Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Adventures in Vietnam!!

It was a beautiful morning in Vietnam when we arrived! A group of 13 of us kiters from Boracay took a flight in the middle of the night from Manila to Saigon, got on a bus as soon as we landed and arrived in Mui Ne just as the sun was rising! It was a gorgeous way to first see Vietnam! We all came to Mui Ne for a kiting competition held by the KTA (Kite Tour Asia). We spent 2 days chillin out and practicing before the competition began. I have to say, kiting in Mui Ne was NOT like Boracay. After all, they do say that if you can kite here you can kite anywhere, and I believe them. I felt like such a beginner in this new spot and I was definitely struggling! No matter, I joined the competition anyway for the experience and the laugh. And it was a great experience. It is the first year KTA is around and working with them and being a part of it was definitely awesome. There were 3 parts to the competition, I only took part in 1, the course race. The other two parts consist of freestyle and "big air". Well as it would turn out there was not much wind when it came time for us girls to race. As a result, my kite never really quite got going. I had a 7m while the other girls were on 11 and 13 m kites! Way more surface area. I could not even make it upwind with my kite and as a result I did not finish the race. But man, I tell ya, what an awesome time I had trying! There were only 10 of us girls racing, but there were 2 heats of 17 each for the boys! This was like complete carnage at the start. 17 kites and lines starting from the beach at once was almost a disaster for quite a few. But in the end no one got hurt and all made it in the water. The picture to the left is what 17 kits all together at once looks like. The rest of the competition went swimmingly for most of those I came with. All though I certainly wasn't the only one feeling like I dropped a few levels! In the end friends of mine took 1st and 2nd for the boys course race and freestyle, while in the girls category they took 1st and 3rd for both. The one winner of "big air" was a Spanish guy whom I do not know. We had awesome weather for it and and all around good time! Thanks KTA!

After the competition finished our group returned to Saigon to get on a plane back to Boracay. We had all day though and so we spent it going to see some sights between Mui Ne and Saigon. Mostly the "Lying Buddha". This thing was huge! One toe on it was bigger than me! It is all white, made of concrete and you have to take a cable car to get to it in the middle of the mountains. It was beautiful! Afterwards we continued back to Saigon, where we split. They went to the airport and I went to a guesthouse. I was gutted that I could not join them. After the competition all I wanted to do was go and practice and get better! But I knew I had other plans and needed to get on my way with them.
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) is a wired city! Besides having more wires than I have ever seen before all over the city, it is absolutely filled with chaotic craziness. That being said, I did actually like it. It definitely has its own life to it. I thought the driving in Bali was nuts, well it is nothing in comparison to Saigon. At least in Bali they stay on the correct side of the road. In Saigon those painted lines mean NADA! While in Saigon I visited some markets and some near by tourists sites. The first on my list was Q'Cu Chi Tunnels.
Q'Cu Chi Tunnels is an amazing place that shows first hand the resilience of the Vietnamese! Many believe it is the reason why the US lost the war. They are comprised of 3 levels of underground tunnels that stretch from Saigon to almost the Cambodia border. They are so tiny that a westerner can not fit in them. Imagine living in such a dark small place. Then imagine doing it for 20 years with 16,000 other people!! Holy Crap!! They started living there to hide from the French in 1954 and kept right at it until the end of the Vietnam war. The Q'Cu Chi people gave birth there, were married there, even had their honeymoons there. Many of them participated in guerrilla warfare, men, women, and even children! On the right you will see on of the many types of traps they used to use against their enemies. They used to use it to catch Tigers in the jungle.
Today, many of the people that lived there are handicapped in one way or another, a missing appendage or loss of hearing from the bombs, or suffer from agent orange. Many were born with their handicaps. The government has these people work as artisans above the tunnels they used to live in. Each is found a task they are able to do and together they put together the most beautiful artwork! We were able to visit their workshop before we went to the tunnels. Most seem very happy with their lives.

One day I took a day trip out of Saigon and went to the Mekong Delta. This is a bustling network of boats, trade and life! Many were preparing for Chinese New Year and as a result we saw a very b us floating market on the Mekong. Look at how many pineapples were on one boat in the picture to the left. We also got to see on this tour how the make coconuts into candy! After the candy tour we rode in little canoes to our lunch destination where I also got to hold a python! Following lunch we took bikes around the area and then finished the day at a market, a never, ever, ending market. They had flowers, fish, fruit, squid, veg, snakes, chickens (alive and dead), and tons of other things whose name I did not know. A very interesting place to walk around for an hour or so. And did I mention the rice? I never knew they made sooo many kinds of rice. Just take a look to the right to see what I mean! And if you didn't want a whole chicken, dead or alive, you could always just buy the feet! Why not?!





That night when I returned to Saigon I boarded my first "sleeper bus' to travel up the coast in. My next destination was Nha Trang. Vietnamese sleeper buses have 3 rows of bunk beds on an average size coach, so imagine how small each row of bunks must be to fit 3 across! But the night wasn't that bad, I slept through most of it :)


When I arrived in Nha Trang at 7am I was so surprised to see a game set up and being played. One in which involved 8-10 years olds to gamble. It was pretty amazing to see ad even harder to believe sine it was 7am. I did not do much here except go to the beach, which was glorious!

My next stop was Hoi An. This city is known as the "City of Lanterns" and is also well known for their ability to make any article of clothing you want, from dresses and suits to shoes and leather boots! It is all so cheap to have clothes personally made for you. I had my "dream" dress created, my own design and I love it! I also had a Vietnamese girl style pant and long jacket\dress thing., and of course the leather boots! My friends and I bought so much that the girls at the shop invited us to come around for dinner that night. We thought we were joining them, but much to our surprise they had set us up our own little private table in their dress shop and they would not even join us! It was the most delicious food and there was sooo much of it, we could not have ever possibly finished it all! The fish was the most amazing fish I have ever tasted! They were wonderful and the girls were so funny and keeping us entertained during our meal! I also saw a very funny thing while I was there. For the first time ever I saw a tour group in these chairs that were being pedaled by their private tour guides. About 50 of these things came flying down the street at me while I was walking one day.



After Hoi An I went to Hue. Not a great place but I did enjoy a tour I did there of the North and South border during the war. It was a very interesting day seeing this front line and the different places it moved to as the North gained more and more ground. To the left is a picture of the "Rockpile" where the American troops kept a watch over the whole area. And to the right, along the river bank, is part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Then we went to see another set of tunnels built for the purpose of defending oneself during the war. These tunnels were only used 6 years, and only by 300 people, and were twice the size of the Q'Cu Chi Tunnels! Still though, babies were born there and children raised. The child carrying the gun in the bottom photo on the right is the same man in the picture to the left standing next to me. And he is smiling, it is just that he suffers from growing up in the tunnels and can not move a lot of his face mussles. He is also deaf from the bombs and unable to speak. But I tell you, he is a hell of a happy man and he loves giving the peace sign! He is now the curator of the tunnels and he takes great pride in showing you them, including which hole was his and his parents and where the medical hole was that he was born in.





The next day I visited the Imperial City of Hue and the Thien Mu Pagoda. The pagoda is where a certain monk lived and practiced in the 60's. When the South took away the right of Freedom of Religion of its 'democratic' citizens, this monk drove to Saigon in protest is his powder blue VW bug and sat in the street where he then burned himself to death. The car and the photo are now on display at the Pagoda.



My next adventure was Ha Long Bay!! This is an amazing place. The bay is full of these huge outcroppings of rocks. And when the mist is aroun it feels magical! We felt more than magical as we cruised through on our overnight boat. We felt cold! We missed the 90 degree weather of the week before hand :( But it was Chinese New Year and we had a great time anyway! The cabins on the boat were lush, no bunk beds, private bathrooms, for each cabin of 2, and hot water!! It was way better than most hostels I have stayed in! There was a group of about 30 of us on board. We had a big party and ended up jumping in the freezing cold water at mid-night, naked! A great way to bring in the year of the Tiger!! We were ment to go kayaking too, but that never happened. Way to cold!






After returning to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, Charolette (the girl in the picture with me to the left) and I went to go see Ho Chi Minh's Mosuleum (in the back left corner of our picture). After going through a huge security ordeal we were able to walk past is preserved body. But I have to say, we were not entirely convinced it was real. With the bad lighting and how fast they make you walk past it, it could have been a wax job. Later on that New years Day I found myself playing at a street casino on some corner a random Vietnamese gambling game that had something to do with 4 peices of paper and a bowl. I am still not sure how it is played but I won around $15 before they kicked me out of their corner because I was bringing them "bad luck". Oh well, I loved it and got $15!! Happy Year of the Tiger to me!

I also went and visited the Hoa Lo Prison while I was there. This was better known as the "Hanoi Hilton" during the war. It is where the American pilot prisoners were held captive and tortured for years. This is where Senator John McCain was kept as a POW. It was originally built by the French to torture the Vietnamese political activists. Today it is a simply a museum to rememberence for both the Vietnamese and Americans that were tortured there. However, they do not say they tortured the Americans. In fact they brag about what nice treatment they gave them. There is a movie running there that is so full of propaganda I couldn't take my eyes off it. In fact, I was so enamored I took still photos of each screen of the movie with captions. My favorite part of the movie goes like this (please try and make your way through their terrible english), "There were no buttons to bomb to committ the crimes as in the bombers they used to push. The American piot prisoners were allowed to do excercis regularly. Their privacy and personal time were also well respected. All American pilot prisoners were given much better living conditions in comparison to any then ordinary Vietnamese persons. The humane treatment of the Vietnamese government has converted most of American pilot prisoners. They have now changed their minds and pints of view about the crimes they committed as well as realize the unjust war that they were battling against innocent Vietnamese people". If you get a chance, I highly recommend you check out those photos I have of the movie on my picasa web album so that you can see the images that go with these words! All in all it was an interesting place, and they did even have pictures on the wall of when they "rescued" john McCain out of the lake and of him being "treated" in thier hospital (above, right) and of when he returned to the museum with his son in 2000. There are also many pictures of how they let the Americans "enjoy" their time there and practice their freedom of religion. To the right is Christmas dinner, supposedly. And to the left is the day they were released, the Vietnamese are giving them souveners to remember their "good" time there.


While in Hanoi I also visited "Snake Village". It is here that I have now eaten the craziest thing of my life, not just snake meat but the still beating heart! First we met the snake that was to be our dinner. Then holding the head nice and tight we pierced its' belly with a knife. The knife was so dull I remember feeling horrible for the snake. We then ripped open the belly and pulled out the beating heart. Gross! After removing the heart we places it in a shot glass and covered it partially with rice wine that had been soaking in the snakes fat and partially with the snakes blood! Then I opened wide and shot it back, noticing the heart was still beating in the shot glass when I put it to my lips. The drink was absolutely disgusting! I could feel the heart pass over my tongue and could swear I felt it beat once while it slid down my throat! Yuuukkk!




After wards we sat down to a whole 5 course meal of snake. They ground up the cartilage, cooked it and served it on pompoadon. It was crunchy and salty, but other than that it was quite bland. Next we had snake that had been rolled up in seaweed and baked. This was ok, but I don't like seaweed. They also cut the body into segments and fried it in herbs and spices. This dish was delicious! However, it looked a little creepy to eat because you could see the lines in the snakes body and feel each individual ripple! We had a few other dishes that are not shown here because my camera ran out of battery. But they were all.... ok, I guess. Through out the meal they kept serving us shots of the rice wine with essence of fat mixed with the snakes blood. This combination is deadly and will surely get you more drunk then you were intending, and quite quickly too! Next time I will have to limit myself to 3 shots! Anymore than that and you are asking for a rediculously bad hangover!
My last adventure in Hanoi was a 26 hour bus ride top Laos. Upon boarding the bus we noticed the seats were smaller than anything us westerners were used to. And on top of that the bottom luggage compartments were filled with bags and bags of what we thought was rice. To top it off there were more bags of this rice on the bus, under all the seats and in the aisle way. So we each had to sit for the 26 hours with our backpacks and other bags pretty much in our laps. Some people sat or laid on them. I am a small person and there was hardly any room for me. I was never comfortable the whole time and the idea of sleep quickly became a daydream. I don't know how the other western guys did it with their long legs! Seriously, I was in awe of how a couple of them handled it. One guy even lay up on the bag rack above our heads for a little bit before it became to bumpy to continue the journey up there. By far, the worst bus ride ever! But what else could we do but laugh. After all, before boarding the bus we were told to prepare ourselves for the "worst bus ride ever". We were told, "If you find yourself surrounded by chickens and pigs, no one speaking any English and if we felt lost and confused we were probably in the right place. If anyone spoke English, if it were clean, if it were easy, then we would know we were surely in the wrong place". All I can say is I was happy it was bags of rice, and not livestock on the bus with us!