Yeah I Was In Nam!

Ok, so maybe not in the sense as in ‘64 but I was there!

Arriving into Hanoi we manage to wangle our way through Visa payment as we didn’t have any $US only Euros (Doh!!), choose a hostel and got in a ride fairly quickly considering our usual routine. And also considering that within 2 minutes of being in Vietnam we knew that gone are the days where people speak English!

We got a pickup by a guy with sort some of version of my name written on a piece of paper and nodded to the outside and said something which could have been: ‘off we go to rob you blind’ & we followed hoping this was our car! The guy didn’t speak a word of English as he bundled us in and there was another guy driving so there were 2 of them. I immediately started having bad thoughts, especially as he didn’t know where they were supposed to be taking us and I really thought that we had just gotten into some randoms car! Finally we managed to explain where we needed to go as we raced over the highway into town. 1 guy was on the phone all the time & in my mind he was calling the kidnappers and was arranging the change over! Hahaha – but after getting lost in the city and a great view and taste of Hanoi we arrived at the hostel.

The room was decent enough down a little alley street so I thought it would be quiet – but oh how wrong. At 7am in the morning we were woken by an announcement sounding out through speakers in the city. It began a bit like when Blanch plays the xylophone in Greece! And then came the Vietnamese government telling the people to be good. Look after tourists, eat your fruit and veg, treat women right – basically a little daily morning lecture on how to be a good person! So no lie in, but still better then the wailing!! I could hear the hustle bustle of the streets so we decided to get up shortly after that and set off to explore.

We LOVE Hanoi. We both agreed that it has a bit of a Bolivia feel to it. Crazy streets busy with women sitting with fruit baskets and food all down the streets – good produce too, insane traffic and a billion motorbikes and scooters beeping every second. It’s a mix of high end shops, stalls and shacks selling all sorts! The atmosphere is superb, if very polluted. All the locals wear surgeon like masks. We wandered around the lake in town and went to the old prison where most of the American pilots who were shot down and captured were kept as well as local political revolutionaries.

Vietnam is another country for me that highlights my ignorance on past wars and history. I have no idea! I know it happened, but that’s about it. So here’s a quick history lesson (in my very basic terms!) And please don’t skip it, unless you know about the war – it’s only short!!

Ok, so the French were first as they retaliated to Catholic missionaries being imprisoned & subsequently took over for a while. Then came the communists who were the most successful anticolonialists as well as at resisting Japanese forces during WW2. The French & Japanese worked together so that Vietnam wasn’t that affected by the war but towards the end there was big flooding and 10 million Vietnamese in the North starved to death. The communists, who were the only ones opposed to having the French & Japanese in Vietnam (known as the Viet Minh) at this time were offered assistance by the US.

Then it gets a bit messy as things in Europe took a lot of attention and the North and South of Vietnam were accepting Japanese surrender by the Chinese and British respectively. (Due to some conference called Potsdam) but in the end the French regained control of Vietnam. (All a bit confusing!) However, the Viet Minh were determined and despite massive US aid in a bid to stop a communist domino affect throughout Asia, it was ultimately an unwinnable war.

So then Vietnam was split into North (communist) and South (anti-communist). But the Southern leader got a bit tyrannical and the US decided to support a military coup.

In 1960 the Viet Cong was formed and a civil war began between North and South. The US still wanted to combat the communist movement and in 1964 claimed that 2 ships in Vietnamese waters came under unprovoked attack (which according to research is half and half true) but it was enough for them to start bombing the North. A resolution was passed in the US that meant the President had the power to take any action he desired to repel armed attacks, without any congressional control. The US then went crazy and even went as far as attacking and devastating half of Cambodia in an attempt to flush out Vietnamese communist sanctuaries. The US people eventually started to realize things were getting out of hand as protests and rage tore the country apart. Eventually in 1972 the Paris Peace Accord was signed by all involved providing a ceasefire.

That’s it in a nutshell (a really small shell!) I think it’s a big problem that our generation doesn’t know much about these things & while I know it’s the pot calling the kettle black – if I’ve been able to impart a small & limited piece of knowledge, then that’s good.

So……After the museum we made our way across town to the government area and the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh (the founder of the Viet Minh), but guttingly it was closed!!!

As night started to draw in the city started to take on another feel as the streets became jammed with street food ‘restaurants’. They cook the food in little pots and pans on the street and have little kiddy chairs and tables for people to sit on. The locals are out in full force – like everyone eats at these places, no one cooks at home. The market shops open up and you have the shoe district, the hair accessories district (I have never in my life seen so many hair clips and bands!!) the bag district – it’s crazy! We brought an old school propaganda poster which is really cool and I can’t wait to hang it up at home.

The food is delicious. I’ve always loved Vietnamese food from the little I have had back home but here (obviously) it is superb!! We didn’t brave one of the little street set ups just yet so settled for a cheap local place.

The following day we set off on a tour to Halong Bay which is an amazing place made up of over 2000 incredible islands rising out of the Gulf of Tonkin. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great so we didn’t get to see the water as emerald coloured and whereas normally you would be able to see islands stretching far out to the horizon, for us you could pretty much only see the surrounding islands as the rest were lost to the mist. However it also gave it another charm, slightly eerie and mysterious. A bit like I was setting off into the set of Lost or Jurassic Park!

On the way to Cat Ba, which is the only habitable island we stopped off at one of the grottos in the middle of an island which was quite spectacular, if not completely overrun with tourists. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many boat loads crammed into one place. That night we stayed in a hotel and met up with some people from the boat from NZ. Day 2 of the tour was to go to Cat Ba National Park and do a 2 hour trek before heading back on the boat, but we’d heard about a 6 hour trek through the park that we really wanted to do – as did the NZ’s, so we got together and organized an extra night in order to do so. And I am so glad that we did. The trek wasn’t as long as we expected (which seems to be the norm with these things) and only took about 4 hours but it was spectacular. We trekked through some real jungle up and down 6 mountains (well really big hills really) and the climbing was fairly demanding, especially the coming down! But it was really great and I’m glad we decided to do it! We stopped off at a village which is literally in the middle of nowhere. When you consider where this island is within Halong Bay and then it’s positioning it’s insane that people live here. And it’s not as we thought it would be - like mud roads and huts, it’s really built up. They even have satellite TV!! Lols.

That night we went out with the NZ’s, had way too much to drink, almost broke into a shut up hostel that we thought was ours and had locked us out but of course it turned out it wasn’t and the next day got back on the boat on which we would stay.

Now if there’s one thing I have noticed so far about the Vietnamese, is that they’re not exactly the brightest of the bunch when it comes to business. (Or maybe they are – it’s just that us Westerner’s don’t appreciate it!) Basically they don’t seem to be able to count. If there are 20 seats on a bus – they’ll have 22 people waiting to get on with tickets. If there are 14 beds on a boat, they’ll set sail with 15 people on board and so on…so there’s a lot of waiting around and rearranging and a lot of animated Vietnamese conversation going on! The crux of it is: they take as much money i.e. people as they can and will sort the logistics out later. It’s also very funny, if not slightly annoying when it comes to important things, trying to communicate. 2 classics to date are:

Q: Where is the lady in the blue shirt?
A: 30,000 for 1 kg!

Q: How are you?
A: Me 25

You will also find here that they are taught to say yes to everything as to say no is impolite. So whatever you ask you will always get the response ‘yes yes yes.’ This is basically translated into: ‘I have no idea what you are saying!’ Lols. But hey: it’s not like I can say anything considering my Vietnamese!!

So after spending the night on the boat, which was great – the tiny cabin room so was so cute, we arrived back in Hanoi just in time to take the night bus to Hue (pronounced Whey), in central Vietnam. We’d booked a sleeper bus which according to the pictures had full blown beds on the bus, & although that wasn’t quite the case, it wasn’t bad! Cramped, but you did get an almost fully horizontal bed and we were entertained with the delights of the Victoria’s Secret’s fashion show on the plasma TV screen. But don’t ask about the toilet, which was basically a bucket at the back of the bus. Thank god we had seats at the front as the stench was awful!! I actually even was able to sleep a little! We were dropped off outside a hotel which was manic. Sooo many locals buzzing around you asking if you want a taxi, a motorbike, a cyclo (tuc tuc thing)or hotel…all this & you’ve only just woken up and grabbed your stuff before it gets carried away out of your sight!

It was chaos, but we managed to sit down and eventually took the offer from one guy of a hostel down the road which seemed decent. We also had to book a room for Tymon’s parents as they were arriving that day!!

So here we are in Hue. His parents arrived safe and sound it’s great to have them here!! His dad is a fountain of knowledge which is great especially today as we visited the Citadel. The main city centre is separated by the Perfume River with the Citadel on the North side and recreation on the South.

The Citadel is very impressive and it’s sooo strange to think that just 70 years ago it was still being used in full force with its Eunuchs, Concubines & Mandarins! It’s basically a city within itself where the Emperors used to live. Unfortunately most of it was badly bombed during the French and American wars and only 20 of the 148 buildings survived. Restoration of the least damaged sections and the complete restoration of others is ongoing, but a large part of it is still in ruins. But it’s beautiful and the architecture is amazing.

Tomorrow we’re planning on heading to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) about 90km west of Hue which saw some of the fiercest fighting in the American War.

So until next time…