Originally written on November 5, 2004

The bus picked us up at our hotel at 7:30 am. We were happy to see new seats but especially an airconditioning system that was not covered in dirt and mold. We chose the 6 hour tour, instead of the direct route, because we wanted to see the places of note enroute. Our first stop was Lang Co Beach. Our bus pulled in front of a resort, and the guide (in that he wasn’t the driver) told us “we stop here 20 minutes”. No one knew where “here” was. This is typical, on many bus rides we have stopped, scheduled or not with little explanation as to where we are or why. I politely asked if we were at Lang Co beach, and was given a quick yes (as he looked up at me as if to say where else). The beach was past the souvenir shop and the resort restaurant, and we made our way through the “you buy?”, “you sit?”, “where are you from?” questions. There was only one couple lounging on the beach, likely because it was overcast and the waves were strong. In either direction on the beach a mist covered the distant mountains.

The next pit stop was Hai Van (sea cloud) Pass, on the Truong Son Mountain range. This pass is the dividing line between the north (cool) and south (hot) climate. The souvenir vendors here were the most aggressive yet. Even with our sunglasses on, and our head bent down there was no escaping the “where you from”, “you buy snickers” “you come to my shop” etc etc. Wowzaa… It was intense, like a feeding frenzy. An old french fort is situated across the highway, and we didn’t venture the daredevil jaywalk across.

The next stop was marble mountain, we were interested in visiting, the main reason for taking the 6 hour bus ride. The bus dropped us off at one of the many entrances to the cave amongst a hoarde of marble souvenir stalls. “Buddha one dollar, you buy ” were thrust into people’s faces every five steps or so. Amazingly, this place was even more aggressive than the last! There were only a few tourists around so there was no way to get away from their attentions. You would think that they would realize that a tourist who walked by 10 shops selling carved crap saying “No” to each shop tout who was asking where they were from please look at my shop etc would realize that at their shop (the 11th) they would not be interested, But no. We approached the mountain entrance and were not sure which entrance, of many, it was. Heather was pretty hungry so we wondered around a bit trying to find a nice place to eat. There was no such place. So we went back to the place next to where the bus dropped us off and Heather ordered a pineapple pancake, I decided to wait. When the pancake came we quickly determined that it was a banana pancake (they probably didn’t even have any pineapple but still wanted the $$). Since heather doesn’t like banana I ate it. We were glad to leave and be on our way to Hoi An.

The bus from marble mountains to Hoi An was short. Our first stop was to pick up a guy trying to sell us his tour services. The second stop in town was at a hotel. I got out to look at a room just to check it out (price etc). It was OK, nothing special and 10 US a night. I declined to stay and got back on the bus. Back on the bus there were ladies trying to get people to look at the hotel still. When they realized I had looked and declined, they kept saying, “I hope you will stay at my hotel!” with a beaming smile (which happened to be so shiny with lip gloss I could shave in it). Manic.

Our third stop was at another hotel, and again I got out to take a look. The room I was shown was nice and the lady said 10 US a night. For the next 10 seconds or so I was just looking at it comparing it to other places we had been to, thinking about the weather, the colour of the curtains, and the TV (basically nothing). “OK, for you 8 dollars,” she says. AH HA! A master bagaining strategist I am! I took the room and its quite nice with shuttered windows, hard bed and Sat TV. As a plus, its away from town a bit so its very quiet except for the ocasional roster call. We even have a balcony.

We left to find some food almost right away, Heather was still very hungry. We walked into town and found a place with an upstairs balcony. To get upstairs you basically go through their living area (you can see thir shrine to a women, perhaps someones mom?). Meal details for the Montgomery’s: sweet and sour pork, vegatable spring rolls, rice, spinich with garlic, a very disappointing pineapple shake, and 2 bottles of sprite for 50 000 dong, or just under 4 CDN. We walked around town more, and then back to the hotel where we passed out until 6pm. We went out and found a nice bar with a great happy hour (2 gin and tonics = 1.50 CDN, black russian 1.60, big bottle of beer 1.00 etc). We arrived at this bar at about 8pm and managed to close it down at 12:30. Good times with some travellers from Holland and England.

Walking back at night the place was deserted, in the day lots of honking and cycles, carts, dogs, etc. At night its pitch black and dead silent. When we got to the hotel it was all shut up with security fence. We pondered what to do for a bit and then some guy who was sleeping on the floor in the building came and let us in. We had a great sleep on the nice hard mattress and enjoyed not getting up early and having nothing to do.

Originally written on November 4, 2004

We got up before the sun and waited outside our guesthouse for the bus to pick us up. Kirk bought two french breads on the street, 1000 dong each, super cheap. The bus drove an hour and a half, and stopped at Dong Hai at the hotel for our free breakfast. Wow, a free breakfast at a hotel, awesome right? Wrong, the place was a hole in the wall, Kirk and I think it was only used to serve the skin industry or maybe crackheads. Really gross! Breakfast was either bread and butter, or an omelette (mostly salt of course) and drinks were extra.

By 8 am we were on the road again along highway #9 to see “Rockpile” a US army operation base on a hill, now just a hill amongst many hills. Our tourist guide spoke English, but this does not mean he was informed or in the know about all of the areas we were going to visit today. This fact became clearer throughout the day. Two hours later or more, on a windy road through the mountains, that was under construction, with no guard rails, no constrution warning signs, no dude with a stop/go sign to direct traffic, and heavy traffic of trucks carying construction material, buses, minivans, motorcycles, etc we made our way to Kay Son Army base.

This US base was built to break the supply lines between Laos and Vietnam. Due to the extensive Ho Chi Minh Trail it was unsuccessful. Before the “Tet offensive” (where the Viet Cong siezed many DMZ border cities, including Hue) the Viet cong put a small amount of pressure on the US base, as a diversion. The US concentrated their efforts to keeping Kay Son (which was never in any danger of falling to the Viet cong) and in doing so, many other cities fell to the communists.

The base was now a museum displaying pictures of captured US forces etc, and outside was a US helicopter and some metal pieces scattered around. Definately not worth the drive. So far, half of the day spent and we have seen and learned virtually nothing (the tet offensive was in our guidebook).

Back on our dirty, old, virtually non-airconditioned bus we made our way back to Dong Hai, stopping on a hill to view a native village down below (This was on the tour list, but we didn’t go and see the village, just viewed it from the side of the road for 1 minute). Two and a bit hours later we stopped outside of Dong Hai to the only restaurant in site, a shi* hole of course. There we order some fried rice and egg and beef and noodles. The beef was still bleeding when it got to our table. I lost my appetite immediately, and Kirk ate only half of the fried rice. It took us about a month to try beef again.

After lunch we headed up Highway one to the river that separated the north from the south, and pulled over briefly to look at the old bridge. Our guide offered us no more wisdom however. The tunnels (the name escapes me) were another 2 hours up the road. We reached them around 2 pm and it was the first and only thing all day that was worth seeing. The tunnels had three levels, we got to walk in them! There were sleeping areas, ammunition storage areas, both small rooms. The tunnels were well ventilated having entrances at the ocean and inland. Amazingly, under these harsh conditions 17 babies were born here.

The ride home was 4-5 hours, really boring, stuffy, a mixture of bad roads, no lights, crazy drivers and bridge construction at night by flashlight (no kidding!). We ate back in Hue (a nice restaurant, will provide menu later), and decided to book a ticket and get out of dodge asap. Next stop, Hoi an.

Originally written on November 3, 2004

We arrived in Hue by late morning, and were approached at the train station by many tuk tuk’s. Having looking at the guidebook before hand, we already had three in mind. The driver who worked for one of those guesthouses (bingh duong II) approached us, we enquired about the price and accepted to go have a look.

The guesthouse was fairly new, but in a quieter part of town. Often this is good. I was shown a variety of rooms and settled on one. We turned on the air, got comfy and watched the American election while cooling off.

We decided to make the most of our day so we headed for lunch, at Mandarin cafe, one of the first decent meals (chicken curry, rice, shrimp n noodles) in Vietnam (not great, but not bad). After lunch I enquired at the travel office, part of the cafe, about the tours they had on offer. The perfume river tour interested us, as it took us to many of the King’s tombs. We decided to book a private tour/ and driver to avoid the cookie cutter quick and dirty tour. This private tour was more expensive and we booked only on the condition that we could cancel if we could not find other tourists with which to share the cost.

We also booked the Demilitarized Zone tour (an all day affair for the following day). After lunch we made our way to the citadel, an Ancient royal city. Most of it is in ruins with the exception of the flag building, the main entrance and the queen’s reading room. We wandered off the beaten path, no worries no landmines or snakes!, and saw some other ruined buildings away from the tour crowds, as well as some restoration work in progress.

Back from the citadel we watched more of the American election, which remained unsettled (Ohio was still yet to call) and then went out to dinner to the Stop and Go cafe. This cafe is basically an open shed, a corrugated tin roof held up I don’t know how and open sides. The food was ok, cannot recall what we ate. The cafe is also a travel agency, but this one is pushy. After we ordered food the owner came by and put other menus in our face, tourist books. I think there were two or three, and thick. Then he began his speech. Man oh man. This place came recommended in the guidebook but I really don’t see why. There was also a picture of a Vietnamese man with long white gold locks wearing a tank top, framed in the centre of the shed. We got a glimpse of him for real, and looked just like his picture. To bed early for our 5am ish start.

Originally written on November 2, 2004

Today both of our families called us at the hotel, to catch up on our trip goings on, and hear a friendly voice. Also, it was much cheaper for them to call us, then vice versa. After our chats we put our bags in the hotel storage and cruised the streets looking for snacks, souvenirs, gifts, a way to spend the day in Hanoi (as we had seen all the sites we wanted to see).

Kirk found a barber!, and got his haircut. This may sound insignificant, but he had been in search of a decent (with a door!) barber, and was unsuccessful throughout Laos. Kirk was next in line and we watched the barber cut a vietnamese man’s hair, and then proceed to shave his entire face! Forehead and nose included!!! Afterwards, a young women washed the newly coiffed man’s hair and gave him a head and forehead massage. All while watching, non-stop, a soap opera on a tv overhead. Not once did she look down at her customer!

We walked around town, buying supplies. We searched forever for a decent place to eat lunch and settled on a small cafe, based on the pastries, breads and chocolates in the window. Dessert (a chocolate bun and a dark chocolate with pistachio morsel) were great but Kirk had burnt french onion soup. My chicken sandwich was good.

In midafternoon we tried to go to the movies. They are far away from the city centre, and started at weird hours or were really uninteresting movies. Even the thought of air conditioning was not tempting enough to go watch a bad movie.

Instead of the movies, we decided on killing time at the local pub, where we drank local red beer, ate peanuts, watched soccer, and watched the locals get wasted (guys asleep at the table, others laughing loudly and gesturing).

We collected our bags and took a taxi to the train station. The driver, accidentally (of course) dropped us off at the wrong station (north bound instead of south bound). Thus, we were accosted by many cyclos telling us that the north bound train has left and when they found out we wanted the southbound train they offered to drive us there for a phenomenal fee. Of course. We knew that the station was close so we decided to walk. The walk (in the dark) was through a shady part of town, and Kirk and I quickly (but not to quickly so as not to appear frightened) made our way to the correct station.

We boarded the train and met our roomates in our four bunk bed room. Two Japanese 20 somethings. We shared some of our strange foodstuffs. A drink called birds nest fungus, which tastes like sweet yoghurt except that it has chunky pieces in it. We found out later that these chunks are actual shallow nests fragments, a delicacy! We also ate seaweed potato chips, really good. Our two companions shared Japanese gum, which comes in a huge medicine like plastic container. Very good. We chatted to them about our lives and travel in broken English and went to sleep.

Originally written on November 1, 2004

We returned from Halong Bay Sunday night, and realized that we wanted to move along on our journey. It was time to book our train tickets to Hue. So, after a mehh breakfast we tried to book train tickets thru our hotel. After a lot of effort (different travel agencies, back and forth throughout the morning) we booked tickets through our hotel in the afternoon. It was too late to purchase tickets for Monday evening so we purchased tickets for Tuesday evening. Hmmm, another two days in Hanoi with no more tourist sites to see. What to do… We occupied Monday by mailing a package home (this took 2 hours) and wandering around the themed streets looking for grilling racks (for barbecuing veggies, shrimp etc.). I had seen them in the grocery store for 12000 dong but on the streets they were 20000 and in the market (which is supposed to be cheapest of all) they were 40000. The quality, and style were exactly the same. No one wanted to bargain, so we left empty handed. We bought supplies at an asian supermarket. Kirk was craving a hamburger, so we went to an aussie run joint and ate a hamburger and french fries with milkshakes. Cost usd?… I think… We spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to phone Canada from Vietnam. Prices range from .00 to .50 CAD a minute, and the cheapest price is done from a stuffy hot booth in the post office. We decided after much internet surfing that our families should call us, so we sent out an email asking them to call the next morning. We were stuffed from lunch, so skipped dinner and went to bed, after watching a movie or two on tv. -played to win some OMO -had bacon burgers -figure out phoning

Originally written on October 31, 2004

Today was our last morning at our beach hut Paradise. We awoke afresh, emerged from our mosquito net cocoon bed (a flat mattress on the wooden slat floor.

After breakfast (of two french baguettes, and an omelette) we headed out for our last kayak. Where there was a direct current from the ocean, not protected by islands the waves were often choppy. We bounced and skipped along the waves, with giggles of joy. We went through an arch (see pictures) and headed towards a fishing village.

The village consists of small green shacks with a netted area in front (that is attached to the ocean bottom with rocks. In the enclosed area red fin, dogfish and other fish species are farmed and all of them are exported to China (none for Vietnamese according to our guide).

The village had 600 inhabitants and 900 dogs. Where do dogs poop, on the floating dock? Some of the dogs were unfriendly, barking as we went by. At one section we had to go between to nearly adjoining docks (each with two dogs barking and snapping their teeth at us. Luckily, these dogs did not swim or know how to pull the two docks together (a simple tug of a rope). We made it through safely, with many nervous laughs and chuckles.

We headed back to base camp, and on the way learned talked casually with our guide. Thuy (pronounced Tree) was excited about having one day off (after 6 days working) but sad that it was not enough time to go see his girlfriend, who I believe lives in Central Vietnam. We learned that Vietnamese girls are expected to marry between the age of 18-25(26). After which, they are spinsters and unlikely to get married. The average female age is 18, and male 20. There is no upper age limit for a man to get married.

Back at camp there was time for a swim before lunch (same food as the previous two lunches) then another swim. During this swim I decided to look more closely at the sea floor. I found many starfish that I could pick up in my hand and they would walk along my hands with their “water vascular system” propelled feet (yay teaching 1st year biology). I also found several hermit crabs. They are crabs that find abandoned (but clean shells) and use them as their home. When I picked them up the crabs would peep almost entirely out of their shell and then get spooked and dart back in. In the morning, before breakfast we saw many small sand coloured crabs, moving speedily across our beach.

We left our island home at 2 pm on a small wooden boat, which moved only slightly faster than kayaks. We headed back along our morning route and then further to Cat Ba Island. We arrived on with 7 minutes to spare before our boat to Haiphong departed, on the opposite side of the island. A short minibus ride, 4 minutes at rip roaring speed got us there just in time. The tourist ferry was an hour and a half long. Kirk saw dolphins swimming at the back of the boat (briefly) and within 10 minutes I was sleeping (mix of gravol and hum of engine). From Haiphong we caught our brand new mini bus (really!) and took the two hour 15 minute journey back to Hanoi. Kirk watched near accidents from the driver’s side while I watched the people and buildings going by.

Dinner back in Hanoi, toasted ham and cheese sandwich, boo to Dutch cheese. We miss Canadian Cheddar. There have been several talks about grilled cheese, and macaroni and cheese. Mmm. Cheese. Alas. Also on the food menu was chicken kebabs (unfortunately, only cooked on the outside so we pretty much left those untouched) and beef soup, pretty bland.

We were told by another tourist on our kayak trip that Vietnamese chocolate is fantastic, so of course we went in search of this treasure. After walking through a night market (on a walking only street!) we found candy street, and wouldn’t you know it, it is right by our house. We got an assortment of chocolates, and will be back for more. They have x peanut butter chocolates and they are awesome! Soon, time for bed.

Originally written on October 30, 2004

We spent the morning kayaking between the many mountains, passing thru natural arches within a mountain, and seeing grottos and small caves at the water’s surface and 20 feet up in the mountain wall. Lunch was spent on a wooden boat, and kirk took a quick dive and dip off the boat for a cooling swim. In the afternoon we continued kayaking and went to a less visited area. There was a park ranger on his boat which our guide paid for the entrance fee (bribe?). This area was shallow and had many corals, pinks and green, visible from our kayaks. Although many of the coral were brown or silt covered, not sure if this is natural or a result of boat movement causing silt to collect and damage the coral.

Before we entered the first cave/arch way we heard the sound of a baby “kirk” clearing his throat of allergies at midnight at the cottage (but stacatto). We learned from our guide that it was a monkey, who had eaten something bad and was trying to clear its throat. We paused and soon heard and saw trees rustling on the mountain side. After a couple of minutes, we saw a grey monkey and shortly after others appeared. We never saw more than two monkeys at once. We were elated to hear and see wild monkeys and found it difficult to move on. Continuing on through the cave grotto/arch way after about 20 minutes of listening to the monkey call out and the wind in the trees birds etc, it was very peaceful.

The 2nd cave/groto was longer and in the ceiling were mini caves full of the sound of bats. We did not bring our flash light, so we could not know for sure. But who would want to flash bright light, disturbing potentially 100’s of bats. This second cave/archway led to a dead end lagoon of shallow water and more corals and lush vegetation on the steep mountain side. We kayaked back to the entrance of the restricted area and met our boat, which took us on a sunset cruise back to our island home (see the purple sunset picture).

Once back near base, we had to kayak a short way from the boat to the shore, as the water was to shallow for the boat. It was pitch black, and we did not have a flash light, but the moon light and the lights at our island guided our short paddle home. Dinner shortly followed, and then we waxed with our guide about life in Vietnam until it was time for him and the rest of the vietnamese staff to go watch the Miss Vietnam pageant. It was the swimsuit section, not to be missed. The men tourist were invited to join too. An island paradise but with tv. The foreigners continued to chat about their lives back home, our adventures in asia thus far and future plans. Around 11ish it was time for sleeping.

Originally written on October 29, 2004

Getting up at 5am was not fun. We only got to sleep at midnight as we had to pack for the kayaking(we didn’t need to take all our stuff to the island). Heather and I both slept on and off on the two our journey from Hanoi to Haiphong by bus. There we had a vietnamese breakfast of pork noodle soup with a french baguette. Our guide for the next three days introduced himself as Thuy (pronounced ‘tree’, this language is difficult!) and outlined the rest of the day. On our way out of the breakfast shop and in the few seconds between when we got to the street and when the bus doors opened, a lady guiloteened a duck and caught all the blood in a tub. Welcome to vietnam. Once on the bus, Tree explained that in Vietnam ‘We eat everything. No, we eat almost everthing, the Chinese eat everything.’ He also explained that the plates were for ‘fresh blood’ which is for breakfast or dinner. The blood is left on a plate in the sun and then eaten. He said that 80% of Vietnamese people eat ‘fresh blood’ and that he is one of the few who doesn’t like it, but we should try it.

Another very short ride and we caught a 1.5 hour long hydrofoil to Cat Ba Island. Heather slept and I enjoyed the scenery passing by. Haiphong is a giant sea port for Vietnam so at first the area was seedy, but about an hour in we started to get closer to the Halong bay area and things began to look more natural.

We arrived in Cat Ba and got on a small bus that drove us accross to the other side of the island, a 5 minute trip. Next, we got on a small boat and took a 45 minute ride to our final destination, Handspan basecamp (you’d think they’d come up with a better name!). On this boat we were all feeling awake enough to talk, and we all introduced ourselves. On day 1 we had 4 germans, 2 brits, and 6 Canadians. We arrived before lunch with enough time for a nice swim before eating a surprisingly good meal. Our accomodations were simple thatch huts with mosquito netting and a sleeping pad. We chose one in the center of the row of about 8.

After lunch we had about an hour to kill before we began kayaking around Ha Long bay, so we went swimming and read on the beach. It was very quiet. Then before leaving, heather found a green snake in our thatch roof coiled into a ball trying to kill a recently caught gecko. The whole place came and looked at this green snake hanging in our hut. Then the cook came over and sprayed insect repellent on him like when granny ‘raids’ her cottage. That seemed to really piss off the snake and he fell to the floor and released the gecko who amazingly ran like hell. The snake also high tailed it.

In very broken english the cook seemed to ask me if we wanted to move. I suggested that the chances of a snake in any of the huts was about the same, we would be just fine staying. He nodded and said ‘you move’. I asked if it was better if we move. He said, ’safer’. I said, ‘ok’. We weren’t going to argue with the cook about snakes. Our new hut was further down the beach, and also had a newer style roofer where the was a weave of palm fronds before the thatch which would prevent serpents from raining down on us.

We started kayaking at 2 pm. The kayaks were nice and modern with foot levers and a rudder for steering right or left easier. We set off at good pace following our guide twisting through a maze of islands. The islands themselves are vertical cliffs topped with jungle. Very scenic, like a prehistoric muskoka of the tropics. See the pictures for an idea.

We paddled until 5:30 or so winding our way along long exploring the coast line and seeing people fish and scrap shellfish off the rock in tiny backwards row boats. Dinner was also very good consisting of spring rolls, pork and vegatables, fish, tofu, morning glory (or spinich), rice, sugared peanuts (which are quite good) and watermelon. By the time dinner was over it was very dark outside, we were not near any cities. There was a full moon out so star gazing wasn’t that good and since we had been up since 5am on 5 hrs sleep and then kayaked for 3 hours the whole group was zonked. The 10 of us were all in our huts worrying about snakes by about 8pm. Our huts were equiped with a lightbulb and a fan running via a generator off near the kitchen. We slept stiffly but for a long time with only the waves making any noise.