Kodak moments

The Citadel in Hue

Oh I LOVE this country! It's simply brimming over in its own personality. Got a motorbike-taxi out to this hot springs spa about 30km from Hue and on the way we passed rice paddies and corn fields where women in conical hats were working, several motorbikes and bikes carrying baskets full of agricultural produce, burning smells, houses with families sitting by the front door... In the hot springs (a beautiful tranquil spa surrounded by trees), we were the only 2 foreigners - the only other people were vietnamese families relaxing in water that got as hot as 48degrees in certain baths. There were also slides and wave-pools - all using the hot spring water! We stayed till the sun set then headed back to Hue and were able to see families sitting down to dinner (on the floor - lots of people don't use tables) as they keep their front doors open. Could also see their 'ancester alters' - ancestor worship is a HUGE thing here and families remember their ancestors at every opportunity, lighting candles on their alters in the evenings... Have also seen a few graveyards and they seem very higgedly-piggedly because people consult the Vietnamese equivalent of feng-shui experts and ask what direction their family grave should point in hence graves pointing in all different directions!
Last night we went for dinner in Lac Thien, a restaurant owned by a deaf man. In true Vietnamese style, when this restaurant proved a success it was copied and now is flanked by Lac Thuan and Lac Thean (or something like that) both also owned by deaf men! Rather than using international sign language, Mr Lac used a more gestural form of communication which served well for basic conversation but it was hard to find out more about him beyond that. We ordered some Hue specialities and the food was delicious and came in huge quantities - 'unlike next door', Mr Lac had us know, 'where they serve much smaller quantities for the same price'!

So much for being left alone to sunbathe in peace - the beach in Hue

The Lonely PLanet insists that when in Hue, one must do the boat trip which takes in various monumnets and pagodas (temples) and we duly put our names down for one. But at 7.30am this morning, Trich and I looked at each other and asked if we really wanted to go and see temples.... 'No' was the answer so we turned over and after a lie-in we got motorbikkes to this really seculed beach with white white sand.... Oh it was just FABULOUS!!! much better than the pegoda I reckon!
The Vietnamese are fascinating people. One thing that constantly surprises me is the apparent lack of a need for privacy and 'own time' here... People simply can't fathom that one would want to be alone! Everything happens out opn the street - front doors left open at night so anyone can see inside... Shops don't go far back into the building and a lot of their stock is actually out on the road. People eat and socialise out on the pavements... They are very eager to practice their English so you get a lot of 'heeeello, how aaaare you'... Then 'I am fiiine thanks!' when you ask them how they are. Other questions are: where you from, what your name, how old you, you have husband/boyfriend? Despite being in a communist country, the Vietnamese are among trhe most entrepreneurial people I've ever met - if you even as much as slow down while walking on the street, you'll be bombarded by several people saying 'you want motorbike/cyclo?' or whatever.
Right, better shut up now but, in a nutshell, I am absolutely loving Vietnam!!!

Boats, buses and motorbikes

Trich with local fisherman, Cat Ba Island, Halong Bay


Back in Hanoi after 3 days out in Halong Bay, a truly remarkable UNESCO world heritage site about 4 hours away from Hanoi... 3,000 limestone islands rising out of the sea creating a 'Middle World'-type scene....

Met Trich on Monday and spent all day catching up in cafes and restaurants (it was still raining like there was no tomorrow) It was really great seeing her after nine months and hearing all about life in Saigon.

Tuesday - we got motorbike taxis to various museums and temples around town. The first thing you notice in Vietnam ios the motorbikes... Nothing prepares you for the constant stream of motorbikes on the streets. One thinks, 'just WHAT are the rules of the road?' cos it seems like complete anarchy. But the amazing thing is among all the chaos there is real order that actually works. When crossing the road, one just walks at a normal pace and motorbikes simply ride around them... It started raining when we were out on our motorbike taxis and all around me, people calmly pulled over to the side of the road in their thousands, pulled out their rain-ponchos and were off again. You see people carrying all kinds of things on their motorbikes... THe other day, I saw a man crusing through busy city lanes with several baskets containing chickens and live geese with their feet tied onto the handlebars - rather than flapping about, they just sat there with resigned expressions on their faces, accepting their fates...

Out of the museums we saw in Hanoi, the most interesting one was Ho Chi Minh's Masoleum simply because it reminded me that Vietnam truly is a communist country. It's easy to forget cos the people are so friendly, nothing like Russians during communism. But there are stark reminders - such as the power of the police. A couple of policemen stopped our bus on Cat Ba Island in Halong Bay and refused to let the driver continue because of some small technicality. In Ireland, arguments and comments to the tone of 'powerhungry pigs' would have ensued. But the driver and tour guide were clearly anxious to meet their requirements (bar giving them small bribes).

Architecturally, Hanoi is fascinating. There's a very definite French-colonial influence - beautiful houses around the city, big boulevards and small leafy lanes in the Old Quarter... Loads of restaurants serving fantastic food at oh-SO-cheap prices. We've eaten very well this past week... Have also had a rather interesting coffee... The Vietnamese have this 'speciality' coffee called Chon cafe which comes from a bean that has been fed to a weasel and collected from its, ahem, excrement. Despite its journey to the cup, it's rather delicious especially when drunk as an iced-coffee with condensed milk. Just think liquid chocolate.... Have also tried the bia hoa - draft beer, drunk out on the street sitting on these tiny plastic stools. The bia hoa cost us 1500 dong or about 7cents a glass!!! Is it any surprise that the four other tourists there were Irish?!?

3 days ago, we went out to Halong Bay where the sun was out in full blast. Got onto this 'junk' - a smaller version of those boats that sailed the Missipippi 100 years ago and sailed out to the islands. They are just amazing - so other-worldly... Just chilled out on the top deck of the boat passing by these islands. Ate Vietnamese food with plenty of fish, went kayaking, trekking, swimming... While the views were stunning, swimming was a little squeamish because the water was so polluted. Environmental awareness is nowhere near top of the agenda here and rubbish can be seen on the sides of the road and in the sea, a right shame. But people really are poor here and when you work your butt off for a dollar or two a day, you aren't going to care about 'saving the planet'.

Coming back to Hanoi from Halong Bay today, I had my first taste of Vietnamese problem-solving... A crash had occurred on the road further up and, well, there was absolutely NO sense that someone was in control, that each vehicle was getting its turn to pass the obstruction, that we would eventually reach the top of the queue and be on our way. So we sat on an inmobile bus for an hour, just watching what was happening. The two-lane road turned into a one-way street as people overtook the queue; it was like getting on the bus in Dublin during rush hour - everyone for themselves. At one stage we could see a vehicle sat in our lane but facing us...(!) Then someone rapped on the window just behind us - the Irish guys who'd got on the bus not far behind opened the window and were told that they hadn't paid for their beers - so much for their 'quick getaway'! When we eventually passed the crash (involving a lorry and a van), it was at least an hour after it'd all happened. Despite this, there didn't seem to be any organised procedure to resolve the situation and move the lorry which was stretched out across half the road. Wouldn't be surprised if it's still there as we speak... Patience isn't just a virtue in this country, it's a necessity.
And in an hour, we are getting onto another bus headed for Hue... it'll about 12 hours so I just pray that there are no more car crashes along the way... The fact that the Lonely Planet strongly recommends getting the train for this journey doesn't bode well for us...(!)

Leafy VERY wet Hanoi, Vietnam

I haven't checked out Hanoi yet but my first impressions are that it is very lovely and very very wet (monsoon downpours as we speak)
Waiting for my bag (which inevitably was the last to come out) at the airport today was a surreal experience. Box after box after box containing electrical appliances made their way around the conveyor belt - I swear there were two boxes for every one suitcase/backpack. I saw a flatscreen loads of TV, a few microwaves, stereos, several automatic ricemakers and an electric weighing scales(!) It was like watching those conveyor belts containing prizes in a cheesy games-show - in place of the envelopes with the 'Mystery Trip', this conveyor belt had unidentifiable parcels of varying sizes and shapes... The hilarious thing was seeing people with these boxes piled up on their trollies walking through the 'Nothing to Declare' gate and not being stopped!

A quick update of the last few days -in Chiang Mai, we went on a trek which involved an elephant trek, a walk through the jungle, visiting hill tribes and a (cancelled as it turned out) bamboo rafting session. The elephant trek, to be terribly honest, was a bit of a let down in that it all seemed rather... cruel or something. Like, the elephants walked around this circle - something they must do every day of their lives... Now I know that elephants probably have a much higher bordom threshold than we do - but can you imagine living like that?! Reminded me a bit of the polar bears in Dublin Zoo - the ones that went crazy from being cooped up and swam up and down in a daze all day. That said, seeing the elephants was cool - even though they're these massive animals there's this gracefulness about them and I could see why they had such a high status in Thai culture in the past.

Couldn't sleep on the 'sleeper train' back to Bangkok again... Feeling every crack in the tracks resonate up through the train at 5.24am in the morning, I started to think 'sleeper train' is a bit of an oxymoron really... They're very handy though in that you do your travelling at night so don't waste time so I'm not complaining.

We did the tourist thang in Bangkok - the Grand Palace and the absolutely stunning Wat Phra Kaew, a Buddhist temple - the Vatican of Buddhism... It was just amazing - gold and multi-coloured walls glittering in the sunlight. It was almost like a Disneyland for Buddhists in that everything was so bright, clean and sparkly - but I don't mean that in an insulting way!


Ah, the rains have ceased. Meeting Trich (a friend from uni who is currently working in Ho Chi Minh City with the Christina Noble Foundation) later... The walls of the internet cafe I'm in are plastered in posters of Halong Bay and it looks so so beautiful - I can't wait to visit it in the next couple days...

OK I set up this blog months ago but things have been quiet chez Cathy at large... Until a friend sent me the link to her beautiful blog complete with photos only set up yesterday - thus prompting me to enter my first ever post...!

And this historic event is taking place in Chiang Mai up in the north of Thailand... Met Tracey and Michelle yesterday in hot humid (and if I'm terribly honest, polluted) Bangkok and got a sleeper train awaking in not so hot and humid and much less polluted Chiang Mai... (Poor Conor is stuck in India for a few more days awaiting his passport: the moral of his story - NEVER LET A LIVING SOUL NEAR YOUR PASSPORT cos all these procedures for getting a new one - well, they exist only in theory)

As of 9.30pm I can call myself a fully fledged Thai chef... Well, OK, I can lay claim to being able to cook 7 different thai dishes, including one dessert. We enrolled in a cooking course - a half day one - and learned to cook different kinds of curry, soup, salad, noodles and, ,my favourite, banana and coconut pudding steamed in banana leaves...

Tomorrow will herald my first ever elephant ride - can't wait!