Vietnam

No more: Good Morning Vietnam! 

On our last day in Vietnam, we took the bus from Mui Ne to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Here Tanja treated me to this a very lovely dinner accompanied by beautiful wines. I can tell you that I enjoyed every bite and every sip! We really had a lovely evening, both being very aware that the goodbye’s were coming really soon now…

… and of course the next morning at the airport there was now way of avoiding the tears! But we had a great time in this very beautiful country and really enjoyed the time we spent together! Thanks Tan for a great holiday, the good laughs, your support and our interesting conversations!

To kite or not to kite???? 

So like I said to complete our little triathlon, we needed to get into the water. What better to do than kiting on Mui Ne Beach…. so there we went. The first day we felt like complete idiots standing on the beach with our practice kites, helmets on, crashing the kite into just about everything…. OK OK … I admit I was feeling pretty stupid, since Tanja seemed to be getting the hang of it pretty quickly. Me on the other hand landed on my bum, of course to everybody elses entertainment. Anyway after a nice lunch we went bodydragging (this means we finally got to take the kite into the water). Since the wind was changing we only got to go once, but we walked back to our hotel with a huge grin on our face, anxiously waiting for tomorrow. I can tell you we were really disappointed the next day when the wind was to strong and the waves were to high for us to go out, and the day after that as well ;-(

Now this day we figured we wouldn’t let the not-kiting get us down, so we decided to go on a little jeep tour to see the “high lights” of Mui Ne. Since our new neighbour Dan wasn’t doing any kiting as well we invited him to join us (I don’t think he will ever forgive us for that). The tour was HORRIBLE to say the least.

The waterfall was next to a fishsauce production facility (for those of you that haven’t been to Asia – the fish needs to ferment in order to make the sauce) and turn out to be even smaller than I am! The next stop was a fishing market which we learned was at 6 am instead of at 3 pm when we arrived. After this much exitement we decided we wanted some lunch, so Dan asked the driver if he would please stop at a restaurant. Apparently that wasn’t in the package, because he simply said NO!

When Dan (not so politely) convinced the guy we WERE going to have lunch, he made a detour and took us to a very dirty restaurant, where we were under full attack of a complete army of flies. Probably this was a commission thing or something. After a lunch that was not very enjoyable, we headed for the next stop. The Red Canyon. Well what can I say: it is like visiting the “Madurodam” version of a scale model of the Grand Canyon!

Deciding not to let our heads down, we got a beer for our next exiting high light: the Yellow Sand Dunes. We wanted to have a nice beer while watching the sunset….. We should have known better after the day we had…. The sand dunes where compeletely pact with tourists - I lost my flipflop while trying to climb them, and me trying to find it digging on my hands and knees was apparently quite a site (judging from the reaction of  Dan and Tanja) – and then when we finally found a nice spot have our beer, the wind picked up and covered us and everything else compeletely in sand. To finish of this perfect day, the three of us went for dinner – which of course on a day where everything goes wrong is a stupid plan – and ended up having a cold and very disgusting meal!

All & all I have to admit that the day was so horrible it was actually quite funny, so we ended up having some really good laughs!

The next morning we were again exited about going kiting, but that day and the 2 days after that we were disappointed again. So we just hang out on the beach, relaxing and reading (trust me there was no way we were gonna do any more site-seeing). Fortunately we met a very nice swiss/german couple Sabine&Felix, 2 Dutch guys Dirk&Mark and of course Dan our English neighbour. With them we enjoyed some really good meals and of course the obvious beer here and there. We had quite a few good laughs trying to order flied banana’s and wikkie! We ended up having really good fun this week.

Anyway back to the kiting…
Finally Dan got a different kite-school to take us out! Yeahhh!!!! We are still gonna learn how to kite! Well before I tell you my story, let me tell you that Tanja actually did quite good and will probably pick up the kiting thing really quickly. I on the other hand had a different experience!

First I had to wait around, because my instructor decided not to show up. Finally when I got to go bodydragging in the water, I learned one thing about kiting real quick: No matter how much fun you’re having … don’t grin! You’ll end up swallowing half the sea!

Anyway after about 20 minutes I got stung by a jellyfish on my right foot. It was burning a little, but I wasn’t gonna let this stop me from finally learning how to kite! As the wind went down and I had crashed the kite just before that, the instructor wants me to switch the harness to him, so he can put the kite up again. When I tried to undo the bar from the harness, the wind picked up giving a good pull on the kite and I ended up with my finger (naturally the one I hurt last year catsailing) getting stuck in the harness. By know I am swearing because both my finger and my foot hurt pretty bad. The instructor is trying to get my mind of thing by making enough speed for the kite to pull us both out of the water. This is quite funny, so even though I am hurting I have a hugh grin on my face yet again (I know, I know I am a slow learner). Apparently the jelly fish have developped quite a tast for me, because now I’m getting stung on my left foot. And this one is full on! At the same time the instructor is picking up speed and I accedently let go of the line I was holding on to in all the confusion going on. So I just grab onto something again…. It turned out to be his shorts and just at that point the wind picked up the kite again …..

So there you have it in less than 10 minuted I got stung by jellyfish twice, hurt my finger and stripped a kite-instructor! (It does sound a lot like me doesn’t it!!!)

The next day we were supposed to go out again. But I wasn’t feeling to well, so I didn’t want to go anymore. Then it struck my that I was probably just scared (between the little catsailing incident last year and my first kiting experience – I didn’t feel the ocean likes me very much), so there was only one solution – get back on the horse! Well no. After having done some dry runs on how to get on the board in the water, we were all geared up and ready to go …. and that is when the wind let us down yet again.

So the end of our kite-adventure is…. I still don’t have a clue on how to do it!

Our own little triathlon!

The next day in Hoi An we did a nice walk around the old town and it was nice to finally be in a town that was hardly touched by the war, so there were actually some real nice buildings left standing from centuries ago!

From Hoi An we took the night bus to Nha Trang which was supposed to be paradise on earth. Unfortunatly by the time we got there we heard so many stories about people getting robbed that we were no where near relaxed when we arrived at 6 am. Tired from the trip, we spend the day relaxing at the beautifull rooftop terrace at our hotel. By the end of the day we went out to see a bit of Nha Trang, but it being very touristic place we didn’t like it that much… so after something quick to eat we retired to our rooftop terrace and met up with some people there that felt the same way. After a very pleasant evening we headed for Dalat with the next bus heading out of Nha Trang at 7 am.

 Dalat is a very nice town up in the central high lands of Vietnam. In the afternoon we arrived, we explored the city and visited the Crazy House. This is a place built by a lady where you can find all sorts of shapes and strange structures. We thought it was really funny to see. Our dinner that evening was a bit of a dissapointment (understatement) we both decided to order another dish just because the other one was so grose we couldn’t eat it…. that was a waste of time and money, because the second dish wasn’t any better.

The next day we went for a beautifull hike up the highest mountain of this province. After 8 km uphill with quite a steep clime at the top, and then the 8km downhill again, we ended up in bed by 8.15 pm. It was a very great day, but we needed the rest…. BECAUSE…

Brace yourselves (I know I promissed not to, but I couldn’t resist)

We got up that morning at 6, had breakfast and then went for a 96km cycling trip. Now I know my family and friends are all having a heartattick just thinking about me on a bike , but just think about me typing this message to you .

 Anyway it was an amazingly beautiful trip! First we went through the mountains of Dalat (fortunately most of it was going downhill!). We had the most gorgeous views and even got to see an eagle from really closeby as it was sailing on the air. The downhill parts didn’t seem as funny to me anymore when my breaks gave in… Now knowing me and knowing how well I can cycle in the flat streets of Holland, imagine me going downhill at 45km per hour and having no breaks! Having done 2 turns without breaks (I can tell you that this was the highlight of my adrenilen rush for that day) I ended up putting my foot on the ground and finally came to a stop after about 300 meters! Fortunatley the guide switched bikes with me, so no more fast and furious advendtures for me We had lunch out in a field and this whole bunch of cows decided to check us out and see who there intruders were (trust me these wouldn’t be the only cows we ran into that day). I can tell you the lunch tasted great and the cows didn’t even bother us after 45 km of cycling!

After lunch we went through rice fields and little villages. Again people seemed to be very well entertained by these weird people travelling on their bikes just for the fun of it. After a while Tan and me found ourselves in the middle of about 150 cows as the farmers were moving there cuddle from field to field. Trying to shoo them away didn’t seem to help much and it was quite the experience trying to make our way through!

Finally we made it to Mui Ne and felt quite some triumph over our trip. Especially me actually having stayed on it for over 8 hours

Mui Ne is the surfers paradise of Vietnam. So after renting a bamboo hut we sat at the beach with our legs up and a well-deserved cold beer in our hands. Man what an amazing day!

So now we are going to do some good chilling in Mui Ne beach, enjoying sunshine, sea and perhaps completing our little triathlon adventures with some kite surfing lessons.

Again I am gonna have to leave you guys with just text, because I can’t get my photo’s uploaded. As soon as I find a decent computer I will try to update all my (boring) stories with some action photo’s!

See you!

Chilling in Hoi An

From Cat Ba Island it was just the two of us again. We arranged for a trip from Cat Ba to Hue. So by bus, ferry, bus again we ended up in Hanoi and took the nightbus to Hue from there. Fortunately the bus wasn’t that full, so we got some sleep after all. By 10.15 the next morning we’d arranged our hotel and were sitting in the sun (finally we are getting in to a warmer and warmer climate as we travel down south). We organised two motorbycycles to take us for a tour to see the surroundings of Hue. All the mums and dads and other concerned relatives, brace yourselves: they don’t do helmets here!

Fortunately I am getting more used to the two wheel thing (don’t worry I still know I should never be driving one) and even took pictures from the back of the thing!

After a late lunch and a nice beer we went to check out the “suppositely” beautiful Citadel of Hue. Unfortunately most of this got lost in the last war and we were a bit disappointed by the ruines we ended up visiting. Oh well, been there, done that was what we figured. Thinkig we deserved it, we went for another beer and ran into Trudy and Shaun who we met in Ba Be. Telling them about our good lunch we decided to have dinner together. Feeling really embarressed.. it turned out the restaurant wasn’t a very good idea for dinner. Especially Trudy and Tanja ended up with a pretty horrific meal. Good sports as they were, we had a fun night together and had more fun over the not to good dinner than it was a pain.

This morning we took the bus towards Hoi An. I was feeling pretty sick (I don’t seem to be handeling the Vietnamese food to well), so I wasn’t exactly looking forward to this trip. But bad luck never comes alone, so it got worse! Apparently our reserverd seats were not that reserved, as we ended up sitting on the floor and standing most of the time. Some nice Vietnamese guys scooted over and I ended up sitting on a tiny part of a chair/armrest. Tanja found some sort of elevation in the floor she could sit on. As she started to turn more red by the minute, we figured out it was the heation or engine she must have been sitting on When a women started throwing up behind us, we decided that in all our travelling together, this busride would end up nr. 1 in our busrides from hell.

Anyway we got here, only to find that the more down south we go, the more harrest we are by streetvendors, beggers and people trying to get us to take a tour or stay in their hotel. The bus was surrounded before we even got off it! Strongheaded as we are, we found our own off course and headed for lunch. Thinking we were gonna do a nice walking tour of the city in the afternoon. Well… we had a slide change of plans. As soon as we sat down for lunch the rain starting poor and wouldn’t stop. So sort of forced we ended up spending a nice relaxing afternoon on a terrace (covered naturally – I am not that blond) doing some reading and having tea. All and all I can’t say it was a bad afternoon (which we actually deserved after this mornings busride). So we’re gonna hit Hoi An tomorrow!

 Still Alive and Kicking!

It has been quiet for over a week now, but we are still doing great! I have decided to switch to English, because I am running into people from all over the world. Swapping e-mail and blog addresses, I figured it would be easier to just write in English. My grammar will probably be a lot worse now, but I hope that you’ll forgive me for that. If anybody back home has problems with keeping updated now, let me know and I’ll do my best to figure out another solution.

 What have we been up to?

From Hanoi we arranged for a landrover (with driver – now worries I have no illusions about driving myself here) to take us up the northwest trail. This was a pretty expensive trip, but we definitely wanted to do this. Feeling satisfied we went to get a beer on Saturday night in Hanoi. Sitting on the terrace overlooking the lake we ran into this Dutch couple, Rogier and Irene that had just arrived that day from Amsterdam. After talking for 15 minutes they changed their plans and decided to join us. We were impressed with their very spontanious action! We managed to cut the costs this way, had very good company and a man in our mids…. this would turn out even better later, cause as it happened Rogier knows a lot about photography – I’ve been on a speed course this week (hopefully it will show )

So now looking even more forward to our trip we left Hanoi on Sunday morning. Our itinary was the following: Hanoi – Mai Chau – Son La – Dien Bien Phu – Lai Chau - Sapa – Ba Be National Park.

Our trip was amazing. The first day out of Hanoi we were impressed with how green Vietnam is outside of the city. The scenery is really beautiful with mountains, ricefields and jungle’s trying to compeed for your attention. We went up to Mai Chau and stayed in one of the stelth houses. In the afternoon we went for a walk through the rice fields. At night all of us had some trouble adjusting to the very thin matrasses that were put on the floor, but with some achings in the morning here and there it was a great experience.

Now I can keep on going on about the amazing scenery along the way… but you guys are just gonna have to visit Vietnam yourselves some time So I’ll try to pick out some high lights.

Son La seemed very communistic to us… but we would later find out that there are a lot more places like that left here. We had some good fun with two Irish guys and an English guy in the hotel in Son La. After a good night we headed for Dien Bien Phu. The more we got to the inlands, the more we started wondering who was watching who. We were really impressed by all the mountain tribes and their beautifull clothing, but they seemed to be really impressed with these funny white people. Trying to blend in we asked our driver to teach us the simple greetings and stuff like that, but judging from the reactions I think I ordered a couple of portions of dog instead of saying hello.

Lai Chau wasn’t much of a town, but getting up there was very impressive. We saw so many different tribes that we got there very exited. The next day we made our way to Sapa. On the way there we passed Vietnam’s biggest mountain, Fansipan. One of the most beautiful things I have seen in my live was the pass right before Sapa. The pass divides the hottest place in Vietnam from the coldest. The two different airstreams collide in that pass and it was an amazing spectacle of clouds moving and twirling. Sapa was pretty touristic and the tribal women very frentic on trying to sell their goods.

The next day we left Sapa at 6 in the morning. Apparently our driver knew a shortcut to Ba Be National park. Normally it would have taken us two days, but now it would take only one. After a quick visit to the bordertown with China, Lao Cai, we went on our alternative route. We very much enjoyed the alternative route in the beginning. The villagers were very amazed by white people crossing their little villages and we got a pretty good impression of how our queen feels, waving and smiling all day long. I say in the beginning because as the day progressed it turns out our driver heared of this alternative route, but didn’t know it. In each village we got into people kept pointing in different directions! Trust me, this is quite funny the first five times, but as the road got worse and worse we started to find it less amusing. By the time sunset set in, our driver was starting to sweat a little. When darkness kicked in, he started to sigh and fidged with his hear more and more. I can tell you it was quite a releave to finally make it to Ba Be National park and after one beer found it quite amusing that all four of us had been worrying about how much petrol we had left.

The next day we made a boattrip through Ba Be National park. We visited a batcave were we were amazed by the overwhelming sounds they made.

On Sunday we made an 8 hour trip back to Hanoi. We stayed there just for that night and headed for Ha Long Bay in the morning. We took a local bus, which was pretty hilarious. There is one guy driving and the other is standing in the doorway yelling to people on the street to get on the bus. As they say no, he gets out and starts convincing them to take the bus anyway… this convincing can take up to 15 minutes. We kept wondering how it works… Do these people change their plans because he’s such a convincing guy??? The less hilarious part of it was that we missed the only boat going out to Cat Ba Island that day. As we tried to, pointlessly, arrange a boat anyway, we ran into Travis, an American guy heading in the same direction. The three of us tried to charter a boat but it was to expensive. The moment we accepted our defeat and were heading for a hotel, Rogier and Irene show up again (they are starting to turn into our lifesavers). The five of us chartered a boat and headed for Cat Ba Island. On the boat the captain started ordering us to take pictures which was quite amusing. The trip here was great and Ha Long Bay is a very unique place. Landing on Cat Ba Island got us into our next adventure as we were dropped of at a harbour where there was nothing there. Somebody had called ahead because there were exactly 5 motorbikes waiting for us there. Of course they tried to make us pay the same amount they normally charge you for the whole day. When we refused they started to drive away… we were in a bit of a tight spot there. But we still kept one card up our sleeves. We hadn’t paid for the boat yet, so started to head back to the boat. The price suddenly went down to half and we formed our own little motorgang right there. Not quite sure where these guys would drop us of, our little biketour started out a bit nervous. But like a true gentleman, Travis stayed behind us so he could see were the guys were driving us.

Since you all know how well I am at staying put on things with two wheels I had some extra nerves there. Being on a motorcycle without a helmet and you backpack and daypack is quite an ordeal if you’re me! When we were driving up the hills I was pretty sure I would be imitating a turtle on its back pretty soon. About two hills down the road I got the hang of it and figured I might just actually be able to stay put! From there I started to enjoy the scenery and the great smell of the forest.

We had a well deserved beer when we got to Cat Ba town. Against all odds we’d made it!

On Cat Ba we have spend two very relaxed days. The island is very beautiful and we took a boattrip yesterday. We went out to monkey island. Everybody was heading in different directions and Travis and I did some climbing. We ran into a monkey family up the hill and you guys know that the first thing I did was hide behind Travis. In my defence I have to tell you that there was a sign down hill saying to keep away from the monkeys because they do bite. Today we relaxed and did some hiking this afternoon. After climbing to an outlook post up one of the mountains we enjoyed the most amazing views.

Tomorrow we will be heading for Hue so the chilling out is over. I’ll try to keep you guys posted a little more often. Don’t worry about the typhoon. We’ve heard all about it and check the internet everytime we plan our next trip. We were up north when the typhoon hit Vietnam and starting to travel down south now.

I am having some trouble uploading my pictures here, so I will as soon as I can find a better connecting. You’re just gonna have to be content with my stories right now!

See you in Hue!

Rondbanjeren in Hanoi

<p>Na een lange vlucht (eerst 12,5 uur naar Singapore – daar 3 uur wachten en vervolgens nog 3,5 uur naar Hanoi) zijn we donderdagmiddag aangekomen in Hanoi, Vietnam. Aangezien we een hele nacht gemist hadden waren we allebei helemaal af…. maar bikkels als we zijn zijn we natuurlijk gelijk de stad gaan verkennen. Alhoewel, na een uurtje rondbanjeren zijn we om eerlijk te zijn toch maar een lekker biertje gaan drinken met daarbij (jawel) Vietnamese loempia’s. Op de terugweg kwamen we langs een straathoek, waar allemaal plastic kinderstoeltjes stonden. Herstel deze zijn dus voor ons bedoeld. Hier drinken locale mensen en backpackers (vooral veel backpackers) “bia”. Dit is zelfgebrouwen bier waar je omgerekend 8 eurocent voor betaald. Het is even door de metalige smaak heenbijten, maar na het 2de biertje zijn we al een beetje aan de smaak gewend. Nadat we de eerste noedels soldaat hadden gemaakt hebben nog een keer geprobeerd aan dit goedkope bier te wennen, maar zijn vervolgens helemaal af toch maar ons bedje gaan opzoeken.<br />
De volgende dag hebben we heerlijk uitgeslapen (jaaaah, zelfs Tan) en een stadswandeling gemaakt. Hanoi is een hele leuke stad. De sfeer is goed, de straten zijn druk en verkopers overal. Maar nee is meestal voldoende. Het oversteken vormt toch wel een soort continue adrenalinerush gedurende de dag… je loopt ongeacht hoe druk het is gewoon de straat op terwijl er van alle kanten fietsers, brommers, motoren en auto’s komen. Met name de kruispunten met van 4 kanten verkeer en op de straathoeken verkopers die je aanschieten vormen een adrenalinehoogtepunt in onze dagen. De doorgewinterde Aziegangers hebben mij echter verzekerd dat Hanoi een hele ‘rustige’ stad is. Nou ja laat ik het dan maar op een goede oefening houden.<br />
In het oude kwartier van Hanoi wordt helemaal van alles en nog wat verkocht en heeft iedere wijk zijn eigen ambacht. Je hebt ook nog hele mooie koloniale franse wijken, waar we zelfs een ‘luxe’ biertje in het prachtig gerenoveerde Metropole hotel hebben gedronken (goeie tip Carel!) En ondanks dat jullie nu denken dat we aan een stuk door laveloos aan een “bia-infuus” liggen, kan ik jullie geruststellen… we zeulen vooral met liters water <br />
Vandaag hebben we even een regeldag omdat we morgen vertrekken voor een 8 daagse rondreis in het noord-westen van Vietnam. We gaan verschillende natuurparken en bevolkinsstammen bezoeken. Het zal dus even stil zijn de komende week, maar onze avonturen over het verblijven bij de mensen thuis laten we jullie zodra we terugzijn weer weten.</p>