"Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you travelled"
Prophet Mohammed
On January 23, 2024, Melanie & I were supposed to fly to India to start a 2 month adventure there, but thanks to a lovers spat between Prime Ministers Trudeau and Modi, we were unable to secure travel visa's and had to abandon that plan. Instead we flew to.......
VIETNAM
Officially called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, it
is a tourist paradise, and I believe it is one of the best and cheapest countries in the world to travel to. The country is a magical mix of natural, cultural and historical delights that appeal to emerging new travellers who seek more than the usual replication of their own culture in a far-away-land. The country's lengthly coastline, which stretches from the Mekong Delta in the south to the Red River Delta in the north, contains beautiful beaches and a range of other coastal landforms.
People - 100 million and growing - are everywhere. Today, it is the 15th most populated country in the world, yet, with all travel, a beautiful land and wonderful climate mean little for the tourist unless the host nation is friendly and willing to embrace visitors. The Vietnamese people excel at hospitality; visitors are greeted by warm smiles, friendly hosts, and an interest in where you are coming from and what you are doing. Then there is the food....... although established as a firm favourite across the globe, this is THE source and it is very good!! One of the main delights in visiting the country is sampling the outstanding cuisine.
Add to the land and the people the complex history and the unique culture of the country, and Vietnam looms large on the must-see nations. The Vietnamese are incredibly hardworking people and although they are poor by western standards, they are spirited and happy.
I had travelled here 16 years ago but Melanie had never been and had always wanted to go......so here we are!! Our first stop was to the island of......
Phu Quoc Island
The largest Vietnamese island, it is actually closer to Cambodia than Vietnam. It is a must-visit beach escape for Western expats and sun-seeking tourists with kilometres of white-sand beaches and holiday-package resorts. Not our normal holiday destination but still a good place to start an adventure when it is January 23rd.!!
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| We stayed at a resort for a few days to rest up from the 35 hours of travel. This was a new one for us - our very own swimming pool...... |
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| ....that's not to say we didn't go to the main resort swimming pool (complete with obligatory swim-up bar) - just not so much! |
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| Every night we would head into town to check things out, including the local prayer meeting. God bless you all. |
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| Our local watering hole. Originally we thought the place was selling 'Ice Cold Beer' but alas, it was trickery. The name of the bar is "Ice Cold Beer" - the beer was only so-so cold, but I was still happy (you can tell by my smile)!! |
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| Our final destination each night was the 'Night Market' where a person can buy just about anything.....ANYTHING..... |
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| ....including just about every type of fish and shellfish known to mankind and some not known. If it comes out of the sea....they eat it (actually they'll eat anything regardless where it came from). |
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| We settled on Pho, a national dish consisting of noodles, meat or fish, or both, veggies that I have never seen before, limes and hot chillies all in a broth. You quaff it all down with .83 cent Tiger Beers. You could say it is Pho-nomenal. |
And now for something completely different..... the award winning blog, Earthwalker.Moondancer, has been asked by the Vietnamese government to judge some of their citizens and give out awards for innovation and ground-breaking solutions in the advancement of transportation and carriage. We accepted the challenge and have named the award: Carry on Carriage Award or COC for short. Without further adieu here is our first Carry On Carriage Award winner:
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When you're invited to the family gathering, there are 9 of you and you only have 2 scooters, but you go anyway and this qualifies you to win your own COC. Congratulations!! .
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Ho Chi Minh City
Identity crisis aside, this modern cosmopolitain city of 9 million souls is a happening place. Vibrating with energy, innovation and traffic - lots of traffic - Ho Chi Minh City is the economic heart of Vietnam. Its dynamic cityscape draws together old and new in the most compact of spaces representing the city's past as well as its future.
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| With only a couple of days planned for Siagon we restrict ourselves to wandering around the city checking out the sites and sounds. |
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| Lotus flowers and dragons. You can't get much more Asian than that. |
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| The Siagon Opera House and some dude in an old 1966 Mustang convertible. |
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| The People's Socialist Party Health & Safety Committee hard at work in Siagon. |
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| Looks like the ladies are doing it for themselves. |
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| The cityscape of Siagon (including the iconic Bitexco Financial Building in the background). |
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| One of the beauties of travel are the people you meet along the way! Party on Michael, Lukla and some chick whose name neither of us can remember! |
And now it's time for another Carry On Carriage Award winner...
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| When you need a dumptruck but all you have is a motorcycle and a dumpster but you make do, this qualifies you to win your own COC. Congratulations!! ! |
With our brief stopover in Siagon over, we fly to the "City of Eternal Spring" in the Vietnamese central highlands.....
Dalat
Developed as a resort by the French in the early 1900s, it was known as 'Le Petit Paris' and the town even features a mini-replica Eiffel Tower. Situated on a plateau 1,500 metres above sea level, this retreat town offers a welcome change of atmosphere with a refreshingly cool climate.
Let's take a stroll around the neighbourhood......
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| Dalat is one of the topiary capitals of the world with hundreds of three-dimensional objects throughout the city, including my fav., the jazz musicians! Considering myself a pretty good gardener I can appreciate the time and effort to do this. |
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| The lake in the middle of Dalat. You could say they got all their ducks lined up in a row! |
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| Dalat's Eiffel Tower! |
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| Daytime. |
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| Nightime. |
Dalat has an oddity within its town boundaries, the famous 'Crazy House Hotel', where more people come to see the place than stay in its hotel....and we did the same thing.
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| Obviously; the hotel owner had a vision for the hotel, a strange vision, but a vision nevertheless. |
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| To get to your room you were required to walk these sky-walkways....jostling with other people dragging their over-sized luggage..... |
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| .....your room however is as unique and bizarre as anything you'll ever stay in! |
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| Sad news. Melanie is no longer with me. I have no idea where she went, but one moment she was there and one moment she wasn't. |
With Melanie back on dry land and being this close to 'Tet' (the Vietnamese New Year), that meant most things were closed for the holidays and this restricted our activities, so we decided to do a cooking class, which required that we visit the local market......
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| The local garlic lady. Can't have too much garlic I say! |
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| Gotta have chicken (he's giving me the stink eye as he sucks on his wing). |
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| The Mystery Meat girl. Trust me it is mystery meat. |
While at the market our cooking instructor suggested we try a local delicacy. Melanie opted out, but me.....hey when in Rome I say. Giver I say.
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| I decided to go with the 'Boiled half hatched duck egg', as opposed to the others, since the vision of seeing a quacking duckling trying to jump out of a hot frying pan really didn't appeal to me at all. |
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| Our cooking instructor (on the right) gave me the basic load down. First you crack the top off of the egg and then you sip any embryonic juice from said half-hatched egg.... |
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....and then you try not to look at what you are about to eat, otherwise you won't eat it.
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| WTF is that hanging from it? I didn't see that when I ate it. |
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| Past the lips, over the gums, look out tummy here it comes. |
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| Yummmmmmmmmy. Now why didn't I try these tasty morsels before??? All is good except for the crunchy parts.....and the eyes. It had EYES for gawds sake. |
Now back to the cooking......
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| Let the games begin. |
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| The end game! Pho. We are crazy pho it and we made it pho each other! |
And now, once again, it's time for the prestiges awarding of another Carry on Carriage Award.
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| When it's that special day and you bought flowers for the missus but the florist don't deliver so you have to go pick them up yourself, and that qualifies you to win your own COC. Congratulations!! |
Time to move on to the historic town of......
Hoi An
Historic Hoi An, designated an UNESCO World Heritage site, it is Vietnam's most atmospheric town with its crumbling shop houses and weathered pagodas. It's a place where sampans come and go up the Thu Bon River that meanders through the town. Outside the traffic free Old Town, roads slice through waving rice fields that emerge at a beautiful beach.
With everything in the country coming to a standstill for the Tet holiday (the lunar New Year), Hoi An is where we decided to hunker down and wait out the holidays. Our first three days are spent in the beach region before we move into the town proper.
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| Wandering the narrow laneways that run parallel to the beach looking for a watering hole the would befit a Newfoundlander. 'The Fisher Man' seems to fit that bill just right! |
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| Hoi An's beach, where the beer is cold and cheap and the scenery is free....my kind of beach! |
With my limited tolerance to spend copious amount of time on a beach exceeded, we borrow a couple of bicycles and head out into the countryside to do some exploring.
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| Within minutes we were in the countryside bicycling around the elaborate rice paddies. |
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| Water buffalo walk these trails like they own it....... |
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| .....of course with horns like that they actually do own it, especially if you're on a rickety bicycle! |
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| Two fishermen hauling a net.....the guy furthest out got the shitty end of the stick. |
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| It was all very 'oriental', if you know what I mean. |
We pull up stakes and head for Hoi An town proper.....
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| These contraptions are known as 'cyclos', a 3-wheel bicycle designed to carry passengers within the historic city. The drivers are either on lunch break or waiting for passengers. |
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"If you light a lantern for another, it will also brighten your own way."
Nichiren
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| One of the stranger customs for Tet was the burning of an edifice to one's ancestors. Usually they conducted this burning in the ultra-busy street, competing with vehicles, scooters, people, cyclos, more people...... |
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| .....like this busy street. No one blinks an eye. |
We got right romantic and took the lanterned river boats....actually we had one too many gin and tonics and took the lanterned river boats......
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| You purchase these paper lanterns and while sitting in the sampan you "release" said lantern onto the Hoai River. It, the said lantern, then gently floats away. It's supposed to be a spiritual thing but the Kodak moment is also pretty impressive. |
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| Floating lanterns compete for river space with the lantern boats. |
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| The "lantern boats" are so named because they light their presence with a lantern on the front of the boat.....makes sense. They ply the river here in the hundreds. |
And now it's time for the next Carry On Carriage Award......
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| When everyone has Tet holidays off and you were supposed to spend the day with the bye's watching the game, but the son-in-law called in sick and now you have to are weave in-and-out of traffic, set up and man the grog stall yourself. Because you are so happy about this qualifies you for a COC. Congratulations! |
Finally, the big day arrives! Tet, when in Vietnam, the calendar flips into 2024! Woohoo, our second New Years celebration in one year! How lucky for us!
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| We establish ourselves at the local watering hole with the $5 buckets of Gin & Tonic. It is New Years Eve afterall. |
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| From our perch we watched the festivities pass by. However, I think it's time to cut back on the G&T's, as I swear I see the same girl seven times. |
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| 2024. Year of the Dragon. |
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| And with that I renew my New Year's Resolutions. It's like a 'get-out-of-jail-free' pass on your Resolutions. Make them on Jan. 1, knowing full well you can break them and still re-commit to them at a later day. Happy New Year everyone........again!! |
With Tet, the real holidays only start after New Year's Day, and that means everything closes down for five days. With nothing to do because nothing is open, we head to the UNESCO World Heritage site of My Son. This site is the abandoned Hindu temples of the Cham people who came here from India in the 4th century.
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"My Son, there's nuttin wrong with this ere is dere?"
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| Some say Vietnam's Angkor Wat equivalent. Well maybe not, but a respectable contender. |
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| "My Son isn't she some sweet." |
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| When I did this in Greece I was ejected from the premises for being "disrespectful to the gods". Here the security guard just laughed and laughed and laughed like it was the funniest thing. I guess being 'disrespectful to the gods' have different meanings depending on where you be. |
We decided to get real touristy and join the throngs who to take the 'basket boat' river ride.
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| The 'Basket Boat' is just that....a large round basket that has a paddler and two paying fools......like these two! |
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| Also two fools waiting at the pier...... |
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| ......the judges give us a solid 10 out a possible 30 for basket boat entry! |
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For a few shackles, this guy beats out to Psy's Gangnam Style while twirling the basket boat around and around, faster and faster, until he gets dizzy and falls overboard. Worth a buck!!
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With one last site open and definitely worth the visit was Marble Mountain, afterall with a Marble Mountain in Newfoundland, you know I got to go to this one. There are actually five 'mountains', all are part historical treasure, part natural wonder, part spiritual setting and totally beautiful.
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| At the base of the mountain there is a large cave which we explored first. You enter through the penis-shaped entrance..... |
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| .......the cave is full of large caverns which are subsequently full of marble statutes and carvings of all sorts. |
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| One large passage-way lead to the top of the mountain but it was quite the climb. With really really really steep stairs and gaggles of holidaying Vietnamese, Melanie decided to turn around here (she was about 1/4 of the way up). |
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| 156 steps lead to the top of Marble Mountain which is full of Hindu and Buddha grottos. This grotto, with the Buddhist Goddess Tara, as overseer, is in full cherry blossom. |
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| It's called Marble Mountain because it's composed of marble....makes sense. This allows for the entire place to be one big marble carving. Everywhere. |
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| This is a huge place and even though there are gaggles of holidaying Tet Vietnamese, there were many places that offered quiet corners, such as this site that Melanie practically has to herself. WOW. |
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| This old guy has been meditating long time. |
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| With three temples on the mountain, this was the gardens of our last one before we head back down. |
And that is the end of our time in Hoi An. We leave the next day for the ancient city of........
Hue
(pronounced Way......as in "No Way!")
Located near the centre of Vietnam, Hue was home to the Nguyen dynasty until 1945. It contains the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Imperial City and the Forbidden Purple City, once the emperor's home.
With two days left to the Tet holiday, we will wait out the remaining festive season here. But first we have to get there......
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| The journey to Hue would take 3 hours by car (no Hue), up and over the mountains and back down again. At the mountain pass, we stopped at the Dung Map for a coffee and crap! 'Dung Map' means shitty coffee in Vietnamese. |
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| Back at sea level. This extremely large lagoon has a large oyster fishery, so you would think that the laws of economics would kick in and oysters would be cheap, especially in this extremely cheap country. Nope.....more expensive here than home. |
Our first stop was to the Imperial City, that occupies a large, walled area next to the Perfume River (which does not have a perfume smell). Inside the citadel is the Forbidden Purple City where only the emperors, concubines, and those close enough to them to be granted access; the punishment for trespassing was death!
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| The Imperial City citadel. A few Vietnamese Tet holidayers around.....not a representation of what laid beyond those distant walls. |
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| To enter the Imperial City you have to enter through one of five gates, like this one. |
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| This place is chaulk-a-block full of old imperial buildings including this one which is the Thai Hoa Palace where the emperor would hold court with the common folk. |
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| Walk through a gate and you arrive in the Forbidden Purple City. Mention Forbidden City and everyone immediately thinks of Beijing but Hue also has one (no Hue); why they call it 'Purple' is the mystery of the day. This is where ALL the Vietnamese tourist head - thousands of them to see the Royal Palace..... |
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| ....and every Vietnamese tourist wants a selfie with the palace in the background. Total mayhem. |
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| Exit the Forbidden City and things calm down again. Apparently, the Vietnamese hordes are not interested in seeing this part of the Imperial City, so we practically had the rest of the complex to ourselves. |
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| The Temples were void of anyone, so I took the opportunity to beat out my favourite rendition of Phil Collin's In The Air Tonight. |
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| The temples were adorned with the two official colours of Vietnam, red refers to 'good luck' and yellow refers to 'joy'. |
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| Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band strikes up a chord, but there was no one here, except Mel & moi and some old lady wanting to sell me stuff. |
We have to exit the Imperial City at 5:00 and head to our favourite part of Hue, the party area (no Hue!).
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| Traffic is a little light today. |
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| Tavet Street. The party street in Hue (no Hue). Eight mega bars, all next to each other, all on the same street, all with the same name - Tavet! |
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| After drinking cheap beers, a good dried squid from the squid-lady is just what the doctor ordered. |
Once again it's time to take a few minutes to recognize our latest recipient of the prestiges Carry on Carriage Award. Todays winner is:
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| When you're at the bar drinking with the boys and you hear that the wife is looking for you, she's pissed and she's at the front door of the bar. Because you escape by whatever means possible, you are the winner of your own COC. Congratulations! |
After a great night we decided to go see the Royal Tombs of Hue (no Hue!). There are a total of seven tombs scattered around the valley, but we limited our time to just two. These tomb complexes are huge and two were enough!
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| Our first tomb, for Emperor Tu Duc, was so big that we had to get bicycles to go around it. We were the only tourist there. Not another soul. It was all good until Melanie stopped to take a picture and a snake slithered in front of her bike......yup it was all good until then. |
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| Melanie at the gate to one of the temples. She clambered up the ladder like a pole cat......no snakes up here! |
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| The tomb is guarded by several of these statutes of horses, elephants and warriors......a kinda after-life army for old Tu Duc. The guy on my right stole me hat. He's got a heart of stone I tell ya. |
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| Our second tomb, for Emperor Minh Mang, was smaller compared to old Tu Duc's tomb, but the garden was nicer and there were more people. |
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| Apparently, it took 10,000 workers 10 years to complete Minh Mang's tomb complex. A little bit of useless trivia for you. |
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| This walkway extends for 700 metres through several temples with reflection ponds on either side. |
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| "Where's me hat buddy?" |
With the Tet holidays FINALLY over it (jeeese bye's it's been a week) we head for our next adventure, 3 hours north of Hue (no Hue!), to.........
Phong Nha
If you never heard of this place before, you'd be forgiven. Ten years ago there was a small village here and not much else. In 2009, the largest cave in the world, Son Doong, was discovered here (over taking Malaysia's Deer Cave), and with that, tourism followed. It's another UNESCO World Heritage Site because the National Park contains over 300 caves within the 2nd largest karst area in the world.
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We didn't go to Son Doong cave, mainly because it's a three day jungle trek from here, so instead, we went to Paradise Cave. It is also one of the world's biggest......how big you ask? Big enough for tour boats to navigate.
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| The tour boats go 300 metres upriver within the cave, we on the other hand, are kayaking Paradise Cave and we go 3 km. upriver. |
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| Our tour consist of kayaking up the cave river until we can go no further (3 km.) and then caving for another 3 km.. |
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| This river actually starts in the country of Laos, but it is here that it appears from under the rock piles. We leave our kayaks and now it's time for caving in 100% humidity and 37C heat, feels like a wet oven. Great way to lose weight! |
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| But first a selfie!!! |
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| Not quite what Melanie thought she was signing up for. There were a total of 13 of these ladders over crevasses. This one had a drop of ten metres into a raging river. |
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| The bat guano made everything extremely slippery. The sweat made everything extremely slippery. The mud made everything extremely slippery. Everything was extremely slippery. |
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| Everyone made it back alive, albeit five pounds lighter! We settled down on a cave beach for a feed before heading back into the sunshine. |
We borrowed bicycles and explored the Phong Nha area.....
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| We cycle into this town of 30,000, which less than 10 years ago was a village of 3,000. |
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| "Get a picture here Mel. Perrrrfect!" |
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| We come across a cemetery in the rice paddies. We had to go explore because we have a morbid fascination with cemeteries. |
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| The residents in this part of Vietnam are predominantly Christian. They bury their dead, usually, in family shrines, some of which are quite large and elaborate! |
Without further adieu, it is once again time for the awarding of the Carry On Carriage award. Today's winner......
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| When your normal car is a racing horse, but he's in the shop for repairs, so you're force to take the family sedan to work instead. This qualifies you to win your own COC. Congratulations! |
We are on the move again. This time we take a 7 hour drive north to........
Tam Coc
The town of Tam Coc is the go-to place to stay while visiting this dual UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sixteen years ago when I was here last, this town didn't exist, now you'll find a thriving community set among the spectacular landscape of limestone mountains, caves and rice paddies. It's also the cheapest place we have been in Vietnam. Beer is a whopping 0.38 cents a bottle. I'm in Heaven!
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| This is Catholic country and huge cathedrals become the norm. They were mostly built when the French ruled Vietnam in the early part of the 1900's. |
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| Fishing nets. |
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| Tam Coc village was the cheapest place yet. This is also duck country and these little lovelies were about to be BBQ'ed. That one fella down at the end must have tried to escape. |
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| A picture speaks a thousand words, so I'll let the picture do the commentary here. |
We do what everyone else does when they come to Tam Coc, and that's to visit the Tam Coc Caves. It's a network of three beautiful caves carved by the local river as it winds through the karsts. Surrounded by rice paddy fields and dwarfed by the karsts towering above, a rowboat ride down this river is a serene, peaceful experience that allows you take in the natural beauty of the area at a gentle pace.
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| These metal clunkers await our arrival......which would have been faster if we didn't have to walk two kms. into the town to get the boat tickets.....bizarre system. |
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| The paddler, like all the paddlers, does so with his feet......the only place I've ever seen it done. This allows him to have his lunch while whisking us up river. |
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| Rice paddies with supper getting fatten up! |
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| The first cave entrance, like some giant mouth swallowing all of us up. |
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| The mouth spits us out into more of the same, with the mouth of the second cave in view. |
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| I was here 16 years ago. I swear that boat was there then. |
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| The second cave. I see that our paddler has finished his lunch and now he's picking the remains out of his teeth. |
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| The entire trip takes about 2 hours at which time your arse is gone completely numb. |
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| The obligatory bridge for pictures. |
I was here before, and at that time we took scooters from Ninh Binh to here (16km distance) and on the way home we explored the countryside. This time we did the exploring via bicycles.....
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| And we are off, with my bike complete with baby-seat. I wanted to get a doll and put in it but couldn't find one. |
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| Our goal was a karst that had a large dragon on the top. Sixteen years ago there was nothing here except the dragon and a large Buddha. Now there's a small town built around the place, the Buddha is gone, replaced by a hotel, and they charge admission.....the price of progress. |
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| From the top we can see the river we took yesterday through the caves. |
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| The dragon at the top. |
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I had to push some Asian selfie girl over the ridge so I could strike a pose for this picture. It had better look funny.
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| The pagoda on the other side of the karst. To get there you got to go part way down and then go up again......a cable car would have been easier. Just saying. |
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| Surrounding views, complete with giant Lotus Flower. |
And that concludes our time in Tam Coc, but before we move on to the next destination, it's time to award the next Carry On Carriage Award. This time it goes to this gentleman........
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| When your load is so heavy, your scooter can only muster 10km/hr, giving you enough time to watch your favourite rerun of the Pwice is Wight. For this you are the winner of your own COC. Congratulations. |
We head for Vietnam's capital city.......
Hanoi
Hanoi seems to be racing to make up for time lost to the ravages of war and a government that as recently as the 1990s kept the outside world at bay. Its streets surge with scooters vying for right of way amid the din of constantly blaring horns, and all around, layers of history reveal periods of French and Chinese occupation. We are here only for one night.
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| We settle down in the 'Old Quarter' of Hanoi where, 16 years ago, it was simply a neighbourhood of Hanoi......now it's tourist central. The only way to escape is to take a walk around the lake that's right next door. |
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| After a peaceful walk around the lake it was time to get down to business! |
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| Old ways still remain in the Old Quarter. |
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| Beer Street (true name). A pedestrian walkway full of hustlers, hookers, and beer drinkers......lot's of beer drinkers. |
With our day done in Hanoi we get ready for our final adventure, BUT FIRST!!! It's Carry On Carriage Award time.
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| When you get called up for active duty but the wife insist that you take her and her brother to the mall first and, also take the garbage to the dump. "Fine" you say......"FINE". This spirit qualifies you to win your own COC. Congratulations! |
We are off to our final destination......
Halong Bay
Towering limestone pillars and tiny islets topped by forest rise from the emerald waters. Designated UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, Halong Bay's scatter of islands, dotted with wind-and-wave-eroded grottoes, is a vision of ethereal beauty and, unsurprisingly, Vietnam's #1 tourism site. We booked an over-night cruise on the "Chinese Junks" but in reality, while Chinese junks used to ply these waters, now they've been replaced with modern cruise ships.
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| The day we arrived in Halong Bay it was as hazy as it gets. This picture of the karst is the clearest I have...... |
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| ....most of the pictures are like this...... |
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| .....or this. |
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| Actually, the haze added to the mystical feel the place possesses. |
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| Sixteen years ago, the 'real junks' were modest at best, now they're like luxury hotels. A piece of tiramisu anyone? |
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| Aaaaah the Beer-n-Snack Lady! She comes gliding out of the haze like an angel selling $1.00 beers as opposed to the ships $5.00 a beer. |
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| We went for a kayak after the boat dropped anchor..... |
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| ....heading back to our boat, the HP-4869. |
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Melanie wanted a really really great picture of our berth. I thought this would do!
"I'm out there Melanie and I'm lovin' it". |
And with that, our time in Vietnam has come to an end.....but we have one last duty to perform. Yes folks; it's time for the grand awarding of the Carry On Carriage Award. The COC of the Walk award, if you like.
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| When your boss tells you to deliver 20 boxes of cooking oil and a case of coke and you decide to do it all in one trip. For that, you are the grand COC winner. Congratulations!! |
From here we head to Thailand for a restful break from moving about before heading to Indonesia. See you there!
