Oct 10 Hanoi to Ninh Vinh to Tam Coc
Every building in Buddhist countries has a small shrine some where in the building. The one in the Hong Ngoc hotel was under the stairwell. Everyday you burn an incense stick or/and make an offering to Buddha. Coke, beer, water, etc. When I walked out of the room on the 4th floor you would have thought the building was on fire. The whole place was full of smoke. Further investigation brought me to Buddha where someone had offered up the last daily newspaper or something. I persuaded the staff to turn on the a/c and a fan in the dinning room area so I could at least see my breakfast. Actually, this was just an omen of the day. There is a reason that next to the hand sanitizer at the front desk they keep an inhaler.
Vicki hiding from Uncle Ho’s 6:30 broadcast
Our trusty steed “corolla” and his sidekick Mr. Taun arrived on time at 8:30 and off we went. The whole city looked like the kitchen. The smog was the worst we had seen yet. After 40 minutes we had covered 12 km or about 7 miles. We where traveling down a 8 line highway that was about 26 cars and scooters abreast with a fence as a divider when Mr. Taun wiped a U-turn. Back we went a few miles and turned right into a road construction sight. Bumping along the dirt road we ran into a roadblock of a heavy piece of equipment moving something large. After 10 minutes the road was clear and we bumped along another few minutes when we came upon a nice 4-line highway, turned right and took off. In Vietnam terms, there was basically no traffic. Soon, we where into semi-open country with even a better view of the smog.
An hour later this road turned back into a 2 lanes again and into heavy traffic. In the city 90% of the vehicles are scooters. Out on the open road 80% of the vehicles are trucks and buses (unscientific survey, results may vary +/- 100%). Not all of them on the road. This is furthered restricted by rice drying on the road.
We passed through Ninh Binh (ning bing) where we were to spend the night, about 11 and out the other side about 11:30. Just a short time later “corolla” pulled up to the The Long hotel right at the waterfront in Tam Coc where we are going on a boat ride. We checked into a very Vietnamese 7 story eclectic hotel. You wind your way through a maze the first 3 floors and then you catch the elevator. But the main point here is that even with a travel agent and a written agenda it is still TIV (This Is Vietnam) as the hotel was written to be in Ninh Binh “and after lunch ride to Tam Coc for boat ride”.
We had been advised by other tourist that if you could go later in the afternoon, says 3pm, you should be alone as all the day trippers from Hanoi will be gone. I will let you judge from the pictures the truth of this statement.
There were times we where the only boat on a stretch of the river where there could have been great peace and serenity. Except, we had not been advised to get a boat with only one paddler. The 2 women working our boat would not shut up for 2 hours. And they had gall to ask for tip, first time in Vietnam.
We walked through the narrow streets of the small town Tam Coc. Everybody said hello and wanted their picture taken, except one. He wanted a buck and said I “yea, right”. These gentlemen where making fish pots. They where very, very friendly and even wanted to share a few hits on their bong. Not exactly sure if that was opium or Cuban tobacco, I took a pass.
We came upon this strange machine. They pour rice mixed with a little Ramon noodles or other additive in to the hopper and spills into I guess a high-pressure press. This part gets really hot solely from the heat of the compression and they pour water over it to keep it cool. Out the other end come long cylindrical things that taste like popcorn. They broke apiece off and handed it to Vicki to try. It tastes like popcorn.
For dinner we walked just a few yards out of town and met a wonderful couple. They own the Bamboo Bar and Restaurant. Neils, a Dutchman, had been in the country 3 years. Their food was great as was their personal rice wine. He told us of the wonderful corruption in Vietnam. More than there is space for here.
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Day 2 Tam Coc to Vinh Oct 11
On the road around 9am in light to heavy rain. Not sure that rain makes any difference in your travel as we rarely get above 45 mph due to traffic.
First stop was Thanh Hoa where we were to visit a Cathedral and a market. Mr. Taun knew nothing of this but was on the phone instantly and worked it out. Then he stood in the middle of the road with 2 ladies getting directions.
Then I threw him a curve ball and said we wanted to go the beach town of Sam Son. It took several stops to ask for directions to this major tourist town. It was ok, but not world class. There was a lot of interesting fishing boats made out of woven bamboo. It was a fairly nice beach with 10 story high rises. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of buildings.
Again he was unsure when we pointed to the small road on the map along the beach we wanted to follow but one stop for directions and we were on our way. This is not really a beach road but inland about ½ mile but it is back woods Vietnam. We got a glimpse of the ocean and told him to turn left at the next ox trail. It leads us to a great surprise. Bamboo fishing boats lined with Styrofoam for as far as we could see in both directions. We were quite the novelty on the beach.
Next stop the faux home of Ho Che Minh. Uncle Ho’s mausoleum in Hanoi is closed while they restore his body (that’s right) with the help of Russian scientist for the big 2010 celebration. This is the perfect example of the failure of the Vietnamese tourist trade. They promote this sight, but it took even our local driver 3 stops to get directions to find the place. There were signs proclaiming how great it is but none to show the way. We finally arrived and as expected it was not much to it.
Know how all those hawker chase your around? Well, the locals get it also. They did not bother us but they chased Mr. Taun the whole time.
Back into to the car and off to Ving to call it a day.
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Day 3 Ving to Chay Lap Oct 12
I went for an early walk and saw this lady cooking Vietnamese pancakes on the sidewalk so I went over to look. Once I took her picture the girls next door wanted their picture taken. I did not recognize any of the animal parts they were selling for breakfast but the whole ducks.
While Vicki was having breakfast I went across the street to look at the Vespa scooters. They are $1,000 cheaper here than in the U.S. so I bought one. And, since I cannot drive legally in Vietnam I bought a driver. Vicki made me give them both back.
Leaving the hotel at the same time at us was a wedding party. I took a picture and once I did the father of the groom made everyone line up and insisted that I take more pictures. Everyone here loves to have the picture taken. Over the next couple of days we saw lots of wedding parties. Must be the season
On the way out of town we saw the brides car. It was decorated with flowers and drove slowly down the main 4 lane street of Ving. ALL vehicles stayed behind her. No one passed. After all the crazy driving we had seen we were surprised.
We hit the highway just out of town got on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This is the road used to move supplies from the north to the south during the war. The first part for us was a one lane paved road. Though I had not wanted to visit war stuff we came to Nga Ba Bong. It is area dedicated to the volunteers on the road and in particular 10 girls that were killed. A large area but not much really to see. So we wound up under the tree with some guides giving Mr. Taun directions and rubbing the “Buddha belly”.
On the Ho Chi Minh trail we came across Clinton. He was living in Vietnam but was getting ready to join his wife in the U.S. so he was on one last bike trip. Unfortunately, the bike had stopped running. We stood around talking and he and Mr. Taun discussing where the nearest bike mechanic was in Vietnamese. They kept talking and finally the little girl pointed and said right over there. We walked to the shop with him and visited a little more and then took off. Clinton had spent the night in Chap Lay and he said every one in the area knew we were coming.
On down the road we visited a World Heritage site. Boat ride, etc etc.
So photo’s one web
Now we are off to find our “Chap Lay eco-village”. Just to find it took determination. Once we found the “road” into it Mr. Taun was on the phone to the boss. We assume because there was no road, just a cow path. The boss said drive on. We came into an area of various fruit and other trees and 3 small native houses of wood. We checked our room, which was in a large room with 4 queen beds and 2 modern nice bathrooms. We inspected the kitchen and though it was basic and everything cooked on a single wood burner, it was clean and neat. Then the electricity went out. They had nice lanterns and it was not dark yet, so no problem I went looking for Mr. Taun and we was setting in his air conditioned car talking to the boss. He did not like this place and saying “we go”. We walked back over to our building and the boss called. My concern was that if it rained we might never get out of this place with the car. He had checked and said there was no chance of rain and we decided to stay. Mr. Taun was not happy, but we found out he is scared of the dark and being in the country. When the electric came back on he sighed a big relief. He was quite comical and cutting up the whole time. Over dinner he told us he wanted a guard for the night.
the cow trail the destination the gate
the 2 guest houses
room with mosquito nets dinner taun indicating guard
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Day 4 Chap Lay to Hue Oct 13
I went for an early walk to the “rustic village of Chap Lay” about a mile away. They are building tourist type stuff on a very small scale. The headman came out and showed me around. One building had kayaks and bikes for rent. We had talked last night about this being inspired by the Peace Corp or something like that. The plague on the wall of the new building says it is funded by the U.S. Agriculture Department. This is a noble cause, but I saw various flaws in the program…like the ladder to the river to launch kayaks was about 6 feet short of reaching the river and the bank was very steep so there is no way out of the water.
Before we left we had a great breakfast noodles and eggs and the first really hot coffee we have had in the country and the local police came to visit. You tend to forget that this is a communist country, but every night they take your passports and make out a report that they give to the police. After a great breakfast we were on our way.
We have yet to say any modern farm equipment. In and around Hanoi where they were harvesting rice, all of the work was done by hand. They cut it with a sickle, loaded on a bike or an ox cart and took it to the road. The only equipment used was to thrash the rice. Not a tractor or anything in site. All plowing is still done the same as hundreds of years ago with a cow and wooden plow. There are some small “pickup” type vehicles, but nothing else.
Today was almost all rural with no traffic and mostly forested. We passed mile after mile of rubber and pine plantations were they still extract the sap the old fashion way. Mixed in were miles of balsa wood.
Back on Highway 1, the main highway from Hanoi to Saigon. The traffic was not as heavy as when we had left the highway 2 days earlier and reached the hotel in Hue about 1:30. We sent Mr. Taung out to have fun and we started walking the town. It’s hot and we needed a beer saw came to floating (barely) restaurant on the river and order a couple Huada. They were not cold, but in the ever effort to please and the fact that the waiter was tourist smart, he produced and ice bucket with 4 beers. Then the people next to us wanted and ice bucket. They are a very nice young Swiss couple traveling the world for 1 year. We compared stories. Our hotel has a bathroom, refrigerator, air conditioning, TV and Internet. So does theirs. Oar’s is $35 and theirs is $8. Guesthouses are clean and cheap and I would have no problem staying in them, but it is a little more work finding them than I want. In the circle of the back packers it is not difficult to do. We found it interesting that they thought the Vietnamese unfriendly as we have just opposite feeling. It was fun chatting with them. Our 4 iced beers were 36,000 dong or $2. That night we went to our first upscale restaurant, but the food was still very inexpensive. The main course was $3 but the 3 bottles of water were 56,000 dong!
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