Author Archives: Miss Penny Black

Farewell Hoi An, Hello Saigon.

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Our last full day in Hoi An was a busy one. I spent the morning doing a cooking course by myself, that is, without Luke but with about 10 other people – 4 English backpackers and an Indian/Malay family with a couple of little girls.

I was picked up from our hotel by taxi and then joined the rest of the group at the local Hoi An markets for a tour and to buy the food we would cook in our class. The markets were colourful and interesting but our translator and guide was a fairly young girl who hadn’t been doing the job long and could not even tell me how much a bread roll cost. She said she’d never bought one, which I found rather surprising. She had to ask the man who was with us, who was doing all the actual buying but didn’t speak English. Turns out they should cost about 3,000 dong (about 15c AUD). Interesting, considering we’d been paying between 10 and 20,000 per roll in Hanoi. It’s hard not to get the feeling that you can’t trust anyone when you’re being charged more than 3 times the proper price. The next day Luke and I tried a new strategy – walk up with the amount you’re willing to pay in your hand and ask for the amount you want and the sight of cash seems to work much better than asking ‘how much?’ and getting told an astronomical figure. It just takes a while to work out what is an appropriate amount to offer.

Anyhoo, from the market we boarded a boat that seemed to be furnished with bolted-down dining chairs and headed down the river for 45 minutes. There was a reasonable amount to see but it would’ve been nice to have some information about the industry we were passing and the history of the area. Our guide mainly played with her phone.

We got out of our boat amid a plantation of water coconuts and got into two smaller canoes and were paddled a bit further between the palms, getting a closer look at the trees and the grungy slicks of god-knows-what on the surface of the river. It was nice and peaceful though and I spotted some fish in the water. Fish in Vietnam must be the aquatic equivalents of cockroaches considering the filth they survive in.

Our next stop was a hut where we tried our hands at milling, threshing and grinding rice to produce rice milk by traditional methods. I found that pretty interesting – a lot of very hard work! We collected the rice milk to use in one of the dishes we were going to make.

Last stop was behind the hut and through some vegetable gardens. A large open air structure thatched with palm leaves but, thankfully, containing some powerful fans. It was stinking hot weather. Not so bad on the river but where we were was stifling. I’d brought my fan and got some envious looks when I pulled it out. If you’re traveling to Asia (or anywhere, I guess) in Summer I highly recommend having one on you at all times. They makes a huge difference.

Our 4 dishes:

Vietnamese spring rolls.

The emphasis here was on presentation.

Vietnamese crepes.

The crepe mix was primarily rice milk and coconut cream. It was very much like a taco shell that we filled with delicious, crunchy salad greens. Would love to make this when I get home.

Beef salad.

We made a beef stock and then added spices and poured it over the cold noodles. Delicious!

Pho Bo (beef noodle soup)

A staple of the Vietnamese diet and particularly tasty when you cook it yourself. So easy!

We watched a chef prepare each dish then had our own station to go back to for practice. We got to eat everything straight away (yay!) and there were lots of breaks to chat and drink the endless refills of passionfruit juice.

We headed home in a taxi (much faster) and I really enjoyed the whole experience. It could only have been improved with more information and better English on behalf of our guide but she was extremely friendly and positive so that makes up for a lot.

On my return to Hoi An I dashed to AoBaBa for one of my many fittings and then to Yali for my coat. I got dirty looks at Yali for being many hours later than they asked but there was nothing I could do. To cut a long story short, my coat was finished that evening and looked fantastic. Possibly a tiny bit tight (if worn with several layers) but that’s more motivation to lose the weight I’ve put on this year.

The gob-smackingly superb building that houses AoBaBa. It’s very old (over 500 years) but maintained beautifully and shows what a strong influence Chinese and Japanese culture had on the town, which was once the greatest trading port in eastern Asia. This is one of two courtyards in the building.

I had my last fitting at AoBaBa the next morning and was extremely pleased with the results. I’d taken a steampunk-ish styled pattern to them and I think they really enjoyed making it. Certainly Kathy (my fitter and sales assistant) was visibly excited about me trying on the finished product and took a photo and called all the other girls over to have a look when it was done, telling me that she had never made anything like it before. That was nice! If you’re reading this and thinking of heading to Hoi An to get clothes made do go to AoBaBa and ask for Kathy. The assistant who helped me at Yali was good but I don’t think she cracked a smile the whole time we were there. Be aware that if you go and get clothes made whoever you speak to first will probably end up working very closely with you, so wander around the store until you see someone you like the look of then go up them and ask for their help. Working with a happy person makes the process so much more enjoyable!

Kathy and I. Watching her trying to reach my shoulders to pin things together made me feel like a giant. All the Vietnamese women are incredibly dainty and elegant, especially in their traditional ao dai.

This costume comes in 3 parts, the blue coat, purple skirt and a black and white bustier. Now to figure out where to wear it!

We spent our last evening taking photos, eating at Cargo again and visiting the ‘Good and Cheap Bar’ in the hope of grabbing Phi, the owner, for an interview. Sadly we only spotted him once and the vibe was nowhere near as good as the previous visit so we had a couple of drinks then went back to the hotel.

The exterior of the ‘Good and Cheap Bar’.

The morning after (yesterday morning, in fact, although it feels like a week ago) we had our final fittings, collected our coats, left our 12kgs of clothing and excess belongings to be mailed home by Kathy (for the bargain price of $70 dollars!!! It’ll take 3 months to get home but still…. $70!) and bought some supplies for the train. We checked out of our hotel and taxi’d to Da Nang ($19 if you’re curious, get your hotel to book a driver, a taxi is about $25) where we had a bit of lunch then boarded the train.

This time we had top bunks, which I didn’t think was so bad. We read, ate chip and cheese rolls out of our laps and watched the countryside roll past. We shared the cabin with a couple who had a little boy who was quite adorable and didn’t cry too much, thankfully.

In my usual dyslexic style, I’d read the train ticket and thought we got off at 5pm the next day. No, no. Turns out we got off at 5am. So we awoke to shouting and pointing and quickly got our gear together and jumped out into the hot and sticky Saigon dawn. Footage of the train will be in the next video. I neglected to take any photos. Oops!

The train to Da Nang (or not, as it turned out).

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We’re sitting on the train from Hanoi to Da Nang. We are in a sleeping cabin, a ‘soft berth’. Apparently the beds are marginally thicker than the ‘hard berth’ beds and there are 4 to a cabin in 2 bunks.

As soon as we got on last night a family asked us to swap so they could all be together, which was fine. Luke and I moved to another cabin, which we ended up sharing with an older man and a grandmother with her granddaughter. They were very quiet room mates. I slept like a log – the beds on the train are much softer than the ones on the Halong Bay boat.

We had dinner before we got onboard at 11pm last night and bought some bread rolls and cheese to eat for breakfast. We also had to buy a cutlery set yesterday so we could slice the cheese and spread our margarine. Another thing I should’ve thought to bring.

Yesterday we had to check out of our hotel at midday, so we sat around in the morning doing research and various things on the internet then left our bags at the hotel and caught a taxi to Saint Honore, a bakery highly recommended on Trip Advisor. I thought that, while we were in Vietnam, we should check out the bakeries as they are reputed to be the best in Asia. Which isn’t saying much if my experiences in Thailand and Japan are anything to go by.

Saint Honore was lovely. Certainly not any better than any specialist bakery in Australia, but definitely a cut above the street bread in Hanoi, which only comes in white baguettes and white (rather sweet) loaves.

We bought ourselves some take away lunch then walked south around West Lake, where it became apparent that Vietnamese people will grow anything anywhere, anytime. Even the small squares of dirt by the side of major roads where an ornamental tree had been planted, was also filled with tomatoes or mint or something I didn’t recognise but was undoubtedly edible. We walked past an allotment right next to the Hanoi Intercontinental. The garden was probably the prettiest thing I’d seen in Hanoi. Rows of herbs and vegetables with tiny white cabbage moths fluttering everywhere, which probably wasn’t doing the garden any good but they looked lovely.

City allotment.

We headed through a Japanese temple then past the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which wasn’t open at the time. I’m not that into seeing dead bodies anyhow. Then to the Temple of Literature, the oldest University in Vietnam as it started in 1070 AD.

Flowers at the Japanese temple.

As we wandered around the central lake we were accosted by a group of young university students who asked if they could speak to us in English. We stood there for a while, laughing and chatting with them. More people gathered around to listen to what was going on and we ended up with a small crowd. We headed off after about half an hour and wandered through the back streets of the Old Quarter. The streets there are arranged by trade/goods, so if you’re looking for kitchenware you go to one particular street and all the shops sell saucepans etc.

We headed up to the cityview café for the last time to watch the sun go down and so I could take some long exposure shots of the traffic. We debated going to the place Sarah recommended but figured 19 floors up would be too high to get good light trails. Next time perhaps! It certainly did look nice in the photos.

A hand held 30 second exposure. Talk about a steady hand!

We picked up our gear then headed to a restaurant near the station where I finally tried Pho (pronounced ‘fur’). It was ok, but Luke and I both agreed that Bun Cha (BBQ pork in a thin soup) was much better.

Dinner was nice but made much more entertaining by the fact that we could see into the area where the waiters and waitresses were standing around and we watched them flirting we each other like high school kids and laughing lots. It was charming.

…ooo000ooo…

To jump forward in time, I am now writing from Hoi An, where we arrived last night. Our train journey ended in what we thought was Da Nang. We heard the announcement, gathered our bags and got off the train at the right time. Before we got off I asked the fellow in our compartment if this was Da Nang and he pointed to the exit, then I tried to ask another passenger who flat-out ignored me. So we jumped off. To cut a long story short, it wasn’t Da Nang, it was the previous stop, Hue, which we should’ve reached 2 hours prior. ARGH. We caught a private taxi into the town centre for $2.50 and then bought bus tickets for around $8 each. The bus was cramped with no airconditioning and took about 3 hours to get us to Hoi An.

We were both feeling pretty fed up when we got here but it turns out Hoi An is the prettiest place in Vietnam (in our experience). So clean and in such good condition it almost looks like the Disney version of what Vietnam should be. More on Hoi An later. With a million photos!

Halong Bay

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We booked a trip to Halong Bay through our hotel and ended up going with a package that cost $90 each for one night on a boat plus transfers from Hanoi and entrance into various sites in the National Park. All meals included but not drinks. We were told that water would not be included but it turned out that it was.

We were picked up from our hotel at about 8:30am. It’s a 4 hour drive along a pot-holed, debris-strewn highway to Halong city. The mini bus was small and cramped. I’m tall (177cms/5 ft 9) but I’m not *that* tall. Like our visit the previous night to the water puppet theatre, I couldn’t help but curse the Vietnamese for their short stature. If you can avoid taking any sort of bus in this country my advice is to do it.

We stopped at an elaborate tourist trap for a break on our way there and on the return trip. The bus driver dropped us all off with instructions to walk through the building and meet the bus on the far side in half an hour. We filtered through rooms of clothing, pottery, embroidery, food (chocolate bars for prices equal to Australia) and various tat. We looked around but spent most of our wait doing stretches and wishing we didn’t have to get back on the cramped bus.

When we reached the harbour it was chock-full of tourists waiting to get on the 100+ boats. There were a lot of boats. All the boats where white, wooden and in noticeable disrepair. I’m starting to guess that paint is more expensive than gold in Vietnam, since no one seems to have used any in the last 30 year. Anywhere. Our boat was no more or less shabby than any other, but I was somewhat dismayed to noticed, as we approached it from behind, that one of the crew members was chucking garbage (a small amount and it might have been food but… urgh) out the back door. Charming. This tallied with the Trip Advisor reports I’d read about how rubbish-strewn the bay was and how little thought the locals put into environmental awareness.

The boat was nice enough. The food was good, the other passengers friendly and our guide spoke reasonable English, even if he finished every sentence with a firm ‘Yep’, as though encouraging us to agree with him. It was odd.

On the first afternoon we all got into the little boat and went ashore to walk up a lot of stairs and look through a cave. I was under the impression we were actually going kayaking and nothing else so I didn’t take my camera. AGAIN. The caves were enormous and colourfully lit and would’ve been more impressive if they weren’t full of tourists. But since I was part of the tourist horde I guess I can’t complain. My enjoyment of the place was mitigated by the fact that I don’t really like caves (all that weight above me..*shudders*) but at least these caves were huge. Small caves are on my opposite-bucket-list. As in, things I hope to never experience before I die.

Due to the weather the view was monochromatic. The clouds through the mountains were pretty spectacular.

After the caves was kayaking, which I felt slightly wary of. The last time I kayaked was in year 6. I recalled enjoying it then but I also recalled getting very wet, and I’d worn my sneakers on this trip and soaking shoes are a right royal pain. However I managed to get into the kayak, paddle around for half an hour with Luke and get out again without getting a drop of water on me, which is a lot more than I can say for Luke, whose pants were wet through. By the end I was really enjoying the kayaking, to the point where I was quite sorry that there is nowhere near Heathmont for me to continue doing it when I get home. I really like that feeling of slicing the paddle through the water and pushing myself forward. Being so close to the water is really lovely, too.

Our cabin.

I think the highlight of the day was getting to know Andrew, a kiwi of Chinese decent, who was traveling solo as part of our group. A great font of knowledge on all things travel-related and particularly on New York, where he lived for two years, he entertained us all evening with terrific stories and advice. We sat up til nearly midnight in the dining room of the boat and staved off any attempts by the crew to inflict karoke on a bunch of strangers. Whew!

The next morning was a visit to a floating pearl farm. I found all the fish swimming around it more interesting than the pearl stuff, then we had a cooking lesson onboard. Simple spring rolls, deep fried and very tasty. Then we had lunch and cruised back to Halong City.

I haven’t mentioned the scenery, which was what we were there for. It was exactly like the postcards, albeit very grey under the cloudy sky. I wished for some sunlight but it never appeared. A shame as the water would have been much more green and picturesque. The monoliths of limestone were fantastic and the layers of shapes receding towards the horizon and growing more pale as they went back was like a delicate ink painting.

The bus ride home was as bad as the one there. The traffic was adrenalin-inducing. I just couldn’t watch the traffic and was extremely thankful that I am not one to get carsick, because I read my kindle nearly the whole way back.

In summary, the highlights of Halong Bay were the natural features and the people we met. The rather glaring down sides were the crowds, the pollution and getting there. The pollution was a *real* downer for me. When you see so many plastic bags in the water and know that chances are they’re going to end up choking some animal it’s just plain depressing. If I could grab the Vietnamese government by the collar and shout one thing in its face it would be ‘CLEAN UP YOUR COUNTRY’. Seriously. It’s disgusting. In city areas there are street cleaners who get around really regularly but in the countryside there are fields of trash.

On a high note, we were happy to be back in Hanoi and even in the same hotel room as last time. It’s amazing how little it takes for something to feel like home. We walked around the corner for dinner, had some vodka with freshly-juiced pineapple for $1.50 each and headed back to sit in our room and veg out. Tomorrow: the train!

Hanoi Day 2

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I’m really enjoying all the walking we’re doing here. I really felt the fact that we haven’t done much walking in the last fortnight, and being able to stroll duck and weave down the streets here has been a welcome change, despite the fact that it’s monstrously humid, we’re getting more used to the heat and it isn’t quite as hot as southern Thailand.

I’m pretty sure these are oranges, since every orange I’ve seen (cut open) had dark green skin.

We spent this morning planning our return to Bangkok. We’re heading for an overnight trip to Halong Bay tomorrow, followed by one night back here in Hanoi. Then an overnight train (quite excited about that!) to Hoi An and four days of tailoring adventures and markets there before another overnight train to Saigon. A flight from there the following day to Siem Reap, then back to Bangkok for my birthday before we fly out to Munich.

Lots to fit in! We’re missing out on Chiang Mai, it was just too difficult and too expensive to get to at the last minute. Next time! Right now I’m really looking forward to the trains, apparently they’re quite good here. We’ve got ‘soft’ beds (4 to a cabin) for the two trains south. The tickets were about $100 each in total, far less than flights would have been and we get to see much more of Vietnam. If you want to have a look at the trains then this truly excellent website has the goods, just scroll down. It’s an excellent resource for long distance train travel anywhere, actually. All written an researched by one guy in England. What a champ!

Simply no idea at all about these ones. Help?

Luke and I haven’t really done much in the way of touristy sight-seeing so far here. We both really enjoy just walking around, taking photos, people-watching. We thought about going to see the mausoleum but… haven’t. I think I’d need a greater understanding of Vietnamese history to really appreciate what I was seeing and, I’m ashamed to say, I know virtually nothing about the place. It’s the people and the food that are the highlights for us.

This evening we went to see the water puppet theatre. I have to say, puppetry really isn’t my thing… which was aggravated by the fact that the rows of seats were about 20cms too close together for comfort. My knees became well acquainted with those of the French girl next to me and my back became quite sore. On the bright side, the show only went for 45 minutes, so not really enough time for DVT to set in.

No internet on the boat tomorrow, so we’ll be offline for a few days (sacre bleu!) so be prepared for a storm of photos and video in about 48 hours.

As the two Ronnies would say…

It’s goodnight from me, and it’s goodnight from him. Goodnight!

 

Hanoi Day 1

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We arrived at Hanoi airport at 9am yesterday. It feels like a lot more than 36 hours ago, we’ve experienced so much. First impressions weren’t great. I’ll be honest, all I wanted to do for the first 3 hours was leave. To begin with, our bags took over an hour an a half (longer than the flight from Bangkok) to make it to the carousel. Somewhat frustrating but it happens.

We stepped out of the airport and I couldn’t help but notice the ubiquitous smog-grey Hanoi sky. Urgh. The taxi ride from the airport to the Old Quarter was hair-raising. I take back anything and everything I ever said about Thai roads and drivers. I couldn’t watch as we came within centimetres of families on motorcycles, ladies carrying fruit on poles, other cars, buses. The thought of having to be on foot in all that was mind-boggling.

We had booked our hotel from the airport after discovering that the one we’d been recommended by Ms Muppet was full (obviously a good recommendation – wish we’d thought about it earlier!) and were happy to discover very helpful, English-speaking staff who gave us a map, wrote down phrases in Vietnamese and recommended things to see and do, as well as how to keep our belongings safe. Then, exhausted from our early start, I had a sleep while Luke did some editing.

In the afternoon we decided to take a walk around the nearby lake. This necessitated some road navigation. It is difficult to put into words the experience of crossing a road here. The traffic is 1% bus, 14% car and perhaps 85% bikes and motorbikes. There are no lanes, although people mostly drive on the right. When the road narrows it’s pretty much a free-for-all. Before coming here I was feeling quite frightened about getting around, envisaging myself bound to whatever block my hotel was on but it’s nowhere near that bad. The traffic is slow but continuous. Kat’s recommendation to think of oneself as an island, is pretty accurate. If you step out anywhere and just walk slowly and in a straight line, it seems pretty safe. But don’t even think about walking along most of the footpaths. These seem to function more commonly as a parking area, storeroom, restaurant or loungeroom and no one is moving out of the way for anyone.

Just walk on the road, it’s easier.

We made it the the lake and surrounding park, and it was a sad sight to see. A dead fish in the water, pitiful gardens and small patches of grass cordoned off so you couldn’t stand on them – which was understandable considering the thousands of people all trying to take a leisurely stroll. There were few seats, many people trying to sell fruit, fans, hats, taxi rides, stamps… everything! However, after spending more time here I can appreciate the fact that the walk around the lake is far less harrowing than walking around the streets.

Full of wonder at the sheer busyness of everything, we walked up the 5 flights of the ‘shark building’ to the City View Cafe, where we had an excellent view of the mayhem below. We people watched from there and also noted the great numbers of dragonflies circling the building – more than I’ve ever seen in one place in my life.

As luck would have it, when I took this photo there was virtually no traffic. I promise you that at all other times it is an ocean of vehicles!

That evening we headed for the night market, only a few blocks from our hotel. It was a series of stalls on a blocked-off street that stretched about a kilometre. Sadly, the stall sold mostly tat. Cheap looking clothes, electronics, rubbish jewellery. More interesting were the food vendors. An old lady gave us a bit of fruit to try. I’m still not sure precisely what it was, although I bought a bag of them. It tasted mildly sweet with a consistency like apple crossed with potato. It must be popular here because about 100 ladies were selling them. There were also sausages on sticks (felt a bit hesitant about these), delicious pastries on sticks (no hesitation here at all) and various noodles with mystery-meat.

Honestly, I have no idea.

The mystery fruit/nut/vegetable. Water chestnuts?

By the end of the road I was getting hungry so we found a street restaurant and took our chances. They set us up at a table on the footpath, and by table I mean something plastic that would be more at home in a 5 year old’s cubby house. All the street furniture here is tiny – as is the space in which it needs to fit. It wasn’t uncomfortable though. We were given a platter of raw meat and vegetables and they lit up a small hot plate for us to cook the food ourselves. It was pretty much like Korean BBQs but for $4 each. Luke, unfortunately, got hit in the eye with a drop of boiling oil (no permanent damage done!) but you’ll be happy to hear that I caught it on camera. Whew!

Tasty street food.

The seasoning for the cooked items was a small bowl of salt, pepper and sliced chilli that we squeezed fresh lime juice over. I really liked that – must remember to try in on the bbq when we get home.

As we sat there at dinner, being laughed at by the waiter, I thought ‘I like this… and I don’t know why’. It was dirty, smelly, there were motorbikes half a metre away and trains rattling by overhead but there was something about it. Probably the sheer strangeness of it all. In Hanoi you feel like you can’t get much further from suburban Australia and so, at least for a while, it’s definitely fun.

I also like the fact that I’m being challenged and succeeding at things I wasn’t sure I could do. Asia has been a definite step our of my comfort zone and I like that. Hanoi reminds me of a certain person in my life, who doesn’t try to give you the best impression of them on the first meeting… in fact many people find this person quite abrasive. And yet the longer you know them the more the good becomes apparent and the rewards of knowing them are felt. As I said to Luke, “Hanoi is a city that can only get better’.  And it did!