Going south in Vietnam

Well, it has been a while since I wrote. After we left Hoi An, we got to Nha Trang, and I must say, it was, again, wonderful. The city is devided into different sections actually, there is the local commercial one, and the touristic commercial one. In Nha Trang I also got to pick up with walking again. Visiting peaceful temples, a photographer that's pretty famous over here and in photographers world, visit a monastry, and meeting a man from Breda, of all places. I'm still full of respect for those people, offering their own free time, and money, to go out and volunteer for the less fortunate. To become a volunteer, you often have to pay! That's what Marco, the man from Breda did, and now he was on a well deserved weekend off, with two colleagues. I don't know if I would ever be possible to offer myself so much for those others, although I've been talking about it a lot of times before I left. Travelling a lot starts making me tired. The busses are actually really nice, but still...spending 6 to 12 hours in a bus every two or three days, it starts getting to me. The result is that my mind isn't really clear at all times, and the moments were there that I started thinking; What am I doing here? I'm just hanging around, don't even go to visit so many places outside the towns or cities I am. On the other hand, that's what I'm here for. To live my life the way it feels best for me at this moment. I started to think sometimes of risking to miss a lot while I'm here, just by hanging around, but if it feels like the right thing to do, I just do it. The most places I visit, I try to do by walking, and that's what suets me best. All the doubts are propably "fatigue" stimulated. After Nha Trang it was time to take a ride a little more away from the coast, as we had seen enough, not to say toooooo much, water the last week. The next stop was Dalat. Another magical town, and magical really gets another meaning here, because there is even a place that reminds me of the "Efteling" in Holland. It's a guesthouse where every room is build in the team of a story, an animal,... Walking around there really gives me the impression of being 10 again. Man was that fun, running around the house. Dalat was the place where the higher ranking of soldiers, the emperors, the more wealthy of society went to spend their free time, or escape from the heath during hot season. Well, Dalat was even cold to me. It wasn't freezing over there, but you really feel the difference with the seaside. It was a nice change for a few days. A lot of time to cool down we didn't give ourselves, because two days later Mui Ne was already our next destination. Mui Ne, I can describe best as one beach resort next to another. Those who read my blog thouroughly might remember that I'm more into rios, and therefor am I not so much a beach boy. Well travelling with an Ozzie you have to make some sacrefices. This was one of them, but I did it in full glory. I think I spend two days around the place making less steps a s a jew on a saturday. As I said, I'm starting to feel tired, and I decided, I could use the days of. It turned out that I spend more time at the beach as my personal Kangaroo. (sorry dear ;)) Dalat is also known for its easy riders, motorcyclist who try to convince you to let them take you all over the country. It must be said, I hear a lot of good from the people who tried it. They really show you the places you want to see, and you get to places normal tours or busses don't come. For me it was a little to expencive though. In Mui Ne, you have the Mui Ne version of the easy riders, and Tenzin took a half day tour with one of them. She was really happy with the decision, as she had a great trip. So if you're thinking about doing it when you're here...I can recomend it. For me that was one of those moments that I really had to convince myself that I was doing the right thing by not going on the trip, as I was doubting my activity level on this travell. Well, I sorted it out pretty fast. I decided not to go, beacause first of all that's what I felt like, and second there's no way I get to see everything in this trip, so I just enjoy the things I see and do, and don't look back, certainly not in sadness of something that I didn't do. I love to be lazy, so somethings about me are still the same. Most of it is, in fact. Two days of beach was the perfect preparation to go to Ho Chi Minh City AKA Saigon. I love the cities. The chaos that's bigger than the one in my head sometimes. Crossing the streets in that special way of just walking and everyone will avoid you (if everything works out), being on the back of a motorbike surviving in trafic, and they seem to find it so easy as they are even on the phone. The crouded places, but still some of those parks right in the centre of the city. Oases of rest and people walking, jogging, playing badminton. The only thing that gets to my nerves sometimes is; Want to buy a book...hasheeeeshhh. They really say this in a funny way, so as a matter of fact it is more funny annoying, what makes it more bareble again. You see how you can take everything with a positive sight? I'm happy I do! Also Saigon will only be for a few days, as we'll be leaving soon for Cambodia. Going to the border by bus, and there we take a 9 hour bout to Phnom Penn. Propably some more adventures will be waiting there for me, but to be honest, I'm looking forward to go to Thailand, as that will be the place I'll really take a rest. Try to stay at one place for a little longer, and recover from these first three months. Three months that were awsome, and that I'm very happy about. As I see it: I had the trip in the mountains, had to run away from the gem stone traiders, had a job in Kathmandu, had an earthquake in Kathmandu, saw one of my best friends back after one year, had a typhoon and floodings in Hoi An and still have a sour ass from the busrides. Well for the first three months that counts I think.

Typhoon aftermath

Three days after the toughest part of the tyhoon, most of the streets of Hoi An seem like nothing has happened to the untrained eye. The markets are back in full force, the tailors are measuring again, the shoeshops try to fit a shoe on everyone that passes by and the restaurants all ask if you want to see their menu again. Only in some parts of town you can still see the damage, as they are either still suffering under a lot of water, or the water just left the area last night and they are still cleaning the houses and the streets. Every street also has a little to a lot more garbage in it, which gives a sign that something might have happened, because normally the streets here in Vietnam are clean. That's what I mean with the untrained eye. One might expect dirt in the streets here if he didn't know better. Othere signs of the damage that has been done are shoes in the shops, showing signs of waterdamage. Still the owners try to sell these shoes, either for a cheap price, or with the message that the water doesn't effect the shoe. Therefor, you don't need to have a trained eye; the water does effect the quality of a leather shoe. Can you blame the people still trying to make as much money as possible after what happened here, and lots of them having lost a fortune? I don't, it's just a matter of surviving now I think. Still I'm surprised every day to see the people's smile, cleaning up the damage, talking about how much they lost, showing how high the water was in the houses, the shops... Nobody looses his or her smile in all of this. That makes them more wonderful to me, because I think I would be full of complains. It's good for me to see this, it really makes me see there is a way of surviving hard and difficult situations with a smile. Besides all the smiles there are also the first amounts of casualties. 24 counted so far, and still hundreds of people missing. If you know the water here was over 1,5 meters in the street...this street is not even next to the river. Some of the houses near the river were almost completely under the waterlevel, I was told. Hearing different stories here and there, I also realise more and more how lucky we've been staying in this hotel, in a higher part of town. People had snakes coming into the hotel together with the water. Knowing my fear for snakes, I think it could have been the most horrible days of my life. But they were not. They turned out to be inspiring and interesting days. Seeying strong people, smiling faces, hard working people trying to make the best out of every situation, supporting eachother. After five days, we're ready to leave Hoi An behind us, for now, and head further south to Nha Trang. But the end of this story is propably not written yet, only my being in it ends here. I widh the lovely people in Hoi An all the best, and ask anyone visiting this place, to see the smile on the people's faces as being there everyday, in good as well as bad days! To be honest, I think there are only good days, after I've experienced this kind of positivism and happyness!!

The typhoon hit us

November 12, 2007 was propably the most crazy day I had on this trip so far. They woke us up at 5am, with the only message; "evacuate". What happened... Due to a typhoon passing the south of Vietnam, the rain went on so hard the night before, our rooms were close to being flooded. The hallway was already filled with water, and the waterlevel was rising fast. Take our stuff and move upstairs asap was the only option. We were trapped in the hotel, as the streets were already filled with water up to 1 meter. The only thing we could do was take a look outside and watch the water rise 5 to 10 meters more every hour. Havy rains making the picture of the typhoon complete. The shops, as Hoi An is famous for its tailors started to get filled with water more every second. A human drama happening in every house here, but still they didn't loose the smile on their face. The only ones that got upset were the tourists that wanted to know; Can we leave tomorrow? What will the weather be like tomorrow? We booked a tour, can we get a refund? Is lunch ready? It's amazing to see where the values of people are different in the spoiled countries. It seems to me that when your used tu your luxuries lifestyle, although many people don't seem to realise they have this, there's a lot more to loose when nature calls. (Excuse the expression, I just wanted to use it.) After lunch the level of the water seemed to stabilise at the point right before it would enter the hotel lobby. The lobby being 1,6 meter higher than the street...the water had rose up 1,5 meters in the street. A hallucinant sight for me, seeing the streets really filled with water. A strong streaming of the water. Rescue boats in what had been the streets only 12 hours ago. Rescue boats being rown by human beings. Strong human beings, but still sometimes they couldn't win the struggle with the tough streaming of the water. While rowing forward, sometimes the boats just floated backwarts. In the afternoon the raining stopped for a while, and even the sun came out for a moment. At once the reception was stormed again with people asking the same intelligent questions as before, propably thinking the water would be gone in a few hours. Scary to see, how some people really don't seem to have any knowledge about forces of nature anymore. Nature showing once again that it is much more powerful than humans. That was the beauty about the whole occasion, for me. Around noon the power in the hotel got shut off, because of safety. When at 5 pm they lighted some of the lobby lights again, my thoughts were; when will the rush to the internetroom start. It took like 10 seconds, before the first people went to try the internet, coming back heads down because that part of the power wasn't switched on again. I wonder why people are so eager to check their e-mails at that time, although most of the people would propably try to find a reliable weather report on the web. A job that turned out to nothing in the morning. But you never know...maybe these few hours the content of the web had changed drastic. It turns out that it's hard to make a good weather report one typhoons, tunderstorms, or any other force of nature, because I think it all sticks to speculation. You can read the forecast, but when it turns out different, which happens more than once, where does that leave you. Propably in the US you can sue someone for it, but in most countries... Another remarcable thing to see was how the people struggling to get families out of their houses, people trying to save their belongings from the water, became like monkeys in the zoo for the tourists safe in their hotel. Every camera made more pictures as it was used to make in a week when people passed by in a boat, walking arms up in the water, carrying their valuables above their head. I do admit...my camera made a lot of shots too. The level of the water never exceeded the hight of the lobby, and when we woke up the next day, after going to sleep in heavy rains, the street level of the water had gone down to 25 cm. People were trying to go away from Hoi An asap, walking their first 30 minutes through the water, not knowing what the situation would be further on the road. People really seem to panick when nature shows its power. But does it make them realise the power of nature? Propably most of them forget as soon as they return to the safe neighbourhoods, or when they're at home, back in their luxurious flats, houses, leading a good lifestyle, still complaning how hard it is for them. For me this past day was a wonderful experience, seeing the beauty of the forces of nature, as well as feeling helpless seeing so much damege being done to so many people. It makes me think even more about how lucky and fortunate I am. I'm propably not going to be happy every day, and I will complain every now and again, but still...I won't forget and that will help me see things in perspective whenever I need it.

Rain and a Typhoon

It was a hard decision, but we felt like we had to make it: Leave Hanoi and start the trip to the south of Vietnam. Hanoi really is a city that gained a special place in my heart. Were it the nice people at the hotel, was it the great weather, was it the chaos in the street, was it the wonderful times at the lake? I don't know, and frankly I don't care. The love is just there. The last days in Hanoi I spend just wondering around a little more, sitting by the lake, reading my book, drinking coffee... I started to feel settled there, so maybe that was the sign to leave, as I still had to make the tip south. The trip south turns out to be a trip to the rain, and even a typhoon, so far. From Hanoi we took a night-sleeping bus to Hue, knowing that it was raining in the centre and the south of the country. When I entered the bus, when because we had to take two other busses before we got into "our" bus, I was really surprised. I expected to sit in a pretty normal bus, the only thing special being that the seats could be putted more flat as in a normal tourist bus. Well, this bus seemed to have real beds in it. Not the beds I know from the hotels, or at home, but still there was not one seat in the bus. Except for the driver, ofcourse. The bus must have had like 30 or 40 beds. Three rows of two high. It was special, and the only problem for me was that the blanket was too short. But that's just a minor difficulty ofcourse. Maybe there was another problem to get to sleep. The constant horning of the bus. It's crazy how many times they horn around these areas. Sometimes it looks like a kid having a new toy. AND the horns never brake down, unfortunately. Propably they would take a car out of traffic if its horn wouldn't be working. No lights is ok, but no horn is not done. In Hue, we got the expected rain, but still we visited the Imperial City, which I must say is slippery when wet. At some parts you really have to be very careful, and I don't understand how it's possible not more accidents happen there. Tenzin went down once, but further we had no problem of that kind. The city itself really was enjoyable to me, but since I'm not really a museum kind of guy, they never really touch me in a way I could write a whole epistel about it. I think these 6 lines are quite good, considering this. The late afternoon and evening we spend watching movies at the hotel. Who said a TV is not necessary when you're travelling? Oop, it was me! I even got this feeling like ordering a pizza and beers, but instead we went to have dinner at the hotel restaurant, because that way we could leave the room and still watch the movie. Isn't it great when things work out so well? The next day we left Hue already to go and have a look in Hoi An. Hoi An is famous for its tailors. They make you silk suites for around 80 USD, and it's supposed to be ready in only 24 hours. Don't worry, I won't return with a suit. Maybe a purse. Hoi An suffers from a typhoon at the moment, and that gives some amazing views. Pooring rain, the street flooded, waving threes, but still everyone driving and walking on the road, like there's nothing going on. Well, maybe for them there is nothing going on. For all I know they might be used to this kind of weather. Propably it means that there's nothing to worry about. Not that I'm worried, but still...you never know. As always things will work out perfect, and there's always TV ofcourse. I wonder which movies are on tonight?

Halong Bay and Cat Ba island (part 2 of 2)

After being dropped of at the hotel on Cat Ba island, and having a peanut lunch, we were going for another boat float between the Cat Ba islands. To be honest, it's much more quiet and peaceful overthere as in Halong Bay. The simple reason for this is less boats. We decided to skip kayaking and head straight for the beach. Well, beach... To reach the beach, which had the size of a table tennis table, we had to jump of the boat, and swim to it. It might sound as if I was dissapointed, but in fact I wasn't. I'm not that much of a real beach boy, I'm just more into Gabriel Rios. The sun and fun were excellent over there. At least for me, loving the peace and quiet areas. Jumping into the water was done from the roof again, and I must say, still my heart was pumping harder when I was up there. Meanwhile on a bigger beach, not so far away, on an island called monkey island, Jamie was enjoying some special time with the monkeys. What happened? Some monkeys got into a fight, and the head monkey came out to show them of. As one of the monkeys didn't really listen to him, he came up to Jamie. Jamie, being an adventure travell guide, knows not to show his teeth to the monkey, as they see this as a sign of agression. With his camera bag he tried to get the monkey away from him, avoiding to look into his eyes. The head monkey came back again and send the little one away. Nice ending for Jamie, you might think, but then the monkey leader thought time was right also to teach Jamie a lesson. He took his leg, and bit him right above his ancle. Nice story, don't you think? Although most of you might have expected something more, to me it stays laughter after hearing the story over and over again. Not to forget, all the allusions that were made after Jamie bought bananas next day. Where we were supposed to leave the next day, we decided to stay an extra day. The extra day was spend walking around the beautiful harbour, and relaxing at a wonderful beach, where it was really quiet. Over the total day, I think 20 people have been there. Excellent! The rest I needed, bacause after almost two months, I'm starting to get tired inside my mind. All the new experiences, the new people, the new situations, like traffic for instance,... it's getting lots of my energy. It's good to have some easy days. Easy days well spend resting, as I still have a lot of time ahead of me.

Halong Bay and Cat Ba island

Although I'm not into organised trips, I decided to take one to Halong Bay and Cat Ba island. It was a three day trip, which consisted of two day boat trip, spending one night at the boat, a little trekking and kayaking. Leaving from Hanoi to Halong City, I immediately saw the kind of mass-tourism that goes around here. Busses crossing the city, picking up tourists to go to one attraction or another. It's a good oiled machine, because while keeping to schedule, nobody got stressed. Arriving in the harbour at Halong City, the amount of boats waiting for passangers was uncountable. Waiting for passengers, but they were comming. Every boat would leave the harbour within a little while. When the boats leave the harbour, it feels like being in a procession, all the boats peacefully in a row. The only part that showed it were tourists on the move were the beer drinking people on top of the boats. Lunch at the boat, which I was a little affraid of, turned out to be enough, and...delicious. Seafood, rice, vegetables, peanuts, fruit...it were the ingredients that would be fed to us the next days. But damn it was good. It felt like an all you can eat buffet, and every time the peanuts won. DAMN PEANUTS!!!! After lunch there was the standard cave-visit. You walk in, walk out, and on the way you get some nice views. It's this part of those trips that terrifies me. But still here, there was no feeling of marching one behind the other, all like, I'm sorry I must say it, Chinese. The cave even gave some wonderful views inside and walking back from the cave I really got a few beautiful views at the bay. The bay contains over 2000 islands, that were created long-long time ago, when ice melted and flooded the place. What once were mountains, rising up from the ground, now are just peaks rising up from the water. It really gives some amazing views. After the cave thing, time was there to do some Kayaking, just paddling around, and after that swimming in the hot water. Since we Tenzin and me) had been talking about jumping from the roof of the boat, into the water don't worry, we felt like we had to do it. Brave I walked up to the roof, but once there...6/7 meters seems higher looking down than up. I think we stood there for 5 minutes just looking down, shivvering legs. We jumped after all, and again...amazing. Just flying in the air for like 2 seconds, hit the water. Writing it, it seems pretty pfffff, but I know at that time, my heart was beating so fast, it was one of those moments you would like to do again, because you only remember the nice parts of the rush in your blood. Dinner in the evening was another struggle with the peanuts, and after that it was relaxing at the roof of the boat, admiring the beatiful starry sky. Unfortunately the boats around us had karaoke parties (ours was broken, yiehaaaaa), and therefor there was a lot of noice, but still I had my fun as you here the people getting more and more drunk, wondering when I'd hear the first one fall in the water. It didn't happen. The next morning it was of tho Cat Ba island, bus time for 15 minutes, and arrive at a national park to do a little trekking. A trekking that wasn't reaaly tough, but it was nice to do a little excercise again. The trek brought us to the top af a mountain (250m), on which a watching tower was build. trekking up the mountain was easy, but I passed for the wtching tower. Too high for me, as I'm still a little affraid of hights. The view from the top of the mountain was good enough for me, hahahahahaha. Resting and waiting for the others when we got down again, I got to see my first snake here. A small long bastard of which I heared afterwarts it was poisoning. If I knew it at the moment...I don't think I would have gone so close to take a picture of it.Snakes are still like hights to me...don't feel good around them. Jamie, a man from New Zeeland, whome we met around here, is an adventures trekking guide and was really hoping to see some snakes around here. Well, I got to see it, but he got something reserved specially for himself. You'll read about it later in this blog.

Changing places

As I wrote before, Kathmandu had some new surprises for me. Arriving at 1 pm, I was offered a completely legitimate job at 2 pm. A job correcting Dutch texts for a website-developement company from Holland. Making back half the amount of money I left in the fraud, just by working 5 days. Because it was offered to me by some Belgian people I met in Kathmandu before, I trusted it and took the offer. Working with Nepali people was one of the objectives I set before I came here, and now the opportunity was there. It's true there are some differences, as if i didn't tell him to do something, he wouldn't, but it's not like they are lazy bastards as they are described sometimes. The job in itself was pretty boring for me, but it was nice to spend days in a constructive way, contributing to the knowledge of the youth from Holland. A few days after I arrived in Kathmandu, I got the same gem stone offer I had in Pokhara. I just listened to the man, knowing almost exactly what he was going to say, and thank him after that with the words; You shouldn't ask me this because even I can read the Lonely Planet. Some things were really remarkable. Where the man (at least he called himself a man) in Pokhara claimed to be from Finland, this one told me he had the Danish nationality. Both of them used the same name; Raj. I know there is the Raj cast around here, but this name was pronounced different from that one. Both of the contacts started with my watch. As I wrote in the gem stone story, it's quite big for a watch and people tend to look at it, ask to see it, and even to buy it. In Kathmandu I also met some people from the trek again. One of them took a special place in my heart, because she saved me from a big stupidity in Pokhara. Over there I didn't get the chance to thank her, but as it always happens...if you have to, you'll meet again. Thank you pretty and beautiful blond Finish woman. (not to say Ritva) We had a nice time together on the trek, and now also in Pokhara, and we seemed to have a lot of the same ideas, as we always ended up in the same places at the same time. Those are the moments I really enjoy, specially if they are with someone I carry in a special place in my heart. To make the story complete; my last night in Kathmandu, Lhundup, my Tibetan friend from Pokhara, showed up at my hotel. Having breakfast the next morning with Lhundup and Ritva, felt like a perfect closure for this time in Nepal. I took the plane to Hanoi, Vietnam, in the afternoon. The first flight took me to Bangkok, Thailand, where I spend the night at the airport, before taking my flight to Hanoi. Actually I had no hotel room in Bangkok, but the nice woman from Thai Air fixed things so that I could spend my night in a hotel bed at the airport, payed by Thai Air. Sometimes things work out just perfect, and those moments I enjoy so much. Arriving in Vietnam however, I was facing a new problem. My luggage was left behind in Thailand. No big deal, as there are two flights a day, and I was on the first flight. Still it seemed that I was out of luck for a few moments, because when my luggage arrived in the evening, they took it to the wrong hotel. The lost & found office already closed, the other hotel, which name was pretty similar to the one was staying at, called "my" hotel, I called the lost & found office next morning, and now we're now. So still waiting, but havng faith I'll meet my bag soon. Arriving at the hotel was still great because after one year, I got to see my close friend, Tenzin, again. I kind of forgot how pretty she is, and she still has this same smile and wonderful personality. After only being in the hotel 2 or 3 days, it seems she's all the staff's favourite. It's just something about her that makes you love her. About Hanoi...it's crazy. I thought I saw it all in Kathmandu or Mexico City, but here... traffic is even more crazy. To be honest, I LOVE IT! (not being the craziest person in town)