The trek back to Vietnam from Luang Prabang began on some pretty rough footing. Rather than reiterate the story in this space, I thought it more interesting to share the e-mail correspondence that we had with the travel agency that sold us the bus ticket to Vietnam:
To Whom It May Concern,
My wife and I purchased two tickets from your agency (Viva Travel Express Limited) for a journey on an aircon bus from Luang Prabang, Laos to Vinh, Vietnam on March 5, 2009. Words cannot describe the horror of this bus journey, to the extent that I consider your sale of these tickets to be fraudulent and therefore subject to any and all applicable laws governing such despicable behavior. These tickets were purchased with my credit card and I intend to notify my credit card company of your fraud if I do not receive a satisfactory response to this e-mail.
First of all, your agent assured us that this was a tourist class express bus that would take no longer than 16 hours and make no stops other than in Phonsavan and in Vinh. The bus journey took 24 hours. This was because, instead of being an express bus, the driver and the psychotic woman (more on her later) that appeared to be directing affairs insisted on stopping and picking up cargo and other passengers in locales that were in the complete opposite direction of Vinh. Although I cannot be sure of an exact amount, it certainly exceeded 20 times. It was clear that this was a way to further add to the bus' profitability, but at the expense of Western travelers who paid what was surely far in excess of the actual fare. I refuse to be treated like chattel, particularly as the bus and, by extension, your company profited from our incredible mistreatment.
The conditions on the bus were intolerable. On a 24 hour bus ride, we only stopped for food twice, once at 4am in some hovel and once in a Vietnamese town where we were hurried and fed an incredibly poor excuse for a meal at a rip-off price. To add insult to injury, the bus almost left when we (and our other fellow Western travelers) were in the bathroom. Did I mention that there were so few bathroom stops that it essentially amounted to physical torture and abuse, especially as three of the Western passengers (including my wife) were suffering from stomach ailments and diarrhea?
The proprietress/bus director was, by any measure, completely insane, rude, and hostile. She did not speak, she screamed at the top of her lungs. On a freezing cold night when my wife was sick and given some tea by a kind soul at the stop we took at 4am, she actually took the tea away from my wife, screaming all of the time. When we inquired why we were making so many stops, she responded by pinching my wife in the leg and screaming. She was joined in her insane behavior by a man (possibly her husband) who was also directing affairs, and was clearly drunk and/or high on drugs and screaming incoherently.
The extent of these horrors is already bad enough to constitute fraud. However, the final straw came as we (finally) arrived at the bus station in Vinh. As we exited the bus, the insane bus director actually slapped my wife in the face, head, and body four or five times. This was all while fellow Lao passengers and the other bus employees cheered and taunted. This was an incredibly large step over the line. Physical assault with no provocation is an inexcusable offense and as the bus company's agent, I hold your company responsible.
I demand no less than a full refund of the fare that was paid: 440,000 Lao Kip (at the time equivalent to US$52.38). I will not stand for this treatment. If you refuse to refund the fare, I will begin the process of requesting that my credit card company refund the monies paid, which should result in the loss of fare to you anyway.
Regardless, being a responsible traveler, I can assure you that any fellow travelers will hear about your company's misdeed, as I am copying the proprietor of Spicylaos Backpackers on this e-mail. As you know, this is one of the most popular guesthouses in Luang Prabang and has an influential voice in the backpacking community. Were you to do the right thing and refund our fare, I'm sure that this incident can be overlooked by the larger traveling community. However, a refusal will likely indicate that this is a repeated occurrence and that your company is one that ought to be avoided.
As you may be able to tell, I am angry about the mistreatment. Monetary remuneration will not completely erase the horrible experience, but it is clearly the only right course of action for your company. I would also suggest that you sever all ties to the bus company that runs the bus to Vinh, but that is a business decision that only you can make.
I look forward to hearing your response and apology.Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,Tyler VoborilThen, the company's reply:
Dear Mr Tyler,
We are very sorry to receive your mail describing your trip by bus from luangPrabang
to Vinh Vietnam.
We have been running business for more than 6 years it is the first time we hear something like this from you.No one act like you.You really look diffirent trom others thousand people to whom we have provided with a service.
As you know that Viva Travel Express Limited runs its business as sub-agent or avbroker for sale bus/boat/train/airtickets only.but not but/boat/train/plane operation.What happened to you is beyond our control and it is not our job.What happened to you and your wife is the responsibility of the bus company.It is separately.
According to our laws and regulations It is bus company responsibity ,but not ours.
You also should be partially responsible for youtself,if you do not know the way very well why you buy a ticket and go .You also make a mistake-You should learn more and more about laos if you would like to travel without any problem.
You come to our office ,you asked to buy bus ticket to Vinh.Our staff not to to you a few word only her English is very bad.How she can make you buy the tickets;
What you were informed by us is the same as we were informed by the bus company.
If you would like to travel by land in laos and Vietname you should learn more to have a spirit of Overland Adventure Trip.This road has been opened for tourist for a year ago.It is very new..
You know Laos and Vietnam are the least -developped country in the world.They are still very poor.They are really different from the civilised countries like USA and European countries.If you would like to be more comfortable you should travel by air.But you did not
,you tried to have some experience by road ,it happened to you and to anybody something like this .
We are very pleased to help you to talk with the concerned party on your problem.but we are not sure that they are OK or not to return your money because you have already used their bus.
Please be aware Normally in Laos and Vietnam we accept that if you were not happy with your above trip you can complain or you can ask for a refund on spot not after.
Please submit your complain and you request for refund to Vetnamese International bus company.
Please do understand that all money we reveived from you we have paid to the above bus company we have got only 3% for our service.
We apologize for your inconvenience caused
Best Rgrds
Chantay
Managing Diredtor
Viva Travel Express Ltd
It was all smiles at the beginning of the death ride to Vinh.
Obviously, this was not the answer which we sought. Plus, there was no way of tracking down the bus company. At this point, we doubted that we would see any money from either company, but I was pissed by the flippant and ridiculous reply and felt compelled to send another missive:
Mr./Mrs. Khammoune,
Thank you for your email. The rude, hostile, and incredibly condescending tone and content of your reply is further confirmation to me that the maltreatment we experienced on the bus is not an isolated incident and is common practice for your company.
Moreover, your email is littered with mischaracterizations and suppositions about my character and that of my wife. We are not spoiled, rich Westerners. Contrary to your suggestion, we could not afford the expensive fare necessary to fly to Hanoi. We have been traveling for almost 9 months now, all of it in an adventurous and budget fashion. We are very used to difficult travel conditions, but the conditions for which we seek a refund are so far outside the realm of acceptability that we are forced to take the current action.
I have never complained about any other bus ride or travel that we have taken on our trip, even though many of these buses have been quite hard. The bus ride that you sold us was by far the worst and thus we are complaining. That in and of itself should be an indication that you are in the wrong and should just accept fault.
You claim that Laos and Vietnam are the least developed countries in the world. This is plainly wrong. I can assure you that after traveling through rural Malawi, the fourth poorest country in the world, that it is far, far less developed than Laos and particularly Vietnam. Although it was difficult to travel through Malawi, other African countries, and India, nothing that we experienced in any of our prior travels even approaches the level of mistreatment and intolerable conditions that we had on the bus ride that your company sold us. Indeed, we traveled overland through Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam before the bus ride that is the subject of this email and have had no other problems. The issue is not with your country but with your company and the bus company that you represent. It is a shame that you would insult your own country simply to avoid responsibility for your own actions.You claim that the agent who sold us the ticket does not speak good English. I beg to differ, her English was actually quite good and she clearly and explicitly detailed the trip, its conditions, and the duration. Again, you have insulted a member of your own staff in order to avoid responsibility. Of course, she did not physically force us to buy the tickets. However, it is nothing other than insane for you to suggest that lying or fraud is an excusable course of action simply because she did not steal my credit card and make me buy the ticket or put a gun to my head and force me to swipe my credit card.
Additionally, you tell me that it is the bus company's responsibility and not yours. Again, I must disagree. Although I do not claim to know Laos' legal code, unless you are a certified attorney, your opinion on the culpability of your company for the conduct of the bus company is immaterial. I can tell you that as the agent of the bus company, you align yourself with its conduct and should therefore be held responsible for its actions vis a vis me. If you wish to seek contribution and/or indemnity from the bus company after you refund my money, that is certainly your prerogative, but you should still be liable to me. Note that this is not a formal legal opinion, merely a synopsis of how the law works in every other country with which I am familiar. I can say that it would surprise me if the law in Laos worked differently.
Your monetary responsibility to me is evidenced by the fact that my credit card charge and therefore the resulting payment is to Viva Travel Express Limited. You claim that you only get 3% of the money, which may or may not be true, but forgive me if I do not trust a word that you say. The money that I paid went to your company and therefore I am seeking the money from you. The agreement that you have with the bus company is not my concern.
You say that you will be happy to help me contact the bus company. I would certainly appreciate their contact information, as the tickets that I have are in the Lao language and lack any contact information. I have also been unable to find any information on the internet about the "Vietnamese International Bus Company" to which you directed me. Please forward that contact information immediately, as your intransigence in the face of such clear fault tells me that I need to explore all avenues, although for reasons that I am about to discuss, I do not expect that the bus company will be any more cooperative than you are.
You claim that I should have sought a refund on the spot from the bus company and not afterwards. This is a completely untenable idea, as I have already explained. When we arrived in Vinh, the bus company's operator physically assaulted my wife and screamed at her. I fail to see how any reasonable person (or even a mostly unreasonable person) could expect us to seek monetary remuneration from a woman that was so plainly psychotic and physically abusive. To suggest such a thing is another piece of evidence telling me that you will stoop to any level of irrationality to avoid your clear responsibility. This is also particularly bad because it appears that the physically abusive bus operator may actually be the owner of the company, because phone calls to the contact number on the bus (which we called to complain when we were on the bus) went straight to her cell phone.Perhaps the most egregious part of your email was your comment, "Our slogan here is you buy you go and you keep quiet." Following that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, the bus operator could have murdered my wife and you would still expect me to keep quiet. It is impossible to verbally describe how depraved a mind would have to be to actually follow your slogan. In a limited fashion, I agree that small or even medium-sized complaints may sometimes be reserved in the spirit of adventure and respect for the Lao culture. However, the physical assault of my wife is a massive complaint and I refuse to accept that I should be quiet about it.
Make no mistake, I love Laos and the Lao people and had a wonderful experience there getting to know many Lao people. On the other hand, your conduct and your reply email illustrate to me that you are not a man/woman worthy of respect. As our Lao friend explained to us, the Buddha teaches that you should treat other people how you want to be treated. This is an outlook on life that is congruent with my own and with the Christian tradition. I know that you would not want to be treated like my wife and I were treated and refusing to take responsibility for your conduct is certainly morally in error.
After receiving your insulting reply email, I took steps with my credit card company to completely dispute the charge of US$52.38 to Viva Travel Express Limited. Therefore, the process of seeking to have that charge refunded has already begun. If by some miracle you decide to wise up, take responsibility for your actions, do the right thing, and refund the money, then I will of course stop the dispute process. Unfortunately, your rude conduct and stubbornly inept handling of this situation leads me to believe that you will not take such an action. In that case, I will pursue all available options to have my money refunded.
In conclusion, I would like to say that I am a very forgiving, kind, and open-minded person. All I am seeking is the morally correct course of action: an actual apology and a refund. Were this to happen, I would immediately forgive your misconduct. I say an actual apology because your token "I'm sorry" was so plainly insincere as to render it meaningless.
Thank you again for your time and consideration and may whatever god you believe in have mercy on your soul.Sincerely,
Tyler VoborilThe company's reply to that e-mail merely told me to "be quiet." It was quite funny actually. In the end, Bank of America honored the dispute of the charge for the bus, so that was cool.
However, that bus ride was only the first part of the journey to Hanoi. We were supposed to arrive in Vinh with plenty of time to spare to catch a bus to Hanoi, where we had already booked a room for the night. Owing to our tardiness of eight hours, when we got to the bus station in Vinh, all of the public buses had left. Our fellow Western travelers, five Czechs and three Norwegians, were in the same boat. The Czechs (my grandfather would be happy to know that we were traveling with Czechs) were headed north to Hanoi as well, so we all set out to find alternate transportation options, still seething from the first bus ride but trying to stay calm and level-headed.
The proprietor of a restaurant near the bus station offered to organize a tourist bus to Hanoi for us that would leave in 30 minutes time. He also promised that we would make no stops along the way and that the bus would take us directly to our hostel, which was important as the bus station was outside of town and would require a not inexpensive taxi ride. Understandably skeptical, but with no other options, we haggled over a price and eventually agreed. We had dinner at the restaurant and then boarded the bus, all feeling ready to just get to Hanoi. Two minutes later, things started to go wrong again. The bus stopped to pick up two Vietnamese passengers, then two more, then three more, then five more. It was not looking good. The bus operator tried to squeeze some passengers into our already cramped seats, but the eight of us (we had been joined by an extra American) flatly refused. This ridiculousness kept going on, with Lauren attempting to call the restauranteur (Hai) who had sold us the tickets, to no avail. After an hour of driving around Vinh, we arrived back at the same bus station from which we had departed, with a bus chock full of people. It was absurd. Lauren finally got Hai on the phone and made him come over and deal with the situation. The bus was so full that she couldn't even get out the door, so she jumped out the window to speak with Hai. After a lot of back and forth in Vietnamese, Hai apologized and told us that most of the people would be getting off the bus 40km down the road. He also reiterated that we did not need to worry, as the bus driver knew to drop us off directly at our hostel. We were pissed, but relieved to finally be on our way.
25 hours into the trip to Hanoi and we could still smile, even though the "tourist bus" was damn crowded. Notice the guy who has to climb over everybody to collect their tickets: aisles were nonexistent.
Hai was partially right, as half of the Vietnamese passengers disembarked after the first thirty minutes. At that point, I was optimistic, so I settled in for a quick nap, only to be awoken 45 minutes later when the bus driver decided to stop for dinner. Man, we were not happy with that one, but he just laughed and took his sweet time eating. Not cool at all. However, we resolved to be chill about it and, once the bus got going again, we were able to relax/nap. When I woke up again after a few hours, I noticed that the bus was making a bunch of stops, letting all of the Vietnamese passengers off at their respective homes or apartments. I thought that the door to door service was a good sign. I was wrong. Twenty minutes later, the bus pulled into the bus station and turned off the engine. The bus driver and the bus company employee told us to get out.
We protested, but the bus operators would not relent, and began taunting and mocking us. It was a standoff. but I had had enough of being taken advantage of and refused to stand down. On Lauren's suggestion, I walked to the front of the bus and took the keys out of the ignition, telling the bus driver that if we weren't getting to our hostel on the bus, the bus wasn't going anywhere. That really set off the bus company employee. However, as I was about double his size, he elected to attack Lauren instead of me. He pushed her down onto the ground and kicked her. She got up and went ballistic on him, ripping the buttons off his shirt. The coward that he was, he wouldn't touch me, but my concern was getting Lauren out of harm's way. Once I was assured that she was safe, I went to the front of the bus, picked the bus operator up by the front of his shirt, and held him off the ground. It was a testament to my self-control that I did not murder him. With all of the Vietnamese left on the bus, plus the Vietnamese taxi drivers who had surrounded the bus, if I had hit him, I likely would have ended up in Vietnamese prison, a fate I wished to avoid.
One of the many bruises that Lauren received from the violent and psychotic Vietnamese bus operators.
Although I did not physically harm the bus operator, I did scare the living daylights out of him. In a voice so loud and angry that I almost scared myself, I gave him a verbal thrashing that I hope he never forgets. He was terrified. It felt good. With that catharsis complete, I threw the keys back into the front of the bus, grabbed Lauren, and went to get off the bus. The bus operator made a move toward us, but I stared him down and he dared come no closer. We grabbed our bags, threw them in the back of a taxi and drove away.
By that point, it was 2 in the morning and we had been on the road for more than 32 hours. Yet, more obstacles were to come. Our hostel was located in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, close to Hoan Kiem Lake. Not only was this a well-known area of town, but we also had a map with the hostel's exact location, which we showed to the driver. He assured us that he knew exactly where to go. After 15 minutes of driving, I was concerned that he was not going in the right direction, so I asked him if he knew where he was going. He got miffed and replied that he of course knew where he was going. After another 15 minutes of driving around in what I noted was a circle, I made him stop the taxi. At this point, he admitted that he didn't know where he was going. It was insane. It was the Vietnamese equivalent of getting in a cab at Penn Station, asking the driver to take you to Times Square, and then having him drive you to New Jersey because he didn't know how to find Times Square. We were so pissed, but he failed to see how he had done any wrong, which was the most infuriating part. Finally, after consulting several people on the street with the map in hand, we figured out the right directions.
We arrived at our hostel about 33 hours after we left Luang Prabang. In a final ignominy, the hostel placed us in two separate dormitory rooms, even though we had called ahead to let them know that we would be late. We had held it together admirably until then, but this last straw finally drew a few tears from Lauren. I was so exhausted and frustrated that I didn't even care: I just needed a bed.
At breakfast the next morning, we rehashed the harrowing bus journeys and wondered if they were real or just a horrible nightmare. That we were sitting in Hanoi and not Luang Prabang signaled that the journey had in fact happened. Unbelievable. We agreed that, having survived the experience, we had no choice but to enjoy ourselves immensely. We pushed the reset button on Vietnam and set out to find fun.
Fortunately, we were clued into the fun pipeline in Hanoi. In my last post, I noted that we met a really cool couple in Vang Vieng, Laos: Brett and Shawn. Brett is originally from Hawaii, but has been in Hanoi for about four years, the city being a central homebase for her consulting work on behalf of the World Bank and other international institutions. Brett is incredibly smart and well-accomplished, with an amazing work history that has seen stints in Kosovo and other war-torn areas. Shawn is a hilarious Kiwi that manages a bar called J.A.F.A., which is short for Just Another F$%*ing Australian. We were stoked to reunite in their adopted city.
Our first night in Hanoi, we met Brett for drinks in a cool district of Hanoi called Tay Ho. We were planning on making it an early night, but Brett invited us to dinner with her friend at a restaurant called Home run by Bobby Chinn, a famous Vietnamese-Egyptian chef. Home was in its "soft opening" phase, so we got an inside look at the place, which had incredibly good food. Shawn was supposed to work late, but ended up getting out early and came to meet us for a drink. As luck would have it, Shawn had just moved into a new spot, so he convinced us (it wasn't hard) to come to his housewarming party. We had a great time at the party, hanging out with Shawn and Brett and meeting their friends.
Brett and Lauren
Lauren, Shawn, and me at the housewarming party.
The men, deep in what I am sure is an intellectually stimulating conversation.
As the party was breaking up, Shawn suggested that we go to the flower market located nearby. At 2 in the morning, this seemed like a strange idea, but we were intrigued and readily agreed. When we arrived, the market was a hive of activity as the various flower merchants were in the process of setting up shop for the Sunday crowd. Flower sellers leave their homes in the country on Saturday morning/afternoon and bike incredible distances to Hanoi in order to peddle their wares at the market. We wandered around the market, taking in the sight of huge bunches of all varieties of flowers.
Lauren, with the energetic flower market in the background.
The atmosphere was cool, but the real reason to go to the flower market after a night of partying is for the homemade
pho (Vietnamese noodle soup). The four of us were clearly the only white people in the entire market and it was cool to get an authentic experience that was way off the beaten path.
With a 3:30am bedtime, we ended up sleeping late and having a pretty lazy Sunday. We went for a stroll around the Old Quarter, and then both hopped onto the back of a moto for an intense ride to J.A.F.A. The traffic in Hanoi is, to use one term, a motorcyclic illustration of Chaos Theory. Driving on the back of a moto in Hanoi is a nail-biting series of near misses. Traffic lights exist, but are routinely ignored. It is like being in the inside of a beehive, with moto-bees shooting in every direction, constantly buzzing/honking. You don't realize how loud the city is until you leave.
Our reason for visiting J.A.F.A. was to see Shawn play at the bar's weekly jam session. He and his crew played some great tunes and it turns out that Shawn has a pretty killer voice. We had only intended to stay for a couple of hours, have a beer or two, and then head home. So much for good intentions. We ended up staying at the bar until 2am chatting with the bar owner and one of his best customers, a wealthy American with a private stash of great wine at the bar. It was a ludicrous night, full of conversations that should never be published on the Internet.
Two late nights of drinking in a row were more than sufficient for our ever-aging bodies. Unfortunately, we had to wake up on the early side to go to the Chinese Embassy to get our visas for China. Even though we arrived just after the visa section opened and two hours before it closed, we were told to return the next day. Annoying. Since we were up, we decided to go for a nice long walk around the city, which was cool. We had a peaceful afternoon of reading and then headed to the hostel's bar for Happy Hour and a barbecue. Hanoi Backpackers is a huge, well-run hostel with a fun and youngish clientele and we loved it there.
However, we still had the mission of getting our Chinese visa. Armed with all necessary documents, we waited in line at the Embassy for more than two hours without the line moving at all. It was crazy. Lauren decided to feign illness so we could get in the one line that was actually moving: the Chinese VIP line. To the chagrin of everyone in our line, the ploy actually worked and we made it in the door just before the visa section closed. In the end, it didn't matter. The Embassy official took one look at the cover of our passports, saw that we were American, and told us bluntly that they would not issue us a visa. We were gobsmacked. She never even looked at our application and no amount of pleading or explanation would change her mind. It was very frustrating and we left the Embassy in a storm of expletives. After fifteen minutes of walking out our anger, we had settled down and decided to just try our luck in Saigon. It wasn't worth the frustration any longer and we refused to let the a-holes at the Embassy ruin our good time.
We ended up meeting a bunch of cool people at the next few days' Happy Hours and at the hostel barbecue, notably Haydin (Kiwi), Rachel (American but raised in Mexico and on the road for 2 years+), Martin (German), Max (Swiss), Karin (Swiss), and Vyto (Lithuanian). It was a great core of people to chill with, either at dinner or just hanging out talking over breakfast or beers.
The crew at the unofficially named International Bia Hoi Corner.
Bia hoi is Vietnamese for fresh/draft beer and this one particular intersection is the locus of the cheapest beer you might ever have. Of course, it's not the best quality but at 3,000 dong per glass ($US1 = about 17,000 dong), the price is right.
Lauren and Martin at the Bia Hoi Corner.
We had an active social life in Hanoi, but it wasn't all fun and games. We made a pilgrimage to the "Hanoi Hilton," the prison in which John McCain and his fellow American aviators were held captive during the Vietnam War. The propaganda and clear bias of the exhibits were hard to swallow and we struggled to appreciate the other perspective. I'm all for being open-minded, but when the exhibits claim that the pilots were happier in prison than at home, it's hard to take that seriously. In any event, it was a powerful experience.
One afternoon, we went with Karin to the water puppet theatre. It was one of those cheesy tourist things that you expect to be terrible, but it turned out to be highly entertaining and impressive.
Water puppetry has a long history in Vietnam. Traditionally, rice paddies served as the stage, though I suspect that our seats were more comfortable than those used by audiences in the olden days.
On our eighth and final night in Hanoi, we had the good fortune to rendezvous with Annie and Mike "Iceman" Hayes. Annie and Mike are the parents of our good friend Chris from UVA and just happened to be traveling through Hanoi at the same time that we were in the city. They treated us to drinks and fine cheeses and we had a wonderful time sharing travel stories and generally catching up with each other. As we told them, it was great to have parents around, even though they weren't ours.
Annie, Mike, Lauren, and me after drinks at the Hanoi Sofitel Metropole, considerably nicer digs than the Hanoi Backpackers.
We really loved our time in Hanoi. It is a vibrant, beautiful city, though some of its citizens are not particularly well-versed in manners. Many travelers that we met did not care for Hanoi, but I think that they just didn't give it the proper chance. Again, our ethos of staying longer in fewer places paid great dividends in the form of a profound appreciation of Hanoi. It was with some sadness that we said good-bye to the city, Brett, Shawn, and the rest of the Hanoi crew.
The bear is my favorite animal, but dragons are pretty high up on my list.
Lauren on the shores of Hoan Kiem Lake, with the lights of Hanoi glittering in the background.
Hoan Kiem Lake is, according to legend, the home of a giant golden turtle. We never caught a glimpse of the mythical turtle, but we did enjoy sitting on the lake's shore and taking in the sights, including this one of Ngoc Soc Temple.
Though a train runs the length of Vietnam between Hanoi and our eventual destination of Saigon, we elected to catch the much cheaper open tour bus. With the purchase of a single bus ticket, we had the flexibility to make four stops along the way at our own pace. Although the sleeper seats were constructed more with the Vietnamese-sized person in mind, it turned out to be quite comfortable, provided you got on the bus early enough to avoid getting the tiny seats. Our first haul was from Hanoi to Hue, a journey of 18 hours. The bus driver was a jerk, but my seat was big enough and I slept like a baby for a good part of the ride, aided by my trusty iPod. We arrived in Hue around 8 in the morning and then made the decision to only stay in the city long enough to catch the bus to Danang that afternoon. With unlimited time, we would have stayed longer, but some city had to be cut and that was Hue. So, we disembarked, had breakfast, and went for a stroll around Hue.
It felt good to stretch the legs for a bit after being cramped in a tiny sleeper seat. Here I am in front of the exterior walls of Hue's Imperial City.
From Hue it was a relatively short jaunt to the bus stop at Danang. There we caught two motos to our hostel, Hoa's Place, located 100 meters from China Beach. China Beach was a popular R&R destination for American soldiers during the Vietnam War and still has a relaxed vibe about it. The serious riptide made swimming a dangerous proposition and surfing or bodysurfing impossible. However, it was nice to go for runs on the beach and relax in the sun.
We enjoyed the family-style dinners at Hoa's Place and the lively conversations that ensued. I think one of the things that I will miss the most about this trip is the constant exposure to similarly aged travelers of a multitude of nationalities. The chance to talk with people from all different countries and walks of life gives one great perspective on the world and on how other people view America and our way of life. It is really fascinating.
On our last day in Danang, Lauren woke up with a little cold, but I was full of energy and decided to go solo on a hike up the Marble Mountains, located about 500 meters from our guesthouse. Since it was pretty early in the morning, I managed to miss most of the crowds that flock to the Mountains, on which are scattered several pagodas and caves. Calling them Mountains might have been a stretch, but the hills were steep enough to afford a bit of exercise.
An interesting juxtaposition of the lion's ferocity and the serenity of the Buddha, taken about halfway up the Marble Mountains.
I entered this Buddha's cave from the small opening that can be seen behind the statue. Throughout the trip, I have been working on getting over my claustrophobia. My lack of fear at squeezing through that tight space signaled that I am making progress.
This creepy but colorful warrior was one of the sentries on guard at another cave within the Marble Mountains.
Cool blue and orange pagoda: Go UVA!!!!
Sweaty self-portrait at the top of the Marble Mountains.
Fortuitously, we bumped into a couple staying at Hoa's Place that were also headed to Hoi An. As sharing a taxi would be the same price as hopping the local bus, it was a no-brainer to take the 20km cab ride to Hoi An. A quick and easy ride to the city later was followed by a rather hot tour around the town with our packs on as we searched for a place to stay. In contradiction to the beginning of our trip, where we often booked places in advance, during our sojourn in Southeast Asia we, with limited exception, would roll into town with no plan and find lodging once there. It usually worked out fine, but sometimes we had to work a little extra as penance for the luxury of flexibility.
Hoi An was a really cute little town. Someone there called it the Vietnamese version of Charleston, South Carolina. I would call that a bit of an overstatement, especially as Charleston is one of my favorite cities in the world, but the comparison wasn't totally off, as the architecture and small, old streets were reminiscent of Charleston. Unfortunately, Hoi An was also chock full of tourists, which deadened its appeal slightly. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our two nights in Hoi An, particularly in the Old Town, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Lauren on one of the bridges that spans the Thu Bon River, which runs through Hoi An.
The view from the other side of the same bridge.
Hoi An was probably one of the few towns that we visited in Southeast Asia that did not have at least one Irish pub. That made our St. Patrick's Day a little more tame, although we still dressed in green and had a few drinks in honor of Lauren's Irish heritage.
Lauren in front of Hoi An's Cantonese Assembly Hall.
After Hoi An, we took another overnight open tour bus journey down to Nha Trang, a beach resort town. Our mission in Nha Trang was not cultural, we just wanted some sun and beach time. The sun was really strong, so we were careful with our exposure, but it felt great to swim in the warm South China Sea. We had a very relaxing time in Nha Trang and ate some delicious seafood. We found a chill cafe/restaurant called Mecca, at which we dined on several occasions. During one late afternoon coffee stop, the proprietress of the restaurant asked for my help in editing their menu. As with most restaurants in Southeast Asia, their menu was littered with spelling and grammatical mistakes in its English translations. I had often thought about asking restaurant owners if they wanted assistance in correcting the mistakes, but feared offending them. This was a perfect opportunity to help out and spend some time talking with a Vietnamese woman from my grandmother's generation. It was a great experience, even if it took a long time to correct their 500 item menu.
The beach at Nha Trang was gorgeous and surprisingly free of hawkers.
Fully satiated on our quotient of sun and fun, it was time to embark for our final destination in Vietnam: Saigon. We had to get there with plenty of time to get our Chinese visa sorted, which cut short our time in other places in Vietnam, but we were eager to get back to Saigon and see if our second opinion of the city coincided with our favorable first impression. On the whole, I would say that it lived up to its previous reputation in our mind, though it was slightly more hectic than I remembered.
What, we have another open tour bus ride? Oh, the humanity!
We had the chance to visit the War Remnants Museum, which we had unfortunately missed during our first stay in Saigon. It was very powerful, very well done, and thankfully free of the propaganda which plagued the museums in North Vietnam.
The leftover American military equipment and pictures of decimated Vietnamese villages were a sober reminder of the ravages that the "American War" inflicted on Vietnam.
The "Huey" helicopter is one of the iconic images of the Vietnam War and it was cool to check one out in "enemy" territory.
On our long and hot walk home from the War Remnants Museum, we came across this horticultural representation of a dragon/sea snake. The parks in Saigon are really well-maintained and add a distinct tropical vibe to the city.
As I mentioned, it was really hot in Saigon, not to mention humid as all hell. Fortunately, we found ourselves with a day free of any obligations, which just happened to coincide with beautiful weather. What better way to spend a hot and sunny day than at Dam Sen Water Park? I cannot overstate how much fun we had at the water park. It was a Tuesday and the park was essentially empty. We never had to wait in line for any of the slides, of which there were eight great ones. The slight downside was that I was considerably larger than the average water park goer, so the slides were not exactly designed for me. I almost completely overshot the landing pool of one of the slides and banged myself up pretty good inside the tube of another slide. But, I escaped with no injuries and had a total blast. We left the water park exhausted from almost four straight hours of constant climbing and descending of the slides. It was the perfect day.
Lauren had to convince the security guard to let her ride the children's elephant slide.
Lauren cooling off on a hot Saigon day.
We also captured two videos of the slides. The first one is a POV shot on a double tube slide. Unfortunately, it seems that my finger was in front of the lens for most of the ride, but you can get the idea anyway. The second is just a short clip of one of my exits from a slide called The Love Storm. Great name.
At the outset of the trip, we only planned to spend 10 days in Vietnam and seven days in Laos. As it turned out, we ended up spending almost a month each in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. We feel so lucky to have had the flexibility to extend our time in Southeast Asia, which was undoubtedly our favorite segment of the trip thus far and the locus of an almost uncountable amount of amazing and tragicomic experiences. We will remember each of the countries fondly, warts and all.
Post-noon drinking rules do not apply when you get free champagne in Business First Class. Our seats were so comfortable that we actually high-fived when the captain came on the loudspeaker and announced a delay due to mechanical problems.
Lauren relaxing in her seat/bed.
The jersey says it all.
Lan Kwai Fong was a sea of drunken rugby fans. We didn't actually make it to any rugby matches, as the tickets were very expensive, but we watched a lot of matches in the pub with other fans who also couldn't afford tickets, and partied with the crowds at night.
We had planned to take it easy on Thursday night, but as Pete and I both had two beers in hand at this juncture, it didn't quite end up as planned.
The jersey says it all.
Lan Kwai Fong was a sea of drunken rugby fans. We didn't actually make it to any rugby matches, as the tickets were very expensive, but we watched a lot of matches in the pub with other fans who also couldn't afford tickets, and partied with the crowds at night.
We had planned to take it easy on Thursday night, but as Pete and I both had two beers in hand at this juncture, it didn't quite end up as planned.
Karin and Lauren with glasses of beer almost as big as Lauren.
Nobody was having any fun.
The loving couple, caught in mid-conversation.
I don't think it is possible for smiles to get any bigger than Pete's and Lauren's in this picture.
With Pete being akin to my brother, it makes sense that he and Lauren have a brother-sister connection. Both have silly senses of humor and an aptitude for fun, which makes them a formidable duo with whom to hang.
Jens still had his cow hat out on Sunday night.
MOO!!!
A cute little cow.
Karin and Lauren with glasses of beer almost as big as Lauren.
Nobody was having any fun.
The loving couple, caught in mid-conversation.
I don't think it is possible for smiles to get any bigger than Pete's and Lauren's in this picture.
With Pete being akin to my brother, it makes sense that he and Lauren have a brother-sister connection. Both have silly senses of humor and an aptitude for fun, which makes them a formidable duo with whom to hang.
Bunny on the metro on the way to Lan Kwai Fong.
Bunny and Karin, all smiles.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. Their looks are worth an entire weekend's worth of words.
The crazy quartet. Karin appears hungry for a bite of Bunny.
I'm not sure what was going on during the taking of this picture. Karin looks happy, I look furious, and Pete looks confused. Funny picture though.
Things started to devolve pretty rapidly by the end of the night.
Bunny on the metro on the way to Lan Kwai Fong.
Bunny and Karin, all smiles.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. Their looks are worth an entire weekend's worth of words.
The crazy quartet. Karin appears hungry for a bite of Bunny.
I'm not sure what was going on during the taking of this picture. Karin looks happy, I look furious, and Pete looks confused. Funny picture though.
Things started to devolve pretty rapidly by the end of the night.
Jens still had his cow hat out on Sunday night.
MOO!!!
A cute little cow.
Believe it or not, this was the clearest weather we had for the five days we were in Hong Kong. Fortunately, we were able to see down to the business districts and also were surprised to discover that most of Hong Kong Island is actually lush greenery. Hong Kong Island is a pretty ludicrous place to put an urban financial center, as it is very hilly and well-forested.
Believe it or not, this was the clearest weather we had for the five days we were in Hong Kong. Fortunately, we were able to see down to the business districts and also were surprised to discover that most of Hong Kong Island is actually lush greenery. Hong Kong Island is a pretty ludicrous place to put an urban financial center, as it is very hilly and well-forested.
Lauren with the flamingos.
Lauren with the flamingos.
Lights, sounds, and smiles: the perfect anniversary present.
Lights, sounds, and smiles: the perfect anniversary present.
