Home From My Holidays

Vietnam turned out to be even more than I had imagined. We started our tour in the busy northern city of Hanoi where the streets are bustling with hundreds of motor scooters and the "honk honk beep beep" of traffic coming and going in every which direction. Crossing the street took an act of bravery - or stupidity- and some skillful eye/feet coordination. Although some of our fellow travelers were afraid to make attempts, I found the challenge exhilarating. Tall skinny houses lined the streets of Hanoi where we were told not one, but up to seven families may be living per household. People crowded the sidewalks crouched on small stools eating food prepared right there on small cookers. This, our guide explained, was due to the crowded kitchen inside the house. With seven families sharing one kitchen and one bathroom, it just makes sense to eat on the sidewalk (comparable to our version of an outside BBQ or having a picnic on the porch while we watch passers by).

Throughout our trip we continually were witness to so many contrasts. For example, the people take their shoes off to enter their home, yet at the end of the day, they park their scooters inside the house. Safety reasons. There is a helmet law for drivers, but apparently not for passengers. We'd see a helmeted driver with his entire unhelmeted family of five strategically stacked on the scooter with him. And Christmas decorations adorned every window, hotel, street corner in this mainly Buddhist country. Western dressed woman donned traditional conical hats.

Other highlights of this interesting city included a Cyclo tour of Old Town - another contrast of old vs new transportation, a visit to the Temple of Literature where I rubbed a turtle's head for good luck in my upcoming studies, an entertaining water puppet show, the French Quarter, Museum of Ethnography and some wonderful Vietnamese food.

After a few days in Hanoi, we headed to Ha Long Bay for an overnight trip on a traditional Junk boat. The weather was unseasonably cooler than expected, but we managed to get this far without actual rain. We were four days into the trip by now and I was still wearing the same top I flew over in! I hadn't been able to break out any warm weather garments yet and only took a couple of long sleeved tops because it wasn't suppose to be this cold. I had borrowed my niece's windbreaker for the trip and I was so glad for it.

From the very majestic Ha Long Bay, we headed back to Hanoi for our in-country flight to Hue a little further south. Warmer, but rainy. We visited the Thien Mu Pagoda (Pagoda of the Heavenly Lady) which overlooks the Perfume River, the magnificent Hue Citadel and the Forbidden Purple City which took us back in time. Our guide shared detailed stories of past Kings, Queens and residents and their impact on the history of Vietnam. Although the weather was inclement, this kept the crowds at bay and the rain actually accentuated the peacefulness of the temple and the Hien Lam Pavilion.

From Hue, we headed south to Hoi An, a nearly Venice-like town in Central Vietnam (complete with regular flooding and small boats to haul you around) just south of the famous China Beach and Lang Co Beach. We took some time and stepped out on the beach to dip our toes in the sea. Tired of the cooler weather and rain, we were excited to finally see a bit of sunshine and sandy beach. Upon reaching Hoi An and checking into the resort hotel perched on the river, we were greeted with yet another amazing Vietnamese meal (there were many of these and my rather snug trousers are proof) and then a walking city tour weaving our way through the alleys and narrow passages of this cozy little town. Here we also participated in a Vietnamese cooking class where loads of laughs were had while we learned to make fresh spring rolls, banana flower salad and grilled tuna wrapped in banana leaves.

The rains picked up as we trekked through the ancient My Son ruins of the Champa Kingdom. Again, it wasn't enough to spoil the day's activities. On the way to the ruins we stopped at a local market that isn't used to tourists. This was a highlight for all of us. Our guide walked us through the market explaining all the unusual 'treats' and how they are prepared. My travel buddy and I sampled the juice of a duck egg that had been boiled just three days prior to the duck being born. It tasted like chicken broth. Then we ate the duck fetus. No, not the yolk, the actual baby duck that was scooped out of the shell. Yeah, this from the girl who'd prefer china plates with food separators like a two year old so nothing touches. Later my friend tested Beattlenut. After watching her basically get stoned, I laughed my tush off as her entire mouth turned a bright red. The market ladies had fun at our expense. I'm not sure who was more entertained, them or us.

Our next destination was the beautiful seaside town of Nha Trang where we'd spend a couple of days relaxing on the sunny shores of the China Sea...or just walk along the beach in the rain. By now we were getting a little discouraged by the "unseasonably rainy weather" we were experiencing and our guide was getting nervous. His job was to make us happy. My travel buddy was having her period and was seriously crabby by this point. After spending five hours digging her car out of her snow-filled driveway and driving from Spokane to Seattle to fly out the next day, this was suppose to be her tropical sun-filled holiday. The rain was bothering her much more than me (hard to believe, I know) but I didn't want to agitate her by patronizing her about how it could be so much worse. After lunch she found a bit of alone time to walk on the beach during a brief clearing, meet a local woman cooking lobster and take a "happy pill." She came back refreshed and smiling. We then hopped a scooter taxi and headed up to the beautiful Cham tower still in operation. We decided to walk back to our hotel and no sooner than we headed back, the rains began again. We spent the evening drying out in our hotel room which had an amazing view of the stormy sea, sipping rather poor Vietnamese wine and reading our books. We went to bed dreaming of a sunnier tomorrow. Or at least high clouds.

We were granted high clouds for our boat trip to a local fishing village, a ride in a round basket boat - an actual round boat woven with bamboo used mainly to fish for squid, and finally a relaxing afternoon on a private beach where we were able to swim in the China Sea and enjoy massages and pedicures on the beach....until a sprinkling of rain drove us under the thatched umbrellas. All in all it was a great day even without the sun.

Our hotel hosted a New Years Eve Gala which was basically a flop. The Gala took place on the rooftop off the second floor. Rather than mingling with all the other guests as I had hoped, everyone sat at their perspective dinner tables watching the dancers on stage perform routines to songs from ABBA and "We Are the World." They were trying to promote unity, but everyone just sat and stared at them. The best part of the night was viewing the growing crowd of locals gathering on the street below. Thousands of people jammed the streets outside the hotel and stood staring up at us-staring back down at them. Everyone watching and waiting for something to happen. Nothing ever did. Prior to the countdown balloons and confetti were released from the top floor windows, but the wind had picked up substantially and rather than fall downward, they were scooped up over the top of the building and carried who knows where. There was a giant disco ball, but it never got lifted and dropped at the appropriate time. I'm not sure it got lifted and dropped at all. After midnight, they announced all night dancing in the lobby. We all shuffled down there for some dancing, but the music wasn't set up yet. We waited around til almost 1.00 when we decided to call it a night. Happy @#$ing New Year.

After Nha Trang, we headed into the mountains to the city of Dalat. Unfortunately, after an hour of driving we learned the mountain pass we were headed to was closed due to flooding (imagine that) and we had to turn back and take another route. Seven hours of bumpy, jiggly, uncomfortable bus ride later, feeling completely beat up, we pulled into the stunning French style village of Dalat. So different than any other town we'd seen at this point. Highlights here included a scenic gondola ride through the lush mountains to visit the Truc Lam Zen Buddhist Pagoda and beautiful gardens, Dalat Cathedral, Xuan Huong Lake, exploring the village and seeing how the locals live, a home hosted dinner, visit to the University of Dalat to talk to local students and a visit to the Lat village to enjoy music and dance performance by the indigenous residents. That was great fun as we laughed and danced along learning their stories and traditions.

Leaving Dalat by plane, we headed to our final destination of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for the last three days of our tour. Saigon was the city I had expected it to be. Somewhat more modern than Hanoi, but not much. More busy scooter traffic (my travel buddy and I were seasoned street crossers by now), lots of shops, huge market, coffee shops and beautiful buildings. After some consideration of our finances, we decided to take the optional tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels with the group. It turned out to be well worth the money. We were able to explore the tunnels first hand as a group and even had the opportunity to drop into a trap door and crawl through a portion of the tunnel alone (except for resident bat). This was actually a bit creepy as you put yourself mentally in the shoes of those who lived in these tunnels 40 years ago.

Next day was a visit to My Tho for a boat trip along the Mekong Delta which included a stop off at a local bee farm for some exotic fruit samples; dragon fruit, longan fruit, rambuton, coconut, jackfruit and something that resembled grapefruit, but not really a grapefruit. We visited a family owned coconut candy factory where we saw the very labor intensive handy-work of making different types of coconut candy.

I am still skeptical about the 'tour group' method of travel, but it does come with pros, as well as cons. Our guide was informative and relayed entertaining stories of the history, traditions, superstitions and culture of the various regions of his country. I am certain I wouldn't have been able to cover as much ground and see all the sights we saw in the same amount of time if I had attempted the trip on my own. I'm not sure, however, I'd book a trip with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) for the next 30 years. Seems to be an older crowd who frequent these particular tours. My travel buddy and I deemed the acronym Old And Tired people upon meeting our fellow travelers. There were 16 travelers in our group and our youthful 45 years of age brought the median age down to 60 years old. Our guide informed us that ours was the youngest group he had ever hosted.

By the first day we had everyone pegged. The overly optimistic person who clapped her hands and squealed 'yea!' about everything (no this wasn't me!), the professional photographer who got into every local person's face with her rather invasive camera equipment, those who continuously asked every ridiculous question because they either liked to hear themselves talk or just refused to pay attention to our guide. We dubbed these gals as Numbers 1, 2 and 3 so we could gossip about them in code. This kept us equally annoyed and entertained at the same time. At various points throughout the first week or so each woman would shift on the totem pole of Most Annoying depending on what irritating thing they did or said that day. Yes, an awful game to play (we were clearly the young bitches of the group). However, I dare anyone to spend nearly three weeks with 14 total strangers and see if you don't start inventing inappropriate games. I'd never make it on "Survivor." Even if I didn't get voted off right away, I'd volunteer to leave after a few weeks. By week two, Numbers 2 and 3 were growing on us more and more. We were finding them almost delightful. We also really liked their husbands and thought we better make nice with these wives. By the end of the trip #3 was hugging us goodbye and calling us her daughters in her Philadelphia Jewish Lady accent - "dawwters". Just goes to show we need to give people a chance. It was a bit challenging for this introverted extrovert to be corralled with 16 people all day every day. My travel buddy and I managed to get away on our own on a few occasions but not many. It was a full schedule.

Overall it was a good trip and we had a great time and lots of laughs. And more importantly, I'm so glad I got to experience this amazing country - the beautiful rice paddies, colorful markets, children riding water buffalo, and farmers working the fields- before commerce and fierce development step in and turn the unique farm villages and seaside into tourist resorts and the cities become just another Asian hot spot of night clubs, bars, glitz and glitter and overpriced shopping.