Beaching it in Vietnam

Since it appears we are traveling through Vietnam in the rainy season, we were really taking a chance at trying to check out the beach in Nha Trang, which is billed as having some of the best beaches in Vietnam. Well if that is true, I don't think I'll be hitting up any more beaches in this country. Though I think its more a factor of the rains which bring in debris and any thing else that is on the streets onto the beach and into the surf so the water takes on a brownish tinge and the sand is littered with all sorts of debris from palm fronds to plastic bits. We were lucky enough to have had a clear morning when we arrived from our overnight bus trip from Hoi An, so we still went down to the beach. After finding a nice spot under a palm tree we settled in and tried to nap on the beach. But we received an onslaught of merchants trying to sell us bootleg books, and sunglasses. Though we clearly had both these items and it didn't seem to deter the vendors. At first we tried being polite saying no thank you, but that just seemed to encourage them to further engage us and try to sell us other stuff we didn't want. We finally ended up shooing them away without much of an acknowledgment. And it seemed that Andrea was taking more of the vendors.

New wardrobe

One of the highlights of our trip was going to Hoi An. This small town is known for its droves of tailors. Andrea seemed more prepared than I with ideas for the clothes she wanted to get made. I pretty much just went along for the ride, but soon was motivated to buy myself a fully tailored new wardrobe. It was fun and addicting. If only my bank account could afford it I would have bought far more clothes than I actually did. I did eventually get a couple of suits and some jackets made for me and shipped them home. It was so much fun going through the whole process of picking out the clothes we wanted, then making specific requests for some alterations and the fittings. It was a bit awkward putting on winter coats in 80-degree weather with humidity, but Andrea and I knew they would come in handy when we land in Europe in a few weeks.

We stayed in Hoi An for about a week, which was hard for me to believe. But there was lots to do between the fittings and fine dining and general lazy days exploring the town and trying to stay dry while the town nearly flooded when the river cutting through town breached its banks (which hardly fazed any of the locals).

Pics from Halong Bay

Andrea and I took a day trip out to Halong Bay. Halong Bay has these amazing rock formations that jut right out of the bay for some impressive views. The weather was a bit gray, but we still had some impressive sights. Here are just a few pictures that I snapped up.

Same Same but 10 times more expensive

In my quest to buy some new running shorts, since I ended up leaving my last pair behind in Zhongdian, I popped around the markets in Hanoi and looked high and low for a new pair. Since I bought my last pair in Beijing for around $US 2 I knew how much I wanted to pay. When I found a pair of shorts that I liked I checked on the price. The woman said it would cost 20.000 Dong..that's just over $US 1. They were exactly what I was looking for, but I wanted to see if she had another color. She called into the abyss behind the clothes rack, where I heard a bit of ruffling, then suddenly a new pair emerged the exact color that I wanted. I said I'd take it and she quickly stuffed both shorts into a plastic bag for me and asked for 40.000 Dong. It was almost too much effort to argue with her so I figures I'd buy both shorts for what was almost $US 3. Of course I didn't realize just how much a deal they were until I got to my hotel and noticed the price tag for the "Made in America" shorts see pic below.

Crappy day

Andrea and I just arrived in Hanoi last night. We had a bit of a rough time getting down here. Andrea got her bag slashed on the overnight bus to the China/Vietnam border then we had to spend all morning yesterday at the police station so she could file a report. We hiked the approximately 2 miles to the train station from the border since there were no taxis in sight and being that we already agreed not to take motorbike taxis we were laden with all our belongings. All along our sweaty and mostly quite walk to the train station we were greeted by folks trying to sell us something or another, but all we wanted to do was buy our tickets to Hanoi. When we got to the train station we were greeted to a closed ticket booth with not a single sign in English explaining either opening hours or any other useful bit of information for us. We tried to motion the buy inside to give us some information, but he just waved us away. Finally after a few minutes he came out of his booth and in the few words in English that he knew we got a quote for 2 tickets on the next train to Hanoi. It just so happened we had exactly enough to cover the cost of the tickets with the money had converted from our left over Chinese Yuan and left us with about 20,000. Once we agreed to the price he hurriedly rushed us onto the train. We didnt' even have time to grab some food and we were already getting hungry since we hadn't eaten anything since the night before. Fortunately the train stopped at some point on our journey and Andrea ventured out to buy us some food. She came back with one small rice and tofu dish and a bottle of water...d'oh! We had been placed in 3 berth high cabin that was already full with Vietnamese travelers. Our inability to communicate with them and their constant smoking left us annoyed at our fellow cabin mates. But eventually they started trying to talk to us and eve put out the cigarettes. We learned our numbers from them and they had fun looking through our Lonely Planet guide book. We couldn't understand a word they said, but we at least broke the tension and made the 6 hour+ train ride more bearable. When we got to Hanoi, our new friends whisked us off the train and past the guards, since apparently we had actually paid someone off rather than obtaining an official ticket. I guess that is why we were stuck in the staff quarters of the train rather next to the engine car.

We were a bit disoriented getting out of the train station. We were left with no local currency, in a part of town that didn't show up on our map, and no way of reading the signs. We were also a bit wary given that all our research on Vietnam warned us of the numerous scams that foreigners encounter. We wandered the meandering streets for what seemed like an eternity in search of an ATM. All the while we were fending off touts asking to take us to any number of hotels. When we found an ATM we had high hopes, but alas, it was not meant to be. So we wandered further in the direction of the hotel we hoped to stay at. After walking a bit more we saw a swanky wine store so we stopped in and asked for an ATM, she pointed us in the right direction and jackpot it machine took our cards and I instantly became a millionaire....Well I took out $2 million Dong...which I think is about $124 US.



We ended up getting into a cab that tried to rip us off, then we looked at a bunch of overpriced hotels that looked crappy. Finally, someone showed us a picture of a place that looked nice and said the right words, two beds, air conditioning, breakfast included and cable TV all for $15. It was one of the cheapest quotes we'd gotten and sounded the best so after 3 minutes of walking around the city again with our bags and going up 5 flights of stairs we made it....It was nice, soft bed too. We topped off our evening by eating a very delicious chicken and bacon sandwich on a French roll and watching HBO after taking a nice hot shower and enjoying the air conditioned room. Its amazing how small comforts can really change your mood.