietnamtravel.net

The bay is famous for its limestone monolithic islands, over 3,000 of them!

So much for the research :).

DMZ two day tour - day 2

Khe Sanh Hill Fights, the former US combat base, "The defense of Khe Sanh became one of the largest sieges of the war and commanded heavy international attention in the media one of several climactic phases of the Tet Offensive".
You could picture the battle field as abandoned helicopters and restored bunkers are part of the area. Being a bit lucky I managed to get on one of the remaining C-130 Hercules. What a feeling to be sitting in the those seats..

DMZ two day tour - day 1

What was a DMZ?
A DEMILITARIZED ZONE was a piece of land that was established by the Geneva Conference (July 20, 1954) theoretically ending the war between the French and the independence movement of the French states, including Vietnam. The independence was granted to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam,
DMZ was a boundary established at Ben Hai River (5 km to each side) to separate Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the North (pro communist) and Republic of Vietnam in the South (pro democratic), declared as a demilitarized zone with both government troops barred from this area.



the Peace Bridge captured on the photograph, before it was destroyed with the UN bombing



The Bridge was rebuilt, but not in its exact position. The new bridge was built just next to the remainings of the old one. Nowadays the Vietnamese government wants to bring back the original bridge so it is possible there will be two bridges over Ben Hai river soon.

A model of the DMZ, picture taken in the DMZ museum. You can see a highway #9, Ho Chi Mihn Trail and many more.



Under the terms of the Geneva Accords, civilians were to be given the opportunity to move freely between the two provisional states for a 300-day period. It was meant to end with 1956 elections, which never came to play. South Vietnam refused to take part in "free elections" questioning the ability of the Communist North of being able to held really free elections. This followed with an independence declaration from the South, rejecting the Geneva Accords and declaring South Vietnam to be independent state. This is foreseen as a culmination of American policy to establish am anti-communist state in the region to stop the Kremlin offense of taking the control over whole Indochina region.

More information can be found here : http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/genevacc.htm

I spent 2 full days travelling in the area and watching the remaining after the Vietnam War. And there is lots to see and weep about.

I had the luck of having a private Vietnamese tour guide whose family and himself fought in the war on the southern side. His history and commentary to the Vietnam modern history were unforgettable.

My DMZ tour guide - I will never forget him and his commentary on the history of Vietnam.

 

What will stay in my memory from these two days?

The air shed in Dong Ha, with crack in the walls from bombs, now surrounded with ordinary houses. Completely hidden from the street view for most tourists, only the locals know...

The Rockpile  - the mountain on which Americans carried one of their observation points. Quite inaccessible on the foot, the supply for the troops was carried from the air with helicopters. One cannot climb it today either. Special passes are needed from the government. A pass is around $200 and is usually granted only for American veterans who keep coming back and cry for their friends who never made their return. They don't speak much, just walk around and look and cry. It must be a very difficult emotional trip for them...

The Rockpile - the US Army stationery point

As you can see there are no trees and the nature around is quite poor. This is a reminder after the Americans - the amount of chemicals and TNT they used to clean up the space in order to be able to see anything.. it still has not cleared from the soil..

Vietnam is an amazing country, reach in natural beauty. Imagine what it would have been without all the wars that run through this country in the past centuries.

We went to see one of hundreds of unnamed soldier cemeteries. So many men and young boys were gone and never identified. Looking through names and dates of those identified, the average age was 19/20... It reminded me a lot of Polish history and the similarities between the countries from the was perspective. The sad thing also is that it looks like there is a new way of making money - people who are trying to understand their family roots and find their beloved - they are creating a demand for looking for old papers, war remaining, soldier traces, and what should have been a duty of a state to provide to those families - now certain people are taking advantage of them and charging big money for the "research" services.

Ben Hai River and the Peace Bridge. Very memorable place for all Vietnamese. This is where the border was established and the bridge was like a boundary between two worlds. It was even painted with two colours - painted red for the communist part and the southern portion with yellow. The existing bridge is not the original one, it was rebuilt but not in its exact position after Americans bombed it in 1967. From what I have understood they are going to rebuilt the bridge in its original position.

There were huge megaphones installed on both sides of the river - a remaining of the propaganda war. Each evening the communist propaganda would transmit its news to the southern part. Of course the southern part would response with a similar thing, giving their own news directed to the North. And so the next day the northern side would put a bigger and more powerful megaphone to transmit louder and farther... and so on. There is at least one of those megaphones left there on the northern part, with bullet points in it.. The size of the megaphone is ridiculous even now.

Memorial of the old Peace Bridge - the arch at the old Hien Luong Bridge over the Ben Hai River

A way to Dong Ha - taking a local train, am I being too brave?

So where do I start with this one hmmm.. With the journey maybe. This time it was a day train with hard seats. As it was not convenient to try and get it organized on my own, I booked it through the hotel service desk. It saves you the journey to the station and back and also it makes a taxi booking to get to the station in the same time. Sometimes you have to be smart with managing your time!
OK all I can say about the train it that the experience was sensational. So far I have experienced the overnight buses and trained but never the day one. With hard seats.

Train ticket - note how smart - some agencies are stapling the bottom part where the real price is. Tourist pay a 'tourist price' if booked through an agent.

Unfortunately I have not taken any photos, but I will try and describe as much in details as I can. So first of all the staff at the station were very friendly though not speaking a word in English. As usual, when the time was coming, someone came specifically to tell that the I can move onto the platform. Making sure it was the right one was easy, enough to take the ticket out and someone would start nodding and pointing that I am OK or I need to change. Platform was slowly getting full and some people were trying to make a conversation, limited to few words like "good", "OK", "hello", "where are you from". Being the only white and European on the platform was definitely dragging their attention. Not many times they can see a tourist hoping on a local train!

Train station - you could not tell if it was Vietnam or Poland... for most of the Polish stations would look even less appealing to this.

The carriages were open space with no compartments, hard wooden seats just like in any other very old train. What was different, it was the crates in the windows. I am not joking! There was a full steel crate in each window.That was new to me, coming from country where using the train services can move you back in time to 60-70 of the last century, I have never seen crates on a train.

People were taking their sites, and taking out their food and entertainment stuff on the little tables. It was normal to take the shoes off and start preparing their food. They would have boxes with rice or noodles with some meet and vegetables. I guess you never think of how other nationalities are travelling and in a country like Vietnam, a train journey is no different, but instead of having sandwiches and snack they would bring their own rice/noodles and mix it before eating.

There was also a train food service. A lady with a little trolley where she kept cooked rice with some toppings, drinks and local snacks. Not wanting to take my chances this time I skipped it, grateful for a bottle of water and some nuts I carried with me.
People around me were smiling and offering to share their lunches with him. People rarely smile to each other in Poland and seldom offer to share their food on a journey. How different was to join the Vietnamese train and see how people are happily travelling squeezed in uncomfortable seats, but yet smiling.

The journey wasn't too long, few hours altogether. In Dong Ha I hopped out just to realize that I am in the middle of nowhere. Literally, there was only a small train station and nothing else. One biker was waiting to offer his taxi services but I refused.

After all I knew where I wanted to go, and asking for a general direction was not sounding too difficult.
Coming out from the station I met a man and asked him for directions. Luckily he was one of the hotel owners and he had also DMZ guided tours to offer - ones recommended by Lonely Planet as the best ones.

So he pointed me in the direction of his hotel promising to join me in a short while to see if we can make a deal for DMZ tour.

Window View - DMZ Hotel

Window View DMZ Hotel

And so you see, once again everything was working like I would have never better planned myself.

Vietnam in the rain and more banana pancakes

The days since I  left Mui Ne have been rainy and the overall scenery has turned into mostly miserable. The temperature dropped 10 degrees, it's been misty in the mornings and if it hasn't just started raining you could be certain that it will start in the next half an hour.

Nevertheless, I was still in Vietnam, having the time of my life travelling. What a wonderful life!

Hue citadel on the right. Quite impressive sizewise...

Next stop, My Son and Hue. Both known for its historical and cultural heritage from ancient vietnamese royal families. It is a must see in Veitnam, as there are no other remainings like that in whole Vietnam. Some poeople don't appreciate Vietnam as it does not have spectacular buildings, astonishing beaches or it is not developed to standards of most surrounding countries. For me it felt different. I deliberately chose it for its uniqueness in that respect. At last something different, something refreshing and natural. A challenge.

Hue citadel by http://www.alphareconassociation.org/

So was Hue. But I decided that bad weather cannot ruin my staying there, so I went for a city tour. The city itself was bigger then I had anitcipated. When you think if walking to any palace complex you have in mind some builsings, maybe a garden and orchard. Right? Nothing like that in Hue :). I mean there were buildings and gardens... but it was way bigger and spread all over like nothing I have ever seen so far. It must have been so beautiful back in the days of greatest power! Due to the rain it was not possible to walk it all, limiting muself just to several closest buidlings I ended up jumping in the water with historimy shoes wet anyway.

Now when I give it a second thought, it was actually quite upsetting, the whole Hue citadel experience. Seeing such a great culture heritage being wasted is almost heartbreaking. Only a handful of buildings were partly renovated. None of the gardens or orchards was even close to its original shape. You could hardly read the descriptions in the memory places.

Rain continues - My Son

 My Son was the first booked in trip I had so far. There was no other choice really, or the choice was between getting soaked on a day trip with motor bike and a tourist bus..My Son is relatively close to Hoi An, it is still too far of a distance to just hire a bike and go. So the tour bus was the only acceptable option really. Well  you have to experience it all to know what you really like and what you don't ;)

My Son complex - introduction made by our tour guide

I was all excited about this trip as I like ancient cities and the whole history of misterious places like that. In the name of seeing unique places you can handle a lot, and you know how it goes after little while. That you need to stop at certain places for a toilet stop (even though the toilet facility wasn't somehting I would come close to in Eurpe -

More updates from Hoi An

Once we arrived and found a hotel to book ourselves in, we set off for a walk and some food.
Hoi An has a completely different feel to it. Different to other places in Vietnam. From a history point if view it used to be one the biggest ports and traiding places in Vietnam - the former harbour town of the Cham but it got forgotten for some centuries and lost all the privliges to Danang.

Colonial style present in almost every building...

It became popular again in recent times, famous for crafts such as textiles and ceramics. I did not believe that it could be nice for shopping for clothes, as it is famous for over a 500 of tailors offering their services and very good quality materials (silk and cotton), but once walked through the little streets with all the shops around I totally soaked in. I had to really resisit a lot not to spend all my travel budget for tailored made clothes. It was a challenge :).

Apart from good shopping opportunities Hoi An is also famous for cooking classes. Most of hotels and restaurants are offering the cooking courses which are said to be one of the best experiences if you like cooking. I didn't try it, prefering eating the food rather than making it. It was in Hoi An where I tried one of the best fresh spring rolls and banana pancakes!

In the evening the French style Hoi An curort is changing its face again.



French style floating restaurant - too fancy for me!

There is a nice overview on Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoi_An

Through Danang to Hoi An

Getting to Hoi An was relatively easy with the sleeping traing in a very comfortable cabin. I must admit that the train wasn't cheap as for Vietnamese standards but the service quality was better than at home. What surprised me was that they have many different types of cabins, not just second class and first class (and business eventually) like at home, but more. With different finish, different fitting, with flower pots, without flower pots.. amazing! So it was actually a good decision to splash out and take this train. The only small obstacle was that the traing wasn't going to Hoi An directly, but to Danang, which is the biggest city in the area less then an hour drive.

On the night train from Nha Trang to Danang. Luckily only two seats were occupied - what a comfort!

Morning window view

Being adventures so far it didn't bother me so much. Especially that I found a great companion on the way and now there were the two of us going in the same direction. Anyway we figured that there must be a way of getting from Danang to Hoi An, with Hoi An being such a major tourist spot. And there was a way, but for tourist and not for backpackers. Arriving at Danang train station there were bunch of private minibuses and motorbikes, and taxis, whatever you prefer but none of them wanted to settle for my price, which was close enough to the price I knew we would pay for public transportation. It made me a bit mad, how obscene the local guys were with trying to overcharge so off we went in looking for the bus station. There must be a bus station close to the train station right?

Well it was not so straight forward as I was thinking :)
Looking at the little map in our guide book it was a bit of a walk, like 2KM. We found an Internet place to double check and it was saying the same. Trying to get any sort of directions from the locals was virtually impossible, even with the phrase book. No one seemed to have any English.

On top of that it was a Sunday so all the western service companies were closed, like banks etc. so we could not ask. Seems like the part of Danang we were in was not touched by any tourist services, no hotels, no travel agencies, nothing. And so we were walking in the direction of a bus station, at least we hoped so. We passed a school, a park, a church, a market, honda dealership...and kept walking..The bus station was nowhere to be seen, no buses around either.

Diving in Nha Trang

What can I say, it was spectacular!
I used Vietdive local compny, not one of the fancy western onces which were a bit overpriced. Ok they were using newer gears and native English speakers. After all being in Vietnam is all about experiencing everything what's local.

And the local waters give amazing views! See for yourself, I was amazed...
Pictures were taken by a buddy diver though :)

Sand LizardFish

LionFish

OrangeSpiked SeaCucumber

LongNose ButterflyFish

TubeCoral

FireCoral



FalseClown AnemonFish

JellyFish

Happy Marta :D

Black Diadema and TrumpetFish



 The first two dives were not fortunate maybe, the visibility was not great and you could not really enjoy the views. I also lost my weight bell when jumping from the boat so we lost some time trying to reorgnize. This is why I decided to book in for another day, to see if I can get more luck. And it was the right decision.

The second day was marvelous.