Off East

We decided to get a car from Hue to Hoi An as were experiencing a bit of train fatigue! The driver was great but the road (Highway 1) was really terrible. Vietnamese roads are infamous for being dangerous and you can see why… Buses overtaking trucks overtaking cars overtaking motorbikes overtaking kids on bikes – with the odd wandering cow and roadside vendor thrown in for good measure! It isn’t a relaxing experience as everyone is beeping the horn of the car the whole time.

We’d decided to make a couple of stops en route which included a beach (destroyed by a typhoon), a Cham architecture museum which was interesting but I managed to get lost (!) and what sounded most exciting of all; Marble Mountain. The Lonely Planet with it’s tendency towards mis-information heralded this as a must see, with a walk up a hill to see 4 other marble mountains all with pagoda’s on them. Our driver had rather helpfully en route taken us to one of his mates shops to see all the marble sculptures etc (apparently made from local marble – more of that later). Whilst the handiwork was amazing, we were going to struggle to fit a 2 tonne marble buddha in our already heavy bags so the shop owner was less than pleased that we didn’t buy anything. So in a hump, our driver dropped us off at the ‘Marble Mountians’ and buggered off for an hour. So we climbed this ‘mountain’ and frankly it was rubbish! The mountains were small hills surrounded by housing estates and the view was crap. After 20 minutes of this, we descended the mountain and sat and waited for our driver to return. As we sat, a dust storm whipped up and the only places to take shelter were a zillion workshops all selling sculptures made from local marble. This is obviously complete bollocks because if they were really made of local marble there wouldn’t be so much as a hill left, let a lone a mountain. Apparently they buy it all from China and then sculpt it there…

Less than impressed we left here and arrived in Hoi An. The weather had taken a turn for the worse when we arrived and was decidedly grey and miserable. It was still about 24 degrees though, but this apparently was REALLY cold, so all the locals had jumpers and coats etc on!

Hoi An is a (small) rural city on the coast of the South China Sea in the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is located in Quảng Nam province and is home to approximately 120,000 inhabitants.

The city possessed the largest harbour in Southeast Asia in the first century and was known as Lâm Ấp Phố (Champa City). Between the seventh and 10th centuries, the Champas controlled the strategic “spice trade” and with this came tremendous wealth. The boats still used today in Hội An probably have the same hull shape as those used by the Champas for ocean voyages. The former harbour town of the Champa people at the estuary of the Thu Bon river was an important Vietnamese trading centre in the 16th and 17th centuries, where Chinese from various provinces as well as Japanese, Dutch and Indians settled

In 1999, the old town was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO as a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries, with buildings that display a unique blend of local and foreign influences.

It’s a beautiful place and we spent a very relaxing 4 days here wandering around the old city, having clothes made and eating a lot of delicious food – in fact some of the best we had in the whole of Vietnam.

There wasn’t a great deal going on in the evenings so we finally felt like we could catch up on a bit of sleep. We needed this as having made-to-measure clothes made is a quite a tiring process (sigh . With over 500 tailors in Hoi An, finding a good one is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack (despite our conclusions that all the clothes are made in the same ‘factory’ somewhere anyway) and without a recommendation we spent the best part of a day going in and out of shops, looking at patterns and fabrics and being measured. Steve decided that he wanted to get a suit made for my brothers wedding in Japan and I decided that I needed some clothes made for the warmer climate. Any excuse eh!?

We eventually found a great family run business (Da Phuong, Shop number 50 in the Hoi An fabric market!) and before he new what was happening to him, Steve had been accosted by some hilarious and VERY cheeky girls who had him measured up and choosing fabrics and handing over his dollars. He went back the next morning for the first fitting and amazingly it only needed one small alteration. I in the meantime had had a number of dresses, trousers, skirts and tops made so spent the best part of the next two days trying on clothes. Luckily the weather was still ‘cold’ so it wasn’t too much of an ordeal…

Steve’s suit was finished and looked great and the girls arranged for someone from the post office to come to the shop, pick up the parcel, wrap it up, box it and ship it to Japan. Amazing service!!!

Steve with his favourite tailors

We also had some silver jewellery made by a brilliant guy who took our designs and turned them into great pieces in record timing.

Tired from all the shopping (ahem) we treated ourselves to a couples spa package at one of the local places. This included a body scrub, a body wrap and a massage. This turned out to be quite an experience…! Steve was a bit apprehensive about this but after I assured hin that it would be a wonderfully relaxing experience, we went in. We were greeted by our two therapists and taken into a room and told to strip off – Steve got given a pair of pants to wear and I got given a tiny pair of plastic knickers to get changed into – mmmmm sexy. In fits of laughter by this stage and in a state of undress, we laid down on the beds which were covered in plastic sheets and were given our body scrubs. Steve had opted for ‘coffee’ and I had opted for salt and oil.

What we hadn’t realised was that Steve’s was coffee grinds (and quite coarse ones at that!) and he practically had the top layer of skin scrubbed off (which I rather helpfully told him was the point of it, not realising that he was practically being rubbed raw!). So having been scrubbed from top to toe we were sent into a bathroom to wash the scrub off. Unfortunately there wasn’t any hot water and it was FREEZING so we washed as quickly as we could and went back in somewhat apprehensively for our body wraps.

The wrap experience was hilarious as we got smeared in something gloopy that smelt kind of weird. We then had to lie there for 20 mins whilst it dried on us. As this was happening and we were laying there laughing, we watched a gecko scurrying along the ceiling and were saying how amazing it is that they never fall off. Literally as soon as this happened, it just dropped off the ceiling and fell to the floor!

It was back into the shower for another freezing cold wash and then we had our massage which was a bit intimate to say the least and my ‘chest’ and bum seemed to get extra special attention…! So all in all it was an experience and certainly one that we’ll never forget even if we never repeat it

Next stop Quy Nhon…

The journey to Hue was another Vietnamese train ordeal. The trains in Vietnam are old, pretty uncomfortable and the air conditioning works but not well enough once the sun starts coming through the windows. At each train station there’s a bit of a scrum as passengers try to get aboard with all their belongings (which can include sacks of rice, massive boxes and even live animals).

Hue is firmly on the tourist trail in Vietnam. It was once the imperial capital city of Vietnam and as such has some old palaces and tombs of ancient rulers that are worth seeing. Hue straddles the Perfume River (as it’s called, I believe its real name is Song Huong). On one side of the river is the old citadel and walled town and on the other are all the hotels, guesthouses and restaurants aimed at tourists. Our hotel was needless to say on the tourist side… This separation feels a bit strange and we actually found it much nicer wandering the streets of the old town within and around the citadel on the opposite side of the river.

While there we visited the walled citadel and the old palace and temples. Fairly impressive but we’d both seen better buildings of this age before. It’s not particularly well looked after either and the Vietnamese government could do with ploughing some money into looking after their heritage. The walled citadel also plays host to what the locals take great pride in telling you is the tallest flag pole in Vietnam.

The food was good in Hue, we found a great local restaurant built on bamboo stilts. This was the kind of place where locals come around 5pm, order a massive ice bucket full of beers and stick around eating, drinking, chatting and laughing until late. There isn’t much nightlife in Hue but it was the first place on our trip where we came across bars specifically aimed at western tourists (many ‘happy hours’).

On our second day in Hue we went up the Perfume River on a boat to see an old pagoda and a tomb. The river is beautiful, really picturesque with people travelling along it in sampan boats, working in fields along the banks and even water buffalo wallowing in the shallows. The only problem with the boat trip was that as soon as we left the mooring the woman on the boat started trying to sell us souvenirs. This went on for most of the journey and she really didn’t seem to happy when we didn’t want to buy anything. In the end we bought a few cheap cards and she left us alone (for a while)… The pagoda was interesting but the tomb was amazing! It was the tomb of Emperor Tu Duc and said to be one of the best to visit. To get to the tomb we were told by the boat woman that we needed to get motorbikes as it was so far from the bank of the river. We did this and sped off each on the back of a moped only to arrive at the tomb within five minutes, hardly too much to walk even in the heat. On our return to the boat we were then told by a woman selling drinks that we ‘had’ to buy our motorbike drivers a drink, and so the hard-sell continued. The tomb’s a little overgrown and in a really nice setting, very atmospheric, so at least we were glad we made the trip.

Hue was probably our least favourite stop in Vietnam and not somewhere I’d advise anyone going for more than two nights as there just wasn’t enough to keep us interested. The main thing going for it is the locals in the old town and the countryside (but pretty much everywhere in Vietnam has that!).

Eventually it was time to move on from Hanoi so we booked ourselves onto the Reunification Express train to a place called Dong Hoi. Vietnam is a long, thin country and the trainline only runs down the coast from top to bottom so we decided we’d break up the journey a bit on our way to Hue and Hoi An.

The Reunification ‘Express’ was a sight to behold as we boarded at 5am for a 10 hour journey. We’d booked ’soft seats’ on the ‘best’ train. |Thank god is all I can say as even this was a challenging 10 hour journey! We were greeted by Communist music blasting out at full volume through really distorted speakers as we took our seats. I was extremely pleased that I had my brilliant new noise cancelling headphones that Dan, Georgie and Mr Hart had bought me for my going away present as turned up full blast, I could just about drown it out…

It was very hot on the train and more and more people got on as we stopped at various stations. It was lovely watching the countryside rolling by and watching the landscape change. The journey was however hard work as it got hotter and hotter and busier and busier so we were really relived to arrive at Dong Hoi our destination for the next 2 nights.

The DMZ (Demilitarized zone)

From 1954 until the defeat of the Americans in 1975, Ben Hai river marked the division of Vietnam. 5km either side of the river was declared a DMZ – a stark contrast to what really took place in this region. In fact, the surrounding region experienced some of the heaviest fighting during the Vietnam War and as a result Dong Hoi was more or less wiped off the map. Some areas, such as Vinh Moc were termed Free Fire Zones, allowing a virtual free for all without fear of future repercussions and everything was designated a target. As a result of this heavy fighting, there is still heaps of live ordnance lying around. There have been some casualties as unexploded bombs blow up when farmers are working on their lands nearby or children run up in a play. Now when you catch the train or bus from anywhere South of Dong Hoi to the DMZ, bomb damage and craters are still evident in paddies, beside the railway tracks and beside the roads and bridges. As you get closer to Dong Ha you will notice huge eucalyptus groves, themselves a legacy of the war. These areas were completely devastated either by relentless shelling or defoliation (Agent Orange) during the war and were eventually replanted with eucalyptus trees, chosen for their durability and speedy maturity.

Dong Hoi, is therefore not really on the tourist trail at present which is exactly why we chose to go there and we were really pleased we did as it turned out to be a really lovely river and seaside town where the locals were uber-friendly and everyone said hello to us as we wandered along the seafront. This is literally all about there is to do there (along with going to the beach) and we spent a very pleasant evening sitting eating freshly caught and cooked seafood with the locals and drinking beer!

The next day we walked across the river to the beach. We stupidly had underestimated how hot it was and by the time we got the beach we were just about ready to collapse, so the sight of a beach with no shade and no vendors to be seen anywhere was a bit of unwelcome one. The waves were massive and the sea didn’t look particularly inviting so we swerved it and went to the only ‘resort’ on the beach and paid $10 to use their facilities for the day which included a lovely pool and bar Happy days! I’ve never been so pleased to get into a pool!

The tranquility was shattered somewhat however by a busload of local women turning up for an Interntaional Womens day party which basically consisted of a lot of (bad) karaoke and singing for hoours and hours and hours…

That evening we went back to the beach front seafood vendors and spent the evening chatting with the local kids and drinking shots with some of the older teenagers; perhaps not the best move as we had to get up at 5am the next day for the train to Hue!

We arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam by plane from Kunming. We didn’t fancy the road trip which could take 12 hours and the trains are slow. Plus flights are cheap in this part of the world.

Hanoi is the first place that we encountered real heat and humidity. Yunnan in China was warm but Hanoi was experiencing a bit of a mini heat wave for the time of year with temperatures around 30 and high humidity.

Our hotel was right in the middle of the old quarter of Hanoi. The old quarter area is really cool, loads of tiny streets with shops, food stalls and restaurants. And lots of westerners… We hadn’t really seen that many westerners on our whole trip so far so suddenly finding that some bars and restaurants were full of them seemed a bit strange for a while.

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and home to over 2 million motorbikes and mopeds. It’s crazy, at rush hour you stand at a junction and it’s like a river of traffic coming from all directions. There’s very few pedestrian crossings and the traffic rarely stops anyway. You get motorbikes going the wrong way up streets, on pavements and generally doing anything they feel like to get to their destination. Crossing the road takes a bit of getting used to. Basically you step out and walk steadily bu purposefully toward the other side. The flow of traffic will part and avoid you but if you hesitate or reverse direction you could be in trouble. You have to trust them to avoid you, which they do. The other thing you notice about traffic in Hanoi (and in Vietnam as a whole) is the use of the horn. Essentially they use the horn as a way to say “I’m coming through, watch out”. So at very junction or build up of traffic everyone beeps like made as they of through. This gets very noisy and quite disorientating as you cross the street (you can’t really tell where all the horns are coming from). Here’s a video to show the craziness of the traffic.

There are pavements in Hanoi but they aren’t much use to pedestrians. Generally they are used for motorbike parking and as extensions to homes and shops. All the locals are out the front of their houses and shops and there are many restaurants which are just tiny plastic chairs and stools outside a house. We had some amazing meals sitting at these little street stalls watching the crazy traffic go by.

The food is great in Hanoi. Lots of street food, BBQ, noodles and also some amazing French restaurants. Our best meals were street food or in tiny local restaurants which are generally not frequented by tourists.

In the centre of Hanoi is a lake, Hoan Kiem which is where everyone goes to cool off, do their exercises or for the young people sit with their girl/boyfriend. We spent a few evenings sitting by the lakeside watching the locals doing their thing. One night we met some guys who were fishing in the lake. After some broken conversation and smoking cigarettes they offered Em a go at fishing. Em proceeds to catch one of the smallest fish I’ve seen It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later we found out that it’s illegal to fish in the lakes in Hanoi!

We tried out the local transportation of cyclo which is a bicycle with a very narrow seat for two on the front. It’s a very cheap and peaceful way to get round town and our driver was really nice. The cyclo driver is a dying breed in Vietnam though as taxis and motorbikes are quicker. I had a ride on the back of our hotel security guards motorbike one day. He took me to the post office to ship home some cold weather clothes and took me for a spin around the lake which is one of the busier parts of town. Once you’re in the traffic and going with it you get a better view of how they survive without hitting each other. It’s actually pretty peaceful when you’re in the flow, and it just seems to work (only just, you’re never more than a foot from another bike).

We went to see the water puppets show one day. This is a traditional form of entertainment that used to take place in the rice fields in the countryside. It involves a big pool of water with a stage set and puppeteers who are hidden work the puppets who appear to float on the water. The music and singing is amazing!

We did a day trip to a place in the countryside about an hour from Hanoi called Cam Toc. This area is full of limestone karst mountains and is a bit like Halong Bay on land (we didn’t do Halong Bay as the weather wasn’t good enough). Cam Toc has the most incredible scenery! We cycled 12kms through the middle of the mountains past tiny hamlets and farms. Between the karst mountains are paddy fields and the deep green everywhere is amazing with the mountains popping up everywhere. After the cycling we had lunch and boarded an open sampan rowing boat to go along a river that cuts through the mountains.

The river is amazing; it winds through the limestone scenery with rice paddies on either side. It also goes through three big cave tunnels along the way. Two ladies were on the boat with us, one rowing (often rowing with her feet!) while the other basically joked the whole way. They were great fun and made the trip for us as we had a great laugh! The video below should give you a flavor of the scenery.

Hanoi has a bit of a curfew in place (as does a lot of Vietnam). Very little stays open beyond midnight and the streets suddenly empty late at night. This is a good thing as the noise of the traffic is incessant otherwise and will wake you up early anyway. So we didn’t have many late nights but with the heat and walking the streets we were pretty tired most days anyway.

We really liked Hanoi. We planned four nights there but actually stayed for six. It’s a really cool place with a very local and traditional feel still. Partly this is due to the old quarter having such narrow streets that they can’t modernise it too much but mainly I think the street life makes it for me. I love the fact that try live their lives on the streets and pavements, it means people are out and about, kids are playing and they eat outdoors. It also means tries a great feeling of social community everywhere. Of course the fact that the Vietnamese people are so welcoming and friendly in Hanoi makes a big difference too!

We were sad to leave Dali after a fun 5 days but we decided that we best leave before we got stuck in Dali and spent the rest of our time away in a haze eating Cheese sandwiches!!! So we moved on slightly further up the lake to a small village called Xizhou. We’d found this place The Linden Centre and decided to check it out as were in the area. The website says ‘The Linden Centre offers the intrepid traveler a true immersion into authentic China. Guests reside in an expansive and luxurious courtyard home in Xizhou, a pristine village in South West China’s Yunnan Province. Our facility is a nationally protected heritage site that we have restored to its former dynastic elegance. In the foothills of the Himalayas, guests enjoy a year-round spring climate and direct access to rich, undisturbed cultures in a true melting pot of the region. Our guests touch the ‘old’ China that is elusive to most visitors, and leave with enriching experiences that last a lifetime.’

We arrived at the centre and were the only guests staying for a few days. It is the Linden family home (lucky them!) as well as a hotel so it felt a bit weird initially wandering around but they made us feel very welcome and the place was simply stunning and so peaceful! We slept very well the whole time we were there which was needed after quite a few late nights in Dali.

The centre specialises in introducing people to the local culture so the next day we went to the local market with Frank who worked at the centre. He’s local to the area and is extremely passionate about introducing people to Bai culture and was a lovely guy and great fun. The market was great but as always when travelling, I felt a bit frustrated that I couldn’t buy all the lovely fresh ingredients and take them home to cook with. This didn’t matter too much though as the the Chef at the Centre was amazing and we had some delicious meals all made with super-fresh local ingredients.

The highlight of our stay though was when we got on our biked and cycled down to the lake with Frank to go Cormorant fishing. We’d read about this and seen photo’s of it in Japan but nothing prepared us for how amazing it is! We got into a rowing boat with two fishermen and they rowed us out onto the lake whilst another boat with the cormorants in went ahead of us.

The idea is that the cormorants have been trained to dive down into the water to catch the fish. As they have something tied around their throats, they can’t swallow the fish so the fisherman takes the fish out of their beak. The whole process was simply brilliant and such good fun to watch. The cormorant master has hand reared them all and trained them and it was like watching a father with his kids as all the birds had different characteristics.

The birds were all tethered to the boat and as we rowed out to deeper water they sat obediently on the edge of the boat. Then, one by one he untied them and they all jumped into the water paddling along behind the boat in formation. Then when it was time for the birds to start fishing, the cormorant master started calling the birds and splashing the water with his oar. On that signal the birds started diving down into he water looking for fish! We were really lucky and they caught a big fish more or less straight away. When one of the birds got hold of it properly it flew onto the oat and the fisherman took it out of the birds beak. He then gave it a treat and sent them off fishing again.

They quickly caught another fish and then the master called all of the birds back to the boat and they hopped onto the side and were tethered again. This was then our chance to get up close and personal with the birds as they untied a couple so we could pose for photo’s with them. They really are quite beautiful birds and are massive! Some of them were over 25 years old and had been doing this their whole lives. It was then time to head back but one of the more juvenile birds had decided to make his own way back and started swimming back to the shore but after calling it a couple of times, it changed it’s mind and came paddling back to the boat and hopped on board.

It was a really special experience and one that I’ll never forget. Unfortunately, fishing in this way is dying out as it’s now regarded as being too slow and doesn’t allow enough fish to be caught, but if I ever take up fishing, I’ll definitely get a couple of cormorants! Here’s a video of it.

The other highlight of this stay was a visit to the village elders house. He was an incredible man, aged over 80 but with the sharpest mind and memory. He’s been in the village all of his life and has witnessed some terrible events including the cultural revolution but was incredibly gentle and had an excellent sense of humour and was really happy to welcome Westerners into his humble home. It was a great insight into traditional village life.

The next stop on our trip through China was a place called Dali, which is in the north of the Yunnan Province. This was only a short flight from Kunming but it was super-bumpy and turbulent and wasn’t much fun. It is becoming apparent that I’m becoming a more nervous flyer the more I fly. Bizarre eh?

We’d booked to stay in a place called the Laughing Lotus Inn which was in the Dali Old City. We got there to find that it was a beautiful, characterful wooden house built in traditional Bai style. The owners were a young couple called Sky and David who were from Beijing who had left the rat-race and moved to Dali to open the guesthouse. The guest house only had 5 rooms so it felt like staying with friends rather than being guests and we immediately loved it. It was small, creaky and breezy as was just made out of wood but made a lovely change from some of the blander Chinese hotels that we had stayed in.

Dali is popular with travellers looking for a more ‘relaxed’ Chinese experience. It’s a small, old walled city with winding streets and plenty of locals going about their business. We immediately liked it and despite being totally overrun with Chinese tourists making the most of the last few days of the Spring festival break, still retained a lot of character.

We’d thought we were popular with the locals in Kunming but this was taken to whole new level in Dali where we literally became objects of total fascination, particularly to the Chinese tourists coming from rural villages. We lost count of how many times on our first day we had our photo taken of; either with someone or simply of us on our own. Weird. It was hilarious the lengths that some people went to try and surreptitiously get a photo of us. Tactics ranged from getting their friend to stand in front/alongside/behind us as we sat outside a bar or walked along the street and once they knew that we’d spotted them trying to do this they either really obviously pretended that they were taking a photo of something else or simply looked really embarrassed, giggled a lot and walked off. A slightly strange experience but I guess this is perhaps how people feel when we go around taking photo’s of locals whilst on our travels and it has made us a lot more aware of who we’re taking pictures of and to ask permission before just snapping away.

Dali is blessed with a great climate like Kunming and surrounded by mountains and a huge lake, is a very fertile area so there is an abundance of fruit and vegetable s available including mushrooms which it is very famous for. The staple crop here is broad beans (which are grown for half of the year) and rice and this meant that the food was excellent with all sorts of local produce that we’d never tried before.

This climate also lent itself nicely to the cultivation of a particular type of ‘herb’ which grows freely in the mountains. This explained the very chilled out atmosphere in the town and the proliferance of local women who we nicknamed the Ganja Grannies! The Ganja Grannies are local women who are usually dressed in the traditional Bai style wearing the colorful headpiece that we saw so many people wearing. They could usually be spotted in pairs or groups and to the innocent eye looked like they were just taking a little stroll along the street or catching up on gossip. However, this appearance is deceptive because as soon as they saw a Westerner approaching them or just walking along the street they’d sidle up to you with a sweet smile and enquire as to whether you wanted ‘any smoke, any hashish?’ and would then follow you down the street announcing all their other ‘wares’ that they had for sale.

In some places they’d follow you into shops, bars, cafes and ply their trade. No didn’t usually seem to have any effect, yes meant that you got spirited away to some dodgy back street so we found that ‘maybe later’ seemed to be the most effective response until one day we said this to one Ganja Grannie who then sat outside the cafe we were in for two hours and then got really cross when we didn’t go to her house with her! Despite their sweet appearance, these women are not to be messed with

We spent a very relaxing (!) few days in Dali and we hired bikes and spent the day cycling around the lake and through really rural villages where it seemed that the locals were living the same lives that they probably did hundreds of years ago, tending to their crops and picking and preparing their harvest to take to the market every day. We also went to see a huge Pagoda complex and Buddhist Monastery which despite being a bit ‘disney’ offered great views from the top of the hill where it was blissfully quiet because you had to climb about 10 million steps to get there and only the committed (us) made it to the top! We also trekked along the top of the mountains, luckily you don’t have to climb up as there’s a cable car chair lift at each end of the trekking path. Great for the relaxed traveller!

We had a great night with our hosts David and Sky who cooked dinner for their guests one night and we were treated to an impromptu concert as it turned out that Sky was a classically trained pianist (who was exceptionally talented) and one of the other guests was a jazz trombonist from New York. So as musicians do, they got together and played and it was brilliant. We followed this with a late night at a local bar and drank many, many Mojitos.

Dali was also brilliant as I was also able to feed my addiction to Cheese as we found a German bakery who sold Gouda cheese sandwiches. Yum. It’s the simple things you miss when you’re away