Busy, busy

December 29

Up and Over the Hai Van Pass and more

     Much has happened in the last few days as we have made our way north along the 2000 miles coastline in Vietnam. 

     The day after the last post our group went to the massacre site at Mi Lai. It was haunting. I remember this event well and believe it may have started the swing of the American public against the war. Over 500 civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers during a 4 hour period where the soldiers were ordered to kill anything that moved. This place is so, so sad. The war was so useless. All war is a horror. 

     Then we drove to Hoi An, an ancient port city that is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is very popular with foreign tourists as it is very picturesque and full of ancient sites, shops and restaurants. We stayed two nights here so we got to explore. 

     The first afternoon Vu brought us on a walking tour of the old city into these 500 year old houses still occupied by the families who first owned them. We also saw an elaborate Chinese assembly hall, the Japanese bride and every house and business decorated with colorful lanterns. At night they are all lit up and make the place look magical.

     Lou rode on the optional 20 mile bike ride. I went to a cooking class. Boy did I luck out! There were only two of us, Michelle who is also on the bike trip and me. We started at 8:30 am with a glass of tea, put on our conical hats in the mist and headed for the Central Market with our instructor Vu. It was great to see it all with someone who is knowledgable. He pointed out all the traditional foods, unusual fruit, kitchen implements to make the dishes as well as the vendors who are well-known like the 82 year old woman selling her 5 different kinds of noodles.  Then we cooked a 4 course meal and ate it. Oh my it was food. I have the recipes and will attempt to recreate them at home. Looks like I will be shopped a little more often at the Asian Market for green papaya and banana leaves.

     Today we had what was supposed to be our BIG ride. Conditions were cool and misty for our assault on the Hai Van pass. This is one of Vietnam's famed passes dividing the north and south. We rode for about 20 miles on our warm-up through Da Nang along the coast. It is unreal to see all the real estate development here. Lots of foreign money I gather with hotels, villas and golf courses for the wealthy from all nations. There is construction everywhere and hotel complex after gated community with security to keep out the riff-raff. The beach is miles and miles long of beautiful sand. It was too cool and misty to even consider a quick stop for a swim. 

     Vu tells us that inflation in Vietnam is about 10 %. It is not common for the Vietnamese to get money from a bank for a mortgage to buy a house. He said the family gets together and pitches in money to buy property outright. He explained that was what he and his wife's family did for him and his wife after they married. They pooled together $100,000 for a 700 square foot apartment in Saigon. Now he pays his relatives back each month.

     The challenge was a 6 mile climb to the top of the pass where we were served a delicious ginger tea. This had been built up as if we were climbing Everest! It was a long haul but the combination of being in good condition after days of riding and good bikes made it easier than we had anticipated. The cruise down 6 miles was a nice reward. Lunch was a feast at another resort. Then we drove to our next point to ride again. It got wetter and muddier. We passed through villages and cemeteries. It appears that this area has good fung shui and people love to be buried here. Vietnam does not generally believe in cremation. As Vu says, "Where you are born, you should be buried." We were all covered with mud head to toe. After riding another hour, we collectively chose to call it a day and head to another hotel, this time in Hue. This one is maybe the best of the trip and we are thoroughly enjoying it after showering and washing the mud off our jackets and helmets. Let's hope it clears up some as we head further north. Tomorrow, after a walking tour of Hue, we fly to Hanoi.

Boxing Day

     It was hard to leave last night's hotel. It was truly luxurious. I even did a yoga class this morning in a large room overlooking the sea with the trees swaying. Breakfast was outdoors on the patio. Right before we were to leave, one of the others men on the tour went and bought each of us a conical hat with the chin tie underneath. Then it was picture time. If I can ever post pictures I will share otherwise, look on Facebook.

     It was a bit of a transfer today to our starting point for 30 miles through the countryside. It was quite windy but relatively flat. That was welcome after some of our other rides. Again we rolled through villages and past rice paddies and spring onion fields. There were goats today and cows ans always. We have started to see a few water buffalo, too. The event of the day was totally unplanned. We came upon a wedding in the morning with the party in full swing. Vu and Thai went in and asked if we could stop in and wish the bride and groom well. They came out along with the mothers of the couple. Pictures were taken, beer was pressed upon us - at 10:00 in the morning. Some of us sang Jingle Bells. The place was in pandemonium. Everybody was coming up and offering us drinks, watermelon seeds, toasts. It was crazy! At the end Vu suggested we each contribute $2.00 in an envelope and present it to the bride and groom. We collected about $30 dollars and Vu asked Lou and I to present it - Lou to the groom and me to the bride as we were the elders of the  group. To much waving and good wishes, we pedaled off. Vu said that the wedding couple and family would have considered our unexpected appearance as an honor and much good luck for the couple. No one has any white people attend a village wedding. For us, it was a fantastic experience that could not have been planned.

     After a stop for lunch as a fish farm where we had a wonderful soup and noodles with shrimp and clams, we rode the last 12 miles in. Both yesterday and today, they have offered us fruit from the lychee family for dessert and snacking. Yesterday it was fur balls. The sweet white fruit with a seed inside is encased in a red pod with soft spike coming out all over. Today it was a rambutan which is a brown ball about an inch in diameter that you peel to get the white fruit. It too has a seed you must eat around. Again it was delicious.

     The transfer to the hotel was long but tomorrow we will start off early to tour the site of the My Lai Massacre. 

     This is a fascinating and welcoming country.    

Christmas Day in Vietnam

     It's Christmas in Vietnam and it has been a day of contrasts. This morning we left Whale Island after celebrating Christmas Eve with the group. We had a special meal that ended with a Buche de Noel. But the real treat was that one of the couples carried a large tin of Christmas cookies baked by the mother of another couple they met up with for this trip. They were delicious and those who know me know how much I love cookies. We ended the evening with a rousing Vietnamese version of Parchessi. The guides Vu and Thai wanted to make it into a drinking game which I guess is traditional but if I had had to drink up every time one of my horses got sent back, they would have had to take me to the nearest hospital!

     When we got on the bus for the drive to where we were going to start today's ride, Vu informed us that one of the couples had collected donations from their friends. They had asked Vu to buy as many school,supplies as possible and donate them to a school. They were gracious enough to include the group. We stopped with our huge tour bus next to this small 2-room school and entered the classrooms to meet the students and teachers. School is in two sessions because of overcrowding so the kids either go from 7-11 or 1-5. You can see in the pictures that this is particular school was pretty basic. Vu says school is not free. Neither are the books and supplies. This community of mostly shrimp farmers just does not have the money to improve the school. One little girl of maybe 6 years old got up in front of the class and led them in singing for us. One of the people on the tour was taking pictures with his iPad and showing the kids who were getting a kick out of it. It was really a slice of life you do not get to see on any normal tourist route. 

      Today's ride was 40 miles in a big loop through rice paddies, shrimp farms, banana trees and villages. Each village has a broadcast system where someone in the community representing the government  interests acts like a town crier all day long. He or she supplies news, weather reports and exhortations to continue Father Ho's guiding principles. As we approached one village I heard some music and Thai told me it was just propaganda. But it sounded familiar even from a distance. Turns out, it was Bing Crosby singing White Christmas! That was followed by Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. Thai had never heard these songs and didn't know what they were. It was surreal riding through these very poor basic farming communities listening to iconic Christmas carols.

     The last thing for today is that I will forever have a memory of the hundreds of children rushing out to the street as we rode through yelling "Hello!" and slapping our hands and of the hundreds more who couldn't get the the street quickly enough so called from their front yard or front door.

We conquered the mountain and a few observations

Today we cycled 52 miles. I have never cycled 52 miles. The first 10 miles were rolling hills ending with a stop at a cafe in a small town. Actually I can't call it a cafe. It had the ubiquitous Vietnam style thick, dripped espresso and a lovely fragrant jasmine tea. It also had two pool tables, a small grocery store, an antique gas pump, a wandering pig, and a war movie playing on the flat screen with the Vietnamese soldiers as the heroes against the Americans. 

The next ten miles were mostly uphill with a 3.5 miles stretch of an 8% grade to cross the Hon Giao Pass at almost 4700 feet. We ate lunch overlooking a river. It was a wonderful noodle dish with veggies and beef followed by sliced mango.  What came next made the climb worth the effort. For over an hour, we came down the other side of the mountain for 20 miles. It was sort of like the longest ski run in the world starting completely fogged in and cool at the top to warm and humid cruising through banana and sugar cane plantations.

We are now in Nha Trang, a beach front resort on the South China Sea full of Russian tourists. 

The main Internet cable for all of Vietnam is down and all Internet traffic is being rerouted through Singapore or Malaysia so all connections are super, super slow. So, still no pictures, sorry.

Some observations:

-Vietnam barbeque means a metal brazier filled with natural charcoal on your table surrounded by platters of raw, marinated cubes of beef, large prawns, calamari pieces, chunks of mackerel, tofu, veggies and fruit. You grill your own dinner.

-Beer is cheap. A LARGE bottle of San Miguel was $1 US dollar and one of Saigon beer was 50 cents.

-Vietnamese food is delicious. 

-Vietnamese dogs are skinny.

-Monkeys beg for watermelon.

-Fresh guava is seedy and doesn't have much flavor.

-Vietnamese watermelon is scrumptious.

-Asian breakfasts are savory rather than sweet: pho, sticky rice with chicken, rice porridge with salted egg, fried rice with salted fish and more.

-Every little kid and some adults love to shout hello to you and giggle as you pass through on bikes. 

-If you are a coffee drinker, and I am not, you must have patience to let the coffee drip one drop at a time. It takes about 10 minutes.

-Hotels serve you a cup of tea as you arrive. 

-There are 90.5 million people in Vietnam and 45 million motorbikes. We have seen more than one family of 5 riding on a motorbike at the same time. 

-The tax when you buy a car is 200%. 

-People do not pay income tax in Vietnam. 

-People do pay to go to school, the infrastructure is in bad shape, there is no safety net for the old or disabled, you could die in a public hospital. 

-Poinsettias grow wild.

-Vietnam grows and exports coffee, tea and rice.

-The landscape is beautiful.

-There is racism against ethnic minorities.

-There is a huge divide between a class of really wealthy people and everyone else. 

-Men pee in public all over the country. 

-Vietnamese love the sparkle and celebratory nature of Christmas even though few are Christians.

-Russians love to travel .

-There is a mental mindset that is very different between those who were alive during the "American War" and those who weren't.

A Visit to Cu Chi Tunnels and a Speed Date with Da Lat

Well it has been a full few days here in Vietnam. Before joining up with the cycle tour yesterday we headed out to the outskirts of Saigon to view the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Vietnamese began building a vast network of underground tunnels to evade enemies in 1945. They were used in the Vietnam War. Some of the remaining tunnels have become a huge tourist draw. The party line is rather propagandistic but honestly, if thousands of Viet Cong were willing to live underground in narrow, dark, earthen tunnels in order to resist foreign invaders, well, they deserve to win. I crawled through a small section (Lou wouldn't join me) and have only an inkling of what it must have been like.


Fun Fact: Vietnam really likes to get into celebrating Christmas for a nation that is 60 percent Buddhist. It's not religious it's the decorations and sparkle. Lots of families dress up the kids in Santa suits or red dresses with white fur trim and head to shopping malls and decorated public spaces and take lots of pictures. There are lots of skinny Santas running around here.

We met up with our tour group in Saigon last night for dinner and are a mixed group from Washington state, Portland, a couple who have been traveling for 19 months around the world, NYC, Baltimore and Atlanta. At 4:30 this morning we met up in the lobby and headed to the airport for a 6:00 am flight to Da Lat. This is a beautiful area known for flower growing, cooler weather than Saigon and lots of vacationers and honeymooners. On the flight this morning was a bride and groom and her family going to get married in Da Lat where his family met them at the airport. She was in her dress. He was in his suit. All the relatives were dressed up. Decorated cars met them. It was impressive.

Today we began our ride with our guides in and around Da Lat and the Valley of Love. It was only about 20 miles but at 4700 feet with rolling hills, it made us work. Wish us luck tomorrow when we will ride for 56 miles.

After the ride, a small group of us did a bit of site seeing-a botanical garden, the Central Market which is very similar to many throughout the world filled with food and live animals, clothes and housewares, and a place called The Crazy House. A female Vietnamese architect, maybe channeling her inner Gaudi, has created/is still creating this fantasmigorical house. I really can't begin the describe it. It is full of  odd staircases and rooms with themes based on animals. It is sort of like a combination of the Swiss Family Robinson's tree house in Disneyland, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It's nuts in a fun way.

I tried to post pictures but I am having some technical difficulties tonight so I will try again soon.

After 24 hours in transit, we arrived late last night in Saigon, home to 7 million people all of whom were out on Vespas today. We have mastered the most important skill in this city - how to cross a street and not get killed. Many intersections are not controlled by traffic lights. In order to get across, you step off the curb and walk, all the while looking at the oncoming traffic, holding your hand out and holding your breathe. Actually, we got pretty good at it. The only surprise was when Vespas came up behind us when we were on the sidewalks.

The people are friendly, the Pho is delicious . I had it for breakfast at the hotel and for lunch in one of the ubiquitous Pho cafes.

We walked everywhere and saw the War Remnants Museum full of pictures from the "The American War" as it is known here, the Jade Emperor Pagoda, the Dong Koi shopping district,  the Ben Thanh market bustling with food, clothing and people trying to hustle a sale.

Ho Chi Minh sends greetings to all.

Hello out there in Cyberland,
Lou and I are about to take off on another adventure. This time we will be joining an REI Adventure cycling tour in Vietnam for two weeks. We are leaving sunny Montara for tropical Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday and will arrive late Thursday night. We meet up with the tour on Saturday, the 21st and will make our way up the long, skinny country of Vietnam with the assist of a couple of plane flights and a sag wagon as we pedal our way over rice paddies, through villages and to resorts on the coast. Ultimately we will end up in Hanoi. From what I have read in my trusty Lonely Planet Guide (I guess Rick Steves doesn't do Asia), it says that getting on the internet is relatively easy BUT that the Vietnamese government regularly blocks access to social networking sites such as Facebook. So we should not expect to keep in touch, update and upload anything to Facebook. So, that is why I am using this blog site.
If you wish, and ONLY if you wish, you will be able to see what we are up to in our journey through this blog. But that means you will have to "follow" me.
It is called Travels with Joan and Lou.
I hope it will be interested for us all.
Joan