Today we head back to Ho Chi Minh City for 2 days before heading to Tokyo and home. Our flight isn't until evening though so we had some time to kill.
How did we spend it one might ask? We rented a taxi to drive us around for a few sights. The concierge desk tried to get us to rent a private car/driver for the day for almost twice as much (I'm starting not to trust concierges). Nevertheless, we went to these this beautiful temple (can you tell I don't have my guidebook on me) which looked like Angor Wat (which we're both sad we didn't have time to visit and were tempted to tell everyone that what was the picture was). The taxi driver said while we were there that he knew of this other temple about 20km away which was bigger and nice. Hmm... So first, as planned, we went to Hon Choung bay which Thao has loved since she was younger and we walked and hiked over giant boulders. There is one huge boulder which has this strange hand-like indentation which is said to be the hand print of a giant. The bay was a beautiful sight. The only downside is that it's REALLY hot today (hotter than I think it's been on this trip which is saying a lot).
Afterwards, we went to this temple which the taxi driver said was big and nice. (He also promised us that the ride would be about 1/2-2/3 of what the price actually was). The temple was OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! It is apparently a very busy temple during a particular festival in March but we were nearly the only ones there (and most certainly the ONLY tourists there). It was at the top of a giant hill (a hill with 175 stairs to be exact - Thao counted). The views of the valley were nice but the temple was the least exciting we've seen on the entire trip. The taxi driver's "village of weavers" that we stopped by on the way back to the hotel consisted of 2 houses in the slums. Still it was half the price of the private car though...
Now we're back at our hotel (which we checked out of earlier in the day) awaiting the taxi to take us to the airport (which for those who know what I'm talking about reminds me of a smaller version of St. Croix's airport).
I don't know when we'll have a chance to write again as tomorrow we'll be back in Ho Chi Minh City and are again at the mercy of Thao's family's neighbors (who were so kind to let us write on their computer previously). I think that we might try to take a day trip from the city out to the countryside to see the underground tunnels used during the Vietnam War.
Take care and if I don't write back soon it's because we don't have the internet (but we should at the Tokyo airport at which we'll be spending something like 10 blissful hours).
Friday, July 25, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Vinpearl Land
This morning we decided to spend some time on one of the many islands off the coast of Nha Trang. Thao had heard of Vinpearl Land and it was recommended to us by the hotel concierge so we went.
For around $19 we took a tram over the ocean (apparently the world's longest transocean tram) to the island. Vinpearl Land is an amusement park. http://www.vinpearlland.com/default.aspx?lang=en-GB We walked around taking pictures of the campy statues and then went to the aquarium. The aquarium was actually very good. It had one of those underwater tunnels (complete with moving walkway - I've never felt like luggage so much in my life). The tanks were big and the animals all looked happy (except for one dead frog which was being eaten by a lizard or something - the frog was thrown in dead as food).
There was also an indoor area with a 4D ride (one of those rides where the seats move, the screen is in 3D, and they spray water and air on you). It was pretty good. We also had a very good time on the bumper cars (followed by ice cream).
It's lunch time now (can you tell we have free internet at our hotel?) and we're off to grab some food. I think this afternoon is going to consist of either pool or beach time.
Tomorrow afternoon we fly back to Ho Chi Minh City but think we're going to spend the morning visit a temple not far from here. Until later...
For around $19 we took a tram over the ocean (apparently the world's longest transocean tram) to the island. Vinpearl Land is an amusement park. http://www.vinpearlland.com/default.aspx?lang=en-GB We walked around taking pictures of the campy statues and then went to the aquarium. The aquarium was actually very good. It had one of those underwater tunnels (complete with moving walkway - I've never felt like luggage so much in my life). The tanks were big and the animals all looked happy (except for one dead frog which was being eaten by a lizard or something - the frog was thrown in dead as food).
There was also an indoor area with a 4D ride (one of those rides where the seats move, the screen is in 3D, and they spray water and air on you). It was pretty good. We also had a very good time on the bumper cars (followed by ice cream).
It's lunch time now (can you tell we have free internet at our hotel?) and we're off to grab some food. I think this afternoon is going to consist of either pool or beach time.
Tomorrow afternoon we fly back to Ho Chi Minh City but think we're going to spend the morning visit a temple not far from here. Until later...
Nha Trang
We're all settle into the beach town of Nha Trang.
We arrived here this afternoon. It's beautiful. I imagine this is what the Caribbean or Southern California looked like before tons and tons of tourists arrived. It's got quite a few high rise buildings but nothing like Waikiki. The beach seems nice as well.
We haven't decided what we're going to do tomorrow, go to the beach or maybe take a boat trip. Who knows?
Our hotel here is $40/night (five dollars less per night than our hotel in Hanoi) and is a lot nicer. In the Hanoi hotel room, the tub was so high off the ground that I was afraid we were going to slip and fall and break something (yes, I spend my time with old people so these are things about which I think). We do have a beautiful view of a wall outside our room here. Thao and I are very content looking at a wall in exchange for good old fashioned cleanliness.
Since I don't have much to write about today I thought I'd take a moment to discuss the things that we've experienced abroad which we think should be imported into the U.S. such as in Vietnamese airports any package or odd thing one would like to be checked in as baggage can be wrapped in clear plastic "cling wrap" for about 3 dollars, all meals in Japan and Vietnam start with moistened handy wipes, the trash (even the bins on the street) in Japan is separated by types, e.g. cans, bottles, "combustibles", and "others," Vietnam has a universal helmet law, 1.5 liter bottles of water have a handy handle built in, and I'm sure there are others but I can't remember them right now. If I remember more I'll write them down.
Good night (it's about 7:30pm here).
We arrived here this afternoon. It's beautiful. I imagine this is what the Caribbean or Southern California looked like before tons and tons of tourists arrived. It's got quite a few high rise buildings but nothing like Waikiki. The beach seems nice as well.
We haven't decided what we're going to do tomorrow, go to the beach or maybe take a boat trip. Who knows?
Our hotel here is $40/night (five dollars less per night than our hotel in Hanoi) and is a lot nicer. In the Hanoi hotel room, the tub was so high off the ground that I was afraid we were going to slip and fall and break something (yes, I spend my time with old people so these are things about which I think). We do have a beautiful view of a wall outside our room here. Thao and I are very content looking at a wall in exchange for good old fashioned cleanliness.
Since I don't have much to write about today I thought I'd take a moment to discuss the things that we've experienced abroad which we think should be imported into the U.S. such as in Vietnamese airports any package or odd thing one would like to be checked in as baggage can be wrapped in clear plastic "cling wrap" for about 3 dollars, all meals in Japan and Vietnam start with moistened handy wipes, the trash (even the bins on the street) in Japan is separated by types, e.g. cans, bottles, "combustibles", and "others," Vietnam has a universal helmet law, 1.5 liter bottles of water have a handy handle built in, and I'm sure there are others but I can't remember them right now. If I remember more I'll write them down.
Good night (it's about 7:30pm here).
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Sightseeing the Hanoi Way
We've taken it easy today. We took a taxi this morning and then have been lounging around part of the afternoon (watching cartoons on the Disney Channel no less). But that's now...
This morning started with a leisurely breakfast in our hotel and then a taxi ride to the northwestern part of Hanoi. There we stood in line with hundreds of other people (tourists and locals alike) to view Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body in his mausoleum. It was kind of creapy and anticlimatic. I was told to change out of my skirt (which was knee length) into pants before leaving the hotel and Thao was told that her sleeveless shirt was okay. When we got to the mausoleum she was told that she could either buy a new scarf for about $3.50 to cover herself up with or "rent" for free dirty shirts to wear over. She bought the scarf.
Afterwards I walked over to the house in which Ho Chi Minh lived (it's a little house on stilts) and walked through the gardens.
Then in direct opposition to our previous activities we visited a Buddhist Temple called the One Pillar Temple because it's built on, yes, you guessed it, one pillar. It was very simple and quite lovely.
We then walked to the Temple of Literature which is actually a temple complex. It's large and has been in that spot since 1070. Parts of it have been rebuilt and added onto since that time. There are beautiful stone "stele" or tablets which date from the 15-18th centuries.
Afterwards we visited the Hoa Loa Prison Museum (better known to most Americans as "Hanoi Hilton.") Only part of the prison remains as most of the complex was torn down to build a fancy, Western style high rise (in which we ate lunch). The prison is absolutely moving though. Inside was John McCain's flight suit which he was wearing when he was captured and pictures of him smiling at the physicians taking care of his wounds. There was definitely a slant to the museum with a distinctive "look how good we took care of the American pilots while they were here" message.
Now we're back at the hotel and pondered visiting the market to buy more souvenirs but I think we're both tired and a tired of being in the sun so we're spending the afternoon inside.
Tomorrow we head to Nha Trang (a beach destination) for 2 days of fun in the sun before we return to Ho Chi Minh City.
This morning started with a leisurely breakfast in our hotel and then a taxi ride to the northwestern part of Hanoi. There we stood in line with hundreds of other people (tourists and locals alike) to view Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body in his mausoleum. It was kind of creapy and anticlimatic. I was told to change out of my skirt (which was knee length) into pants before leaving the hotel and Thao was told that her sleeveless shirt was okay. When we got to the mausoleum she was told that she could either buy a new scarf for about $3.50 to cover herself up with or "rent" for free dirty shirts to wear over. She bought the scarf.
Afterwards I walked over to the house in which Ho Chi Minh lived (it's a little house on stilts) and walked through the gardens.
Then in direct opposition to our previous activities we visited a Buddhist Temple called the One Pillar Temple because it's built on, yes, you guessed it, one pillar. It was very simple and quite lovely.
We then walked to the Temple of Literature which is actually a temple complex. It's large and has been in that spot since 1070. Parts of it have been rebuilt and added onto since that time. There are beautiful stone "stele" or tablets which date from the 15-18th centuries.
Afterwards we visited the Hoa Loa Prison Museum (better known to most Americans as "Hanoi Hilton.") Only part of the prison remains as most of the complex was torn down to build a fancy, Western style high rise (in which we ate lunch). The prison is absolutely moving though. Inside was John McCain's flight suit which he was wearing when he was captured and pictures of him smiling at the physicians taking care of his wounds. There was definitely a slant to the museum with a distinctive "look how good we took care of the American pilots while they were here" message.
Now we're back at the hotel and pondered visiting the market to buy more souvenirs but I think we're both tired and a tired of being in the sun so we're spending the afternoon inside.
Tomorrow we head to Nha Trang (a beach destination) for 2 days of fun in the sun before we return to Ho Chi Minh City.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Halong Bay
Yesterday afternoon we walked into Hanoi's city center and bought tickets to the water puppet show (it was all sold out except for the 8pm performance). We killed the time between ~4 and the show going to the Hoan Kiem Lake and the Den Ngoc Son (or Jade Mountain Temple) which sits on a lovely little island to which one has to walk across a beautiful red foot bridge.
After watching a man publically urinate we grabbed dinner at a Korean restaurant (at which they didn't give us the Korean type food menu) where we ordered non-Korean food (which wasn't that good). We literally sat around for 2 hours and then went to the puppet show. It was short but fantastic. The theater is called Thang Long Water Puppet Theater and I recommend that you either google or go to www.en.wikipedia.org to look it up.
We were going to wander around and sightsee in Hanoi today but we consulted our guide book which said that many sights were closed because it was a Monday. Instead we took tomorrow's planned trip to Halong Bay today.
The morning started out rushed as the minibus arrived 15-45 minutes early (they gave us a window of 8-8:30 and it arrived at 7:45). It was a 3 hour drive to Halong Bay (that doesn't include the time it took to pick up all the other guests at their hotels around the city). The drive was nice though and while Thao slept I took photos of the countryside.
We caught up with another minibus owned by the same company in Halong City and all boarded a "tourist junk" to cruise the bay. We're not certain but we think that the tour operator had to find a boat that would take us when we arrived on the docks (like everyday he finds a new boat to take his passengers on?). We actually also had to walk through one boat to get to our boat because the boats were parked 2 deep!
The tour started out EXTREMELY slow while lunch was served (not too bad, pretty tasty in fact, too little). While we were going slow we could use the fans inside the boat but once the boat started going faster they had to be turned off "to make the boat go." Okay. We stopped at an island called Dau Go and visited two caves, Hang Dau Go and Hang Thien Cung. The latter was only found in the 1990's and is lit with pink, green, and blue floodlights.
After the caves, we got back on the boat and toured around for about 3 hours (the last ~45 minutes was going extremely slow again).
We then got back to the minibus and drove the repeat 3 hours. Arriving starved in Hanoi, Thao and I just returned from eating dinner. The best part of the tour and boat (lunch inclusive) was that it was only $27!
We're now off to shower and go to bed. Tomorrow is Hanoi's sites...
After watching a man publically urinate we grabbed dinner at a Korean restaurant (at which they didn't give us the Korean type food menu) where we ordered non-Korean food (which wasn't that good). We literally sat around for 2 hours and then went to the puppet show. It was short but fantastic. The theater is called Thang Long Water Puppet Theater and I recommend that you either google or go to www.en.wikipedia.org to look it up.
We were going to wander around and sightsee in Hanoi today but we consulted our guide book which said that many sights were closed because it was a Monday. Instead we took tomorrow's planned trip to Halong Bay today.
The morning started out rushed as the minibus arrived 15-45 minutes early (they gave us a window of 8-8:30 and it arrived at 7:45). It was a 3 hour drive to Halong Bay (that doesn't include the time it took to pick up all the other guests at their hotels around the city). The drive was nice though and while Thao slept I took photos of the countryside.
We caught up with another minibus owned by the same company in Halong City and all boarded a "tourist junk" to cruise the bay. We're not certain but we think that the tour operator had to find a boat that would take us when we arrived on the docks (like everyday he finds a new boat to take his passengers on?). We actually also had to walk through one boat to get to our boat because the boats were parked 2 deep!
The tour started out EXTREMELY slow while lunch was served (not too bad, pretty tasty in fact, too little). While we were going slow we could use the fans inside the boat but once the boat started going faster they had to be turned off "to make the boat go." Okay. We stopped at an island called Dau Go and visited two caves, Hang Dau Go and Hang Thien Cung. The latter was only found in the 1990's and is lit with pink, green, and blue floodlights.
After the caves, we got back on the boat and toured around for about 3 hours (the last ~45 minutes was going extremely slow again).
We then got back to the minibus and drove the repeat 3 hours. Arriving starved in Hanoi, Thao and I just returned from eating dinner. The best part of the tour and boat (lunch inclusive) was that it was only $27!
We're now off to shower and go to bed. Tomorrow is Hanoi's sites...
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Water Puppets
We've made it to Hanoi! It's been a relatively quick and easy trip. We left Ho Chi Minh City this morning and took a short 2 hour flight (strangely enough - it provided a hot lunch) and arrived in Hanoi.
We're staying at a place called Bonjour Vietnam Hotel within the city. The hotel was recommended by Thao's cousin. It's small but seems quiet and clean (and cheap).
We've been making arrangements for the next couple of days. This evening we'll be attending the water puppetry show (which is world famous - be sure to google it). Tomorrow we're going to sightsee within the city and then on the 22nd we'll be going to Halong Bay. It's a full day trip (8am to 8:30pm) but only costs $27. Wow, the prices here aren't bad.
We're off to walk to the theater to buy our tickets and then grab some dinner. Maybe, yes, I'll have pho (it's a noodle dish).
We're staying at a place called Bonjour Vietnam Hotel within the city. The hotel was recommended by Thao's cousin. It's small but seems quiet and clean (and cheap).
We've been making arrangements for the next couple of days. This evening we'll be attending the water puppetry show (which is world famous - be sure to google it). Tomorrow we're going to sightsee within the city and then on the 22nd we'll be going to Halong Bay. It's a full day trip (8am to 8:30pm) but only costs $27. Wow, the prices here aren't bad.
We're off to walk to the theater to buy our tickets and then grab some dinner. Maybe, yes, I'll have pho (it's a noodle dish).
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Greetings from Ho Chi Minh City
We arrived in Vietnam late last night without complications. Thao's cousin was at the airport, by taxi, to pick us up. We're staying last night and tonight at Thao's aunt's house in Ho Chi Minh City. It's a big and spacious room with TWO unit air conditioners a shower, toilet, and sink. The shower is only cold water but that's not a problem in 90 degree weather.
We got up this morning (Thao a lot earlier than I - she didn't sleep well) and 2 of Thao's cousins (both EXTREMELY pregnant, one due in 2-3 days) took us out to breakfast. They all had pho and I had eggs, bread, and bacon.
Afterwards we took a ~ $6 taxi into the city center and walked around the Dong Khoi neighborhood which is where the Notre Dame Cathedra, General Post Office, and City Hall are located. It is also the home of the Rex Hotel which is where according to my guide book the "Five O'Clock Follies" (or daily news briefings from the Vietnam War) were held.
We did a little shopping at the Ben Thanh Market in the center of town as well. I bought souvenirs for ~ $3 and Thao bought a pajama set for ~ $9. Everything was very cheap. Don't worry again everyone, I bought a few trinkets for you too!
Afterwards we walked by an ice cream shop that Thao used to eat at when she was a little girl and we indulged (only in the name of memories of course).
We walked quite a long way to the Jade Emperor Pagoda which is a tiny little temple that is amazingly vivid.
It was back to Thao's family's house after that where we rested for a little while. Now we're at her neighbor's house using his internet (THANKS strangers) and are about to get some dinner. We skipped lunch in favor of ice cream (see, it's okay, Ikuo).
There are a lot of differences between Japan and here though. I keep getting heckled all the time (I think it has to due with my complexion). Things are cheap and a little overwhelming. The traffic is INSANE and almost beyond imagination. One simply has to walk into a street confidently and with a steady pace to make it to the other side. Cars, motorcyles, and mopeds be damned!
Tomorrow morning we leave by plane to Hanoi where we'll spend 3 days. We'll try to write more then!
We got up this morning (Thao a lot earlier than I - she didn't sleep well) and 2 of Thao's cousins (both EXTREMELY pregnant, one due in 2-3 days) took us out to breakfast. They all had pho and I had eggs, bread, and bacon.
Afterwards we took a ~ $6 taxi into the city center and walked around the Dong Khoi neighborhood which is where the Notre Dame Cathedra, General Post Office, and City Hall are located. It is also the home of the Rex Hotel which is where according to my guide book the "Five O'Clock Follies" (or daily news briefings from the Vietnam War) were held.
We did a little shopping at the Ben Thanh Market in the center of town as well. I bought souvenirs for ~ $3 and Thao bought a pajama set for ~ $9. Everything was very cheap. Don't worry again everyone, I bought a few trinkets for you too!
Afterwards we walked by an ice cream shop that Thao used to eat at when she was a little girl and we indulged (only in the name of memories of course).
We walked quite a long way to the Jade Emperor Pagoda which is a tiny little temple that is amazingly vivid.
It was back to Thao's family's house after that where we rested for a little while. Now we're at her neighbor's house using his internet (THANKS strangers) and are about to get some dinner. We skipped lunch in favor of ice cream (see, it's okay, Ikuo).
There are a lot of differences between Japan and here though. I keep getting heckled all the time (I think it has to due with my complexion). Things are cheap and a little overwhelming. The traffic is INSANE and almost beyond imagination. One simply has to walk into a street confidently and with a steady pace to make it to the other side. Cars, motorcyles, and mopeds be damned!
Tomorrow morning we leave by plane to Hanoi where we'll spend 3 days. We'll try to write more then!
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