Hoi An. Definitely my favourite stop on the tour. I loved the less-hectic atmosphere, the shop mentality (rather than the stores of Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi) and the near-empty streets. It still had the authenticity of a Vietnamese village, but without the major hustle and bustle of the major centres. It was possible to wander down a street and be the only one in sight. The buildings were a soft orange colour which made it all seem quite mellow. It was to Vietnam what Victoria is to Vancouver: a city, but one where everything just relaxes slightly and your physical reaction to it is a bit like a big sigh.
I also had my favourite "moment" of the trip. I've been asked quite a few times now what the best thing I did was, and it was this: renting bicycles. After picking them up, all 32 of us set out into the traffic. Thank goodness we did this in Hoi An, as I think half of us might have died if we'd tried to integrate into the traffic of Ho Chi Minh. Finding myself suddenly immersed in the insane world of driving in Asia, I was a little overwhelmed! The rules of the road seem to be as follows:
- the lines on the road (if there are any) are merely suggestions
- if you're driving something (car, tuk tuk, scooter, bicycle, whatever), just honk continuously so that everyone else will get out of your way
- when approaching an intersection, don't bother stopping or even slowing down; again, just honk
- if your horn is broken, or you don't have one, just shout "honk, honk" repeatedly instead
- if you're a pedestrian and you want to cross a street, just put your head down and walk slowly and predictably; assume everyone will weave around you
Yes, I'm serious about this. And yes, there ARE an inordinate number of traffic accidents and vehicle-related deaths every year.
But nonetheless, we dove in. Surprisingly, we all survived (although one guy on the tour later rented a motorized scooter and crashed it into a wall...). The cities in Vietnam aren't very big, so it didn't take us long to get out into the countryside. Here we meandered through rice paddies and stopped to watch a man till his land with a water buffalo and a two-by-four with stakes driven into it.
This is what I love. This is the REAL Vietnam. And this is what it looks like to the locals. Seeing the country this way was infinitely better than viewing it from the air on a plane, or even from the elevated tour buses we drove around in. It's a different perspective and a different experience to get down to ground level and do something the way the locals do. And that's always my favourite part of traveling.
The next morning, we drove out to see the Temple remains at My Son ("mee sawn") On the way, our local guide offered a few tidbits of knowledge. Did you know, for instance, that the local people refer to the highly corrupt police force as "yellow dogs" (so named for the colour of their uniforms)? Or that the rice paddy labourers make about $5 a day? Fascinating stuff!
The temple was quite interesting too. We walked through what's left of these buildings, which were bombed during the war because the Americans believed the area to be a VietCong base. And we learned the male/female duality of Shiva and saw evidence of carvings dedicated as such. We also saw a large number of headless statues - the head is the easiest part of the statue to steal and would have been worth its weight in gold at one time. It's unfortunate that it was so, so, so, so, so HOT that day - all we could really focus on was finding the next bit of shade!
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Our next stop on the tour: Hue. Here we got to ride around in cyclos, which was pretty sweet. Basically, we each sat in a little carriage, and a man sat behind us cycling us around the city. A bit like a kabuki cab (for those of you in Victoria), except you're sitting in the front. My driver also pointed out all of the highlights of the city: most notably the pool hall, the preschool and the cinema. Awesome.
At the citadel...well, let's be honest... I got a little bored. So I wandered away from the tour and ended up going on a little mini-adventure with my new friend Jenna. The whole story accompanies the photos on Facebook, but the short version is that we tried to go to as many places we weren't supposed to, tried things on and took pictures we were supposed to pay for, and became pseudo-celebrities while on a mission for international high-fives! Pretty epic.
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| The costumes we were meant to pay for, |
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| the photo we were meant to pay for, |
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| the place we weren't meant to be, |
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| and the celebrities we were destined to become! |
What an amazing trip Ang!! I'm so jealous! I want to definitely go now. I will look to you for advice.
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