Vietnam Trip Report

Sat-Sun-Monday January 18-20 2003

After a long day of flying from Milwaukee to Detroit to Tokyo to Bangkok we spent the night at the airport "day" hotel in Bangkok . Got about 2-3 hours sleep. Early morning flight to Hanoi on Thai airways got us in around 10am . Long wait in line to get into Vietnam , they scrutinized the Vietnamese from abroad tightly on their way in. Drive into Hanoi from the airport was good, we had a car arranged thru our hotel, couldn't find the guy at first-had to call the hotel. Our driver got into a minor fender bender on the way in, traffic is crazy... Our hotel is the Hotel Anh Dao in the old quarter of Hanoi . Walked around the old quarter and then decided to find the Ann Tour office in Hanoi to book a day trip to Mai Chau and our airplane tickets from Hanoi to Danang on friday. Couldn't find the office-nothing where the address was listed. Decided to look around and found lunch at a place near the "Hanoi Hilton" where the US prisoners of war were held.  Lunch was $5 for the 3 of us. We decided to book our tickets for the flight thru the girl at our hotel, she called on her cell phone and got us tickets on Pacific Air-1st class for a good price. We also found the Buffalo Tour Office recommended in Lonely Planet and booked an overnight day trip to Mai Chau. It will be the three of us and a guide. Mike and I went to a beer garden in the old quarter while Anna went to the internet cafe(she got her shoes shined in the process). Anna emailed Ann Tours about where there office was and see if we could book day tours for Saigon . Hanoi is a very hectic place, very noisy and somewhat dirty. We went to a vegetarian restaurant called Tamarind near our hotel-we were very tired. Food was good.

Tuesday January 21

We slept great last night probably due somewhat to sheer fatigue. I was wondering how it would be considering the amount of the street noise in Hanoi-constant honking, etc. It's really loud, I guess we're starting to tune it out though. The ear plugs help too. Had a good breakfast at our hotel, got a taxi to take us to the US Consulate. Neil has nearly run out of pages in his passport and tried to get new pages in Chicago (for $60) before we left.  So we had contacted the embassy here by email before we left and they said they could do it. You need two full open pages together for the Cambodian Visa upon entering the country, he didn't have two together. Went to the embassy, found well armed guards and a huge concrete barrier. They gave us a card with the address of the consulate services, took the taxi there and asked if he could wait. Took about 15 minutes to get the pages added, no charge! We then went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. He's in a glass casket, looks good after being dead over 30 years. I guess they used to send him to Russia every year to be touched up. Neil thought he was going to sit up at any moment. Looked around the gardens and where he lived during the war next door. Very nice sunny(albeit hazy due to the air pollution) day. We went to a restaurant called Brothers near there. The atmosphere was relaxing and they had beautiful arrangements of roses all around. The lunch buffet was $5, which is expensive for Hanoi , you can get a beer for as cheap as 25 cents as some cafes. Went to the "Hanoi Hilton" after lunch, where the Vietnamese have lots of emphasis that the US prisoners were treated "extraordinary".  We hired some "cyclo" drivers to take us on a tour around the old quarter. The old quarter of Hanoi has a lot of French Colonial architecture. It was kind of fun riding around, you sit in front and they pedal behind you. Internet access is about $0.30 per hour. Our guide for our trip to Mai Chau stopped by our hotel this evening to introduce himself and see if we needed any special food(i.e. vegetarian). He seemed really nice. Right before he came, the phones went out at our hotel. We had a great dinner at the Emperor Restaurant tonight, we each had a set menu for $14.50 each, the food was delicious and the atmosphere great. The restaurant was really beautifully decorated. Old Vietnamese and French Colonial.

Wednesday January 22.

Good breakfast at the hotel again, guide from Buffalo Tours came at 8:30 . His name is Ha. Rode in the minivan to Mai Chau village for 4+ plus hours. Our driver was safe, but the roads, traffic, and the way people drive here is absolutely crazy. Took us 4+ hours to go 75 miles to Mai Chau village, thru rice fields, limestone Karst formations, hills, and finally rugged high mountains. We ate lunch at Mai Chau village, was awesome... We picked up our local guide/cook. Ha said that she is really our government liaison, so we don't spread rebellion to the hill tribes. Drove another 45 minutes on a completely crap tooth cracking road. We then hiked for 2 hours thru the countryside to the ethnic Thai village of Poong Con. If you look at www.buffalotours.com and look at the Mai Chau trips you can see where we went. We got there in the evening and had a chance to relax a little before it got dark. We ate dinner from our "cook" and had some rice wine. Ha I think got a little tipsy. The kids where very curious about us, and the family we stayed with was very nice-although they don't speak English. We slept in the house with the family, mosquito nets and bed rolls were ok, not real comfortable though. It is a traditional stilt house with a bamboo floor, very clean upstairs. We could hear one of the children next door we nicknamed "the cougher" most of the night. I slept well due to the Ambien I took.

Thursday January 23.

Got up early and had breakfast, made by our "cook" again. We looked around the village for a bit and then hiked back. The hike back was fascinating and took about 3 1/2 hours by a different route back to Mai Chau. Rained for the first part, then just misty and cloudy. We walked thru numerous villages and by numerous terraced rice paddies. Downhill for the last 2 hours. Our guide Ha, speaks excellent English, very pleasant, and we talked with him during the hike. The people in the villages sure do work hard and do back breaking work. The last part of the hike was through the Rice Paddies in the valley. We had lunch in Mai Chau again, before driving/dodging motorbikes and cars back to Hanoi . My life flashed before my eyes many times on the way back. Now I know why they say to fly between places and NOT take the buses! When we got back to Hanoi we were tired, due to the "stress" of the drive. Went to the internet cafe, miss the cable modem connection, and waited for the computers a lot. Got a reply from Tony at Ann Tours and need to confirm/pay for the Saigon tours at their office. They moved to a new location that wasn't updated in the Lonely Planet Guidebook. Can't expect too much for $0.30 cents per hour... We to the Emperor Restaurant again, had a different menu and was excellent again.

Friday January 24

We took a cab to Ann Tours office and got things set for Saigon . Looked around the old quarter for a little while and headed off to the airport by cab at 11:00 . Our flight on Pacific air was about 1 hour and we were in first class-a first for us. When we booked the flight, the girl at our hotel couldn't get us anything on Vietnam Air in coach so we asked about first class for that, so she must have assumed first class on this airline. Got into Danang and found the driver we had set up thru our hotel, the Cua Dai. 45 minute drive to Hoi An. The hotel is very nice and clean, $25 a night. Staff is very friendly! Walked into town, about 20 minutes, and looked around. Lots more western tourists, at least a higher percentage than we saw in Hanoi . Makes you feel less like an outsider I guess. Every 20 feet is a tailor shop it seems, we are getting items made, and will try them on tomorrow. Neil is getting a suit tailored(with vest) for $36. It's much warmer here, around 85. Hanoi was only high of 70, cool at night. I am getting some pajamas made for Hannah and Elizabeth also, like the ones in the American Girl catalog. Brought the picture along to show them what to make. Our hotel is a little ways out of town, but you can get a ride on a motor bike for a buck or two into town. Vietnam is loaded with small cycles and bicycles, not as high of a percentage of cars. Most bikes are Honda Dreams, 100cc bikes. For dinner we went to the Cafe des Amis along the river near the market at 52 D Bach Dang. No menu, either seafood, meat, or vegetarian menus with 4 courses. Amazing food... Run by a Mr. Kim who was a cook in the South Vietnamese Army during the "American War" for the generals. He stayed in Vietnam after the war to take care of his ancestor’s graves, while his 15 brothers and sisters went to the states. He went to the "re-education" camps after the war and was very poor until they allowed free enterprise and he could open his restaurant. He said if we come back, the "menu" would be different each night. We definitely will.

Notes on the beer. Tiger beer is the best, 333 is really good also.

Saturday January 25

We walked around old Hoi An  this morning and went into some of the old Chinese house, assembly halls, and to the Japanese covered bridge. This is such a picturesque town. Not as busy and crazy as Hanoi . We hired a boat to take us down the river. If you saw the Amazing Race when they were in Vietnam , they had to reel up the nets and get a clue from the bottom of the net. We saw lots of huge fishing nets and life along the river. The nets are supported by 20 foot long bamboo poles that are driven into the river bed. Our driver wanted to get us close to one as the fisherman was getting fish out and rammed one of the poles. It was so loud when it snapped. Our boat driver and the fisherman were screaming at each other-we don't speak Vietnamese but I'm sure it wasn't nice. We went back to the tailor to fit some things and had some revisions made of the items we are getting. Neil's suit looks great, just needs to be altered. We relaxed a bit and went to the internet cafe again. So slow.... I found a shoe store near our hotel and they are going to make some "custom fit" sandals for me. We went back to the Cafe des Amis and had the seafood menu. Mr. Kim seemed a little out of it tonight (drunk). The food and atmosphere was incredible again. The US Ambassador wrote in the book at the restaurant that it was the best food he has had in Vietnam . So did most everyone else who wrote in it. We would concur. Can't beat the price either. 215,000 Dong(about $24) for 3 beers and 3 menus for all of us.

Sunday January 26

Had a good breakfast again at the Cui Dai. We had arranged for a cab to pick us up and go on a "tour" of the area and go north over Hoi Van pass. We went first to the marble mountain south of Danang and climbed up. It is a Buddhist Shrine and Sanctuary. Very pretty, but a hot walk up. Humid and hot today again. We then drove to a part of China Beach , the desolate part evidently-nobody was around. The 20 miles of beach south of Danang is considered China Beach-where the GI's relaxed during the war. We then drove north of Danang over Hoi Van pass to Lang Co. Looked at the beach for a bit, and then our taxi driver took us to a seafood restaurant. We suffered our way thru the huge crab plate and all the food that we ordered. Mike & I punctured our fingers a couple times. Good though, still inexpensive for us, although I think we paid tourist prices. The drive back was ok, our driver likes to use the horn a lot. I think he was missing part of his thumb, but had it right on the horn so he could beep nearly constantly. He has too, to run the gauntlet on the road of animals, bikes, motorbikes, trucks, cars, people, and etc. Mike called him "the thumber". We got back to Hoi An and went to the tailor shop, Neil's suit was done and looks and fits great! The name of the shop was Thien Thanh;  55 Le Loi Street, Hoi An. Got all of our stuff picked up and went back to relax. We got a moto ride into town to the Cafe des Amis again.  Great again.

Monday January 27

We had arranged a taxi to the airport in Danang. Had a good flight on Vietnam airlines to Saigon . Our driver and Guide from Ann Tours picked us up at the airport in Saigon . We then drove to the Cu Chi tunnels which are about 60km outside of Saigon . Traffic was brutal out of town, took 2 ½ hours to get to the tunnels. When we got to the tunnels we watched the Vietnamese "propaganda film" of the "American Killers." We were given a local guide who took us thru some of the bigger rooms, and showed us the booby traps that Vietnamese made. They were (and still are) quite resourceful. They opened unexploded bombs to get gunpowder for bullets, bomb casings to make spikes and bullets, hide smoke coming out of the ground by venting to another area, etc. We also saw the huge craters from the bombs that were dropped by B52's. We could go thru a 100meters stretch, with openings every 30 meters. After 60meters we were hot and cramped enough. They had even made them bigger for the "tourists." After that we went to the firing range, the only place in Vietnam that non-military/police personnel can fire a gun. I shot the M16, Neil the AK47, and Mike the AK47. Bullets were $1 each. We stopped to see how they make rice paper on the way back into Saigon . We saw a family of 5 on a motor bike, think of a small moped that would barely hold 2 Americans. Mom, Dad, and the 3 kids. I guess you have to get around somehow. We were dropped off at our hotel, the Majestic. It is one of the best hotels in Saigon for class and by gone days atmosphere. Great location. We have a really nice room with a nice marble bathroom, definitely a step up from Hanoi and Hoi An. We took a cab to the Ben Thanh Market to look around. It was similar to the weekend market in Bangkok , although nowhere near the size. We bought some more stuff, don't have any more room in our bags-guess we'll have to buy more bags?  We walked around and observed the crazy traffic and amazing number of motorbikes. For dinner we went to the Lemongrass, which is a few blocks up from our hotel at 4 D Nguyen Thiep. Good dinner with music playing. Tiger beer is the best in this hot and humid weather.

Tuesday January 28,

Our driver and guide picked us up at 7:30 this morning and we drove 3 hours to Mytho. We went to the Ving Trang Pagoda. Was a very pretty temple, we looked around for a half hour. We drove another hour to get on our boat. We were the only ones on our boat with our guide. We went thru the Cai Be floating market. Very busy, people selling fruits and vegetables and other items from their boats. We then rode thru a maze of small "rivers" or canals thru the An Binh island in the delta. We stopped off for lunch on one of the islands. We had a huge prawn each for starters. For the main course we had a huge deep fried fish which is then dipped in Vietnamese fish sauce.  Incredible. We went thru many more canals and stopped at a place that makes coconut candy. We bought quite a bit, hit the spot in the hot weather. We also stopped at a tree farm. We must have been on the river for around 3 1/2 hours. We got off at Vinh Long and went over the new bridge built by the Australians. The drive back into Saigon was long and slow. We saw many interesting things along the way, more families on motorbikes(children sleeping), live animals on the side of motorbikes, and appliances too. We got back into Saigon around dusk. We were very tired. Had a few beers, from the lady selling them down the block, in our room. We went to the Mandarine Restaurant, at 11A D Ngo Van Nam, and had a wonderful dinner. We ordered a 4 items and shared them between the three of us. Very elegant restaurant with wonderful service and great food.

Wednesday January 29,

We were almost out of US Dollars, used them for the tailor shop in Hoi An, and in Cambodia the currency is essentially US Dollars. We went to the HSBC Bank and withdrew money off of our checking account at the teller window. We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral on the adjacent square, braving the traffic as we crossed. By the time we left Vietnam , we had the timing down. Walk slow, confident, and don't stop. The bikes, motorbikes, and even cars will miss you(hopefully). We got a taxi to the airport for our flight on Vietnam Airlines to Siam Reap, Cambodia . It took a while to get thru immigration(departing), it seems that they are trying to read your emotions or expressions for any sign of problem. Glad to get out of there. Off to Cambodia !