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23
November 2004
It's biblical moped traffic in Hanoi and Saigon, having lunch
on little plastic table and chair sets on the pavement while all
life is lived out in public and at volume... well, Vietnam was
excellent.
The coffee and Baguettes were a blessing every morning, the people
had a bit of a cooler attitude which was
kind of refreshing and, contrary to the near universal complaints
and bad image the country seems to have with manyf travellers...
(The Vietnamese like to hoard everyone together, you get hassled
all the time, theres a fair bit of petty theft and shady characters
about ... untrustworthy and create a lot of unnecessary hassels)
... well, maybe we were lucky but didn't get any of it. It seems
that they're finally getting used to tourists, steady economic
development and realising that they don't have to try and skin
you alive when you get into town.
Talking economics, never seen so much frenzied market life ever,
everything for sale and it takes over the streets ... Everyones
busy, loads of energy and noise ...all the shops put their goods
on the pavement, all the bikes are on the pavement, people like
to sit and eat on the pavement...and you spend your time walking
in the road trying to avoid a sea mopeds. Impossible to imagine
what everyone did before the reintroduction of a market ecomomy
cos all they're doing now is shopping and selling.
First 'tour'
of our travels to Halong Bay was actually great ... whole area
much bigger than we'd imagined ... hundreds of square KM and
very serene and peaceful just drifting through the landscape
on a Junk deck watching the weird rocks and mountain fortresses
rising from the sea.
Mountains in the north were wonderful, trekking in the valleys
around Sapa, staying with local families, drinking their rice
wine and sleeping in the roof. Spent the first few days getting
around by motorbike on fantastic mountain roads, increadible
scenery.
We travelled
by train along the whole country North to South, got caught
up in the Typhoon that spilled over from the Philippines, flooded
the country around Hue and Danang, trains cancelled but managed
to get through in a van ... never seen anything like it, peoples
homes all flooded out, the road disappearing and the whole landscape
turned into a shallow sea. You could only tell where the road
was because of the telegraph poles, at least that's how we figured
the driver got us through.
Suddenly after that and more stranded days in Qui Non (a little
uneventful town, but found a tank on the beach) we made it to
Mui Ne...which was suddenly like arriving in the south of France,
hot for sure but also bone dry, no humidity in asia !! Wonderful
for us, hired another moped and drove along the long coast roads
between the sanddunes and the sea.
Eventually to Saigon for more moped madness and shown the sights
by Aya's long time friend Moholan. Leaving there we did our
second only 'tour' of the trip ... three days by boat through
the Mekong delta from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh. Saw floating
markets and watched the river life being lived out, people going
about their daily lives on the river were so friendly we were
surprised ... all waving and smiling as we glided by them cooking
their tea, burping the baby, taking a shit, or a shower. Beautiful
landscape too. |
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