The Plan B Adventure

Unless you are looking for an amazingly long, arduous bus adventure in getting to Hanoi from Central Vietnam…then flying is the way to go. Although the $10 open tour bus ticket seemed financially appealing the $50 flight that took one hour from Danang to Hanoi was much better for our state of mind than 18 hours on a bus through winding, one-lane roads.

We arrived in Hanoi and moved swiftly to the “free” Pacific Airlines shuttle bus that whisked us away to the city center. In our opinion you just haven’t lived until you’ve gone into some of the most populous capitals of the world with no inkling of where you are, where you are going, or what to do once you get off the bus. Exhilarating, frightening, yet with solution-oriented Becca around, what could possibly go wrong….Now, we had been warned by other travellers and guidebooks about the Vietnamese taxi driver that listens to nothing you say and takes you where he wants. You see each taxi driver gets a special commission from specific hotels and tour agencies. So it is in their financial interest to dissuade you from your hotel reservation and drop you off in front of theirs for the hard sell on the street corner. In order to avoid all of that we (Becca) have been diligently making reservations and obtaining specific addresses for the hotels we frequent. Unfortunately in this case it wasn’t going to matter. As we stepped off the bus we were literally pushed into a taxi with Kylie Minogue blaring on the portable DVD player…..WAIT A DAMN MINUTE!! We are smarter than that….We questioned “Do you know our hotel, Camellia 2 Hotel?”, “How many Kms to Hotel?”, “How much $ per KM?”…..all of these questions are imperative (as we found out later) if you are getting into an unknown cab in Hanoi. Well, after taking us the long way to the Old Quarter as well as side-swiping a motorbike….we arrived at the wrong Camellia Hotel….it happened to be convienently located next to a hotel that our driver gets paid extra to drop unsuspecting tourist off in front of. Hey…we aren’t that stupid!! “Take us to our correct hotel and you aren’t getting a dime more than the $3 we originally negotiated.” Obviously, he wasn’t too happy with that as we found the only English he did know started with an “F” and ended with a “K”!! Oh, well we got there relatively unmolested…….but wait!! The next scam is for the taxi driver to tell the hotel receptionist he wasn’t paid (after you adjourn to your room) and for them to pay him and then just put it on your bill. Jeff thought this might be happening and played detective behind a pole in the lobby and stopped the scam from happening.

Seriously….this scenario happened to everyone we spoke with in Hanoi. It is HA-ANNOYING and if the authorities were smart they would nip this in the bud as it really drives tourists away from Hanoi toward the other more, appealing regions of Vietnam. Don’t get us wrong, Hanoi has great character and appeal but we were left with a bad taste in our mouths, only 10 minutes after arrival.

We decided to arrange a trip to Halong Bay for the weekend while our passports awaited Visa approval at the Pakistan Embassy. We opted for the 3 day/2 night adventure since we didn’t have to be back in Hanoi ’til Monday. This trip included one night’s accommodation on an original Vietnamese Junk Boat, another night’s accommodation on Cat Ba Island in the middle of Halong Bay, all meals, a 7km trek around Cat Ba island, and an hour of kayaking through the limestone peaks of Halong Bay. All this for $38 per person and we were very happy with our decision. The trip to Halong Bay from Hanoi is about 3-4 hours depending on the voracity of your bus driver. It was quite easy although for the uninitiated (a few on our bus) it was as white-knuckled as our trips through China and Laos. As you arrive in Halong Bay for your individual tour, you realize this is as big a tourist trap as Disneyland. Seas of Korean and Japanese tourists flank the docks while hundreds of ‘authentic’ Vietnamese Junk Boats float in the harbor. Oh well….we knew this wasn’t going to be isolated and remote, so let’s have a good time.

Our guide, Mr “Strong”, ushered us along with 12 others onto our boat and we pushed off into the overcast waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. Although the weather was quite dismal (Seattle-like) the landscape was breathtaking. Everywhere you look are giant limestone peaks protruding from the calm waters of Halong Bay. The boat trip is about 3 hours to our resting destination for the night yet the time is split up by a stop off at the biggest cave in Halong Bay….right inside one of the limestone mountains. This cave is amazing and well-procured for the tourist trade. It is amazing to think that years ago the Vietnamese drew the Chinese invaders in their ships into these caves and then when the tide let out the Chinese were stuck aground by an underwater spear network the Vietnamese had conveniently planted. Fascinating history…..As we set off from the cave we happen upon another famous claim of Halong Bay….a pearl farm. It was very interesting to see the houseboat communities that have developed around the pearl and seafood trade. These locals live on the water in small floating homes and commute from here to wherever via rowboat, powerboat, or canoe.

As we pulled into our resting spot for the night we both got to know a few of our fellow travellers. Meeting other travellers as well as locals has to be one of the most fascinating and educational parts of travelling. Teun…a well-travelled teacher from Holland; Alberto… a Genoa-born, Carvinal Cruise ship officer; Tanja, a brave 20-yr old woman from Germany travelling solo in SE Asia; Zulia and Christian…a rock-climbing couple from Spain; Chris…..an English chap beginning an unknown adventure thru SE Asia; and, finally, Andrea and Matt…..an English couple, fresh off two months in India with much to share about our upcoming visit. We had a great time getting to know them all and their individual stories of travel, life, and politics.

The night was fairly uneventful as we slept on the boat. The next morning we were up at 7AM in the rainy mist for our hike. Expectations weren’t exactly set properly on this one. We thought it would be a trail hike to the top of Cat Ba mountain where we would see an expansive view of all the limestone peaks. Well….we knew we wouldn’t see anything because of the weather but we didn’t realize the intensity level of the hike. Needless to say Jeff found a new hobby activity and Becca found something she’d rather avoid for the rest of her life. The weather made the conditions muddy and unbearably slippery. There was not a trail to be found and Jeff played trailblazer over the sharp, limestone rocks as the guide fell behind to help Alberto, the self-proclaimed mountain man, whom had a bit more trouble on this hike than his previous jaunts through the beatiful hills of Genoa. Well, after a couple slips and scrapes we headed back to clean off at the hotel and get ready for our kayak adventure. What a great time…..kayaking through the solemn waters of varying depth was a wonderful adventure. Some areas allow your voice to be echoed in the encompassing mountains and others allow you to see the sealife of the Gulf floor. A bit of advice….make your trip in September or October to this part of Vietnam and venture in a kayak for the whole day with a picnic lunch and guide map. It would be amazing……….Next stop Monkey Island….it’s self-explanatory with 60 monkeys as the only inhabitants of this sleepy island. They are quite fiesty so keep your distance!!!

Okay…..verbose Jeff has returned so we will leave you with our uneventful trip back to Hanoi and pick it up there when we return.

We met Vy and her gang of hard-selling travel agents in Nha Trang after a four hour jaunt by bus left us on their doorstep. We thought we were catching a night train to Danang which is 30km from our final destination Hoi An BUT the night train was sold out. It seems we’ve avoided all the masses of Western tourists all to run into all the Vietnamese tourists. Oh well, there are worse things (like working at Harris) than having to spend a day in a sunny beachside community on the Vietnamese coast. We chose to spend a night and next day in the scuba capital of Nha Trang, Vietnam. As most of you know neither of us are avid scuba divers so we opted for more relaxation during our mini-adventure…….the local mud baths and mineral spa!!! The Thap Ba Hot Spring Spa was a great choice. For a little less than $10 a person we showered in warm mineral water, bathed in eucalyptus-scented mineral mud, laid in the sun for the full effect of the mud power washed with steaming mineral water, and re-hydrated under a warm mineral waterfall.  This type of treatment was exactly what we needed before our overnight train ride to Hoi An (via Danang) and the rigors of our upcoming shopping frenzy. Arriving in Danang after a less than enjoyable, yet satisfactory train ride we jumped off the train and split a 30km cab ride to Hoi An with some Kiwis. Danang, as many of you may know, is infamous for being the first public place American military forces made camp during the war as well as being in the immediate vicinty of the ever-popular China Beach. We decided to skip through the town and head to Hoi An for a different experience entirely.

Hoi An, Vietnam is located on the South China Sea and was an early port for Portuguese, Spanish and French traders and Christian missionaries. As you walk through the cobblestone, boutique-lined streets (if you can avoid the obvious commercialism) you get a warm feeling of what must have attracted the early merchants, as well as, Alexandre de Rhodes (father of the Vietnamese language) to this part of the country. We found the hotel we had reserved but its quaintness was far surpassed by its proximity (across the street) to the morning market. Now we are all for staying in family-run bed and breakfast type establishments but a 5AM wakeup call to the smells of the local fish run and chicken slaughtering is not our idea of a comforting alarm clock. Instead, we high-tailed in down one of the major streets to the Vinh Hung 2 Hotel, home of Michael Caine while he filmed “The Quiet American”. Quaint place with a very helpful staff and a great breakfast buffet. The hotel was conveniently located only a short walk from A Dong Silk, the tailor recommended to us from our favorite Canadian referrers, Tanya and Jeff.

Opposed to jumping head-first into a full blown tailor experience we decided to get a lay of the land and took a short jaunt around Hoi An and its neighboring islands. We had great fun peeking into the boutiques (can’t go in or you ask for the full-court Sales press), looking at the local art work, and enjoying a quiet bamboo boat stroll on the local river courtesy of a local fisherwoman. It was nice and relaxing and a good way to get ready for the game show that is “Let’s Make a Deal – Hoi An Edition”.

Okay….enough talking let’s get to some good ol’ shopping. As you all know this is something Becca enjoys and Jeff loves so we were ready to take it all in!!! We had been recommended to A Dong Silk by our fellow Canadian travellers and had also been recommended HOA, a small, family-run tailor shop by Allyson (of previous mention in many blog entries). You often hear stories of $20 custom suits and $3 dress shirts as you travel towards Hoi An. This is a bit of traveller’s mystique (adjusting the price down in their heads to ease the impact of how much they actually spent) and a bit of lesser customer service. After hearing of other’s experiences (don’t go to the Cloth Market shops) we are sure glad to have paid a bit more for the high quality and customer service of A Dong Silk and HOA. We reviewed both of the shops fabric choices and decided A Dong (although a bit more expensive) had many of the fabrics we wanted for suits and jackets and HOA had many of the styles we liked in shirts and silk fabrics for other items, which will remain nameless as they are gifts.  

The experiences at both shops were very different we will focus on A Dong Silk, the most entertaining. Entering the store in itself is a fascinating experience. Each of us was appropriated a specific saleswoman and immediately questioned about what styles and fabrics we desired. As many of you can imagine these are some of the best sales people in Southeast Asia and Jeff relished the opportunity to match wits and negotiating techniques. (Andrew…you would love this!!!) We decided to focus on Becca first as she is most likely to continue down the professional (Sorry, Dad Z!) career path. As you can expect she came prepared with cut-outs from magazines, internet printoffs of designs and a listed inventory of what she needed. Jeff was a little less organized and was really just looking to get one suit and a few shirts. Needless to say…..that didn’t happen!!! Once you explain what you want each saleswoman whips out her sketchpad and draws a damn good sketching of the design you just described. Amazing!! After the sketches are drawn, the fabric search (and the negotiating dance) begins.  The fabrics are endless….silks, cashmeres, German cottons, Italian blends….the list and designs go on and on. Once you are done with fabrics, it’s time for measurements. This entails a fury of small woman taking your sizes and bantering in Vietnamese….very funny actually!

AND YOU ARE DONE…….unless “you want someteen else?” Well, of course!!! For a shirt at $10-$20, blazers for $20 and suits @ $40-$80, we want fifty more but you gotta draw the line somewhere. Well….maybe a few more. OK, now we are done.

Let the negotiating begin. Everything is negotiable in Hoi An and no one (although many do) should ever pay full price let alone anything above a 30% discount. For any of you that don’t like to negotiate, Jeff is happy to join you just for the price of a flight (1st Class, of course) to Hoi An. After three fittings and two trips (while they worked on adjustments) to the beach everything fit perfect and was boxed up to be shipped to the States…arrival in late June!!! We know this is dragging (we are more than happy to relay more info on the rest of Hoi An) on so here is a quick inventory.

Becca – 3 Suits, 1 Dress, 2 Skirts, 5 Dress Shirts, 3 Tank Tops, 2 Pants, 1 Jacket, 5 Belts, 1 Leather Sandals, and a Sleep Mask  

Jeff – 3 Suits, 5 Dress Shirts, 1 Shorts, 2 Blazers, 1 Leather Sandals

All for just around $700. Not bad for a few days work!!! See you in Hanoi.

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