Open Tour VN

We made our way from Hanoi to Halong Bay through kilometers of green countryside. Motorbikes toting crates packed with frightened dogs awaiting their Eastern-world fate swooshed by & the heartbeat paced farming community practically spilled onto the highway from both sides. As we passed through tollbooths women in conical hats worked knee deep in rice patties literally right off the edge of the road.




We arrived to another surreal scene at the dock in Halong. Swarms of massive wooden junk boats flying bright Vietnamese flags waited out their turn to scoop up an awaiting group. Once aboard, we quickly left the shore & head out towards the endless limestone stacks that loomed across the entire horizon. We spent the next 24 hours drifting through the bay, sipping wine on the rooftop deck, & daring to karaoke with our hilariously shameless Volunteers for Peace pals. We also made a couple quick pit stops to kayak through the floating neighborhoods which live under the shadows of the massive cliffs & to check out an expansive cave grotto hidden within one of the mountains. It was a heavenly experience. After being dumped back on shore we said goodbye & got on the road again... just the 3 of us at last.

final VFP shot

Hanoi was also an altered image in the wake of the Tet celebrations. The roads were unrecognizable with all the storefronts open & business back to usual. We had little time to take in the new vision of the city- signed up for an open-tour package (so we could hop on & off at a number of cities along the route to Saigon) & a couple hours later hopped on a sleeper bus for the first 12 hour ride to Hue.

We'd been living in Vietnam for weeks, but traveling down the East coast of the Indochina peninsula we've begun to take on a more complete awareness of this country & the Vietnamese people. The Vietnamese have defended their nation against the Khmers, Chams, Mongols, Chinese, French, Japanese, & of course good old Americans- & still come out alive & kicking. They pride themselves in their resilience which has also helped them bounce back after outbreaks of SARS, the Avian Flu, & an economic crisis back in 1997. Lining the highways are old fashioned propaganda billboards sporting the face of Ho Chi Minh, both the Vietnam & communist flags, images of all people from soldiers to monks, & always at least one peace dove. Vietnam is ALL about National pride & we were en route to find out what all the fuss is about.

Our two days in Hue, the country's former capital city, were rainy. We'd left the majority of our warm clothes behind in Viet Tri expecting sunshine & instead found ourselves trudging endlessly through local highlights. We dripped back & forth over the Perfume River to see Notre Dame Cathedral, the Citadel, ancient forbidden purple city, & a couple pagodas. The crumbling sights looked older & even more magestic in the persistant rain, but we were simply muddy & wet. Luckily we found a great Italian restaurant to camp out at for the evening & we refused to let the weather get us down :)






Next stop- Danang, where we spent the night right on China Beach where the US soldiers spent their downtime during the war. In the morning, after trooping up & down buddah swarmed Marble Mountain, we head to Danang's neighboring city Hoi An, where we'd catch our next bus down the coast. Hoi An was a sleepy pretty little town with a unique Asian/European feel. The weather was beautiful & the fruit shakes just right. It was here that we stumbled upon Randy, an expat from Laguna Beach, California who had set up a bookstore down a quiet street near the river. He set us up with "the boys guide to Cambodia," a list he & a friend created which (aside from the dirty bar suggestions) should serve us well in the next couple days.

Well, thank Buddah we got the sleeper bus, because our next leg out of Hoi An took us 24 hours South to Saigon. We stopped only for a couple bathroom breaks, & a chance to eat at the beach in Nha Trang & the deserts of Mui Ne. Saigon is an intense city. With two names (Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City), 8 million people, & 4 million motorbikes, I think it might just bustle more than Bangkok itself. Even the backpackers district where we're staying is full of locals parked in near-kindergarten sized plastic chairs outside all the local eateries. The markets have absolutely every useless thing you could imagine, the nim chow is incredible, & the traffic is out of control. Yesterday we visited the War Remnants Museum & walked through exhibit after exhibit portraying America's heavy impact on the country during the Vietnam war; every wall covered in beautiful black & white photo evidence backing up every snipit of information. It was hard to take in the dramatic extent of the long-lasting damage we imposed. This was Vietnam's side of the story so it obviously was going to be a bit biased- that we were prepared for. Yet, you couldn't help but be embarassed by the story told. We are supposed to be the country that only gets involved in order to stop inhumane treatment, our constitution is all about equal rights, & yet we were destroying villages full of innocent civilians, dropping anti-foliants for a better view from the sky & meanwhile both destroying lush jungles & poisoning generations to come with Agent Orange. When we finally did retreat, we left in our wake thousands of unexploded ammunitions. 

Today we took a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels where the Viet Cong operated from intricrate underground communities during the fighting. We attempted to crawl through the tunnels only to rush out the nearest early exit to escape our claustrophobia. Our guide laughed at our sweating, flushed group & informed us that the tunnels had already been widened by nearly 2/3rds to accomodate tourists. Tomorrow we leave all the intensity of Vietnam behind & head across the border to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Tam Biet Vietnam!

playing w. an old US tanker