Reviving My Blog II

My Blog is Still Struggling...
but Getting Back Up

This is the second installment in my summary of my travels the last couple months. I figure I should at least give everyone and overview of what I have been up to all this crazy time in Asia while my blog has been lacking. If you have not read my "Reviving My Blog I" post yet, I strongly suggest you read it first before diving into this one. That said I hope you enjoy the second part of my synopsis, and I hope to have time to share the stories I cut out sometime soon.

Vibrant and Multifaceted VIETNAM

From Guilin the train ride was smooth and uneventful down to the boarder with Vietnam. However, we arrived at the unfriendly hour of around 2:00am. Then we spent around an hour trying to decipher the confusing and disorganized boarder control station into Vietnam, and another hour waiting to board another train in Vietnam. By the time we got on the train we were exhausted, and it was a good thing because we were too tired to worry about the seedy bunks on the train. From the boarder it was several rough hours down to Hanoi along by far the worst maintained rail line I have ever traveled. Our rail car oscillated back and forth violently nearly the entire time and to such a degree that we were bodily sliding around in our bunks.

It was still early when we pulled into Hanoi railway station. When we exited the railway station we were greeted by a boisterous mob of taxi and motorbike drivers. Weaving through them we escaped the crowd and then bee lined away from the railway station in a randomly picked direction. Once we had gotten out of sight we stopped to get our bearings and figure out where we needed to go. Then we continued on foot to the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel near the center of town. The hostel turned out to be an excellent find with nice laid back staff and some really knowledgeable Australian owners. We settled in there in a matter of second and then set about exploring the surrounding neighborhood for the rest of the afternoon. That evening we went to an exceptional and ingenious traditional Vietnamese 'Water Puppet' show. It was a real treat with beautiful visuals and live traditional music.

The following day we got a more ambitious and decided to try renting a motorbike for the day to aid in exploring the city. We ended up renting a small underpowered Honda Future motorbike. It was a fun challenge, and slightly intimidating, navigating the motorbike though the crazy swarms of traffic in Hanoi. It was actually only the second time I had ridden a motorbike, and the first time was all the way back in high school. I was rusty for sure to start with, but eventually started getting the hang of it. Thankfully about 80% of the traffic was other motorbikes, so we only almost got run over by a bus or big truck a handful of times (mostly sarcasm mom).

With our new found freedom we cruised all over the city visiting a number of different obscure temples, the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum (which was sadly closed), the Ho Chi Minh museum (which felt more like an art gallery), and some large lakes in the northern part of town. Along the way Kala even gave the bike a spin on some of the quieter back roads. Ironically, she actually had more prior motorbike riding experience, but she did not savor the idea of having to survive the thick and unruly Hanoi traffic. In the end we had such great fun with the motorbike that we milked our rental all the way until dusk, when we had to return it.

The next day we left Hanoi and headed for the beautiful Cat Ba Island in Harlong Bay. It took two buses, a ferry, another bus, and most of the day to get there; but we were not disappointed. The island was beautiful and amazingly quite (I love traveling in the off season). We stayed in the stellar 'Nobel House' right in the middle of the waterfront and got a 4th floor room with a balcony overlooking the bay for just $10 a night. The hotel owner also put us in contact with a cool pair of young Americans, Onslo and Eric, who were trying to establish commercial climbing in the area. That night we had a couple drinks with them and a nice pair of Europeans (who were working in Bangladesh). In the process we got them to hook us up with an amazing climbing trip for the following day to a remote karst island they had been putting up some routes on. The only catch was we had to leave at 5:30am the next morning and it was already late.

The next morning we headed out mostly as planned and took a slow lumbering boat on a long ride thought the amazing myriad of towering karst islands in Harlong Bay. The landscape is other worldly, perfectly still in the early morning, and breathtakingly beautiful. Along the way we picked up some necessary kayaks and eventually found our way to the climbing spot. Then we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon climbing some excellent and unique routes that had only ever been climbed by a couple people before. It was cool just knowing we were getting experience this amazing climbing spot before the rest of the world finds out about the place, and it blows up like Railay. I could go off about all the fun climbs we did for a while, but I should remember that this is supposed to be a synopsis.

Both Kala and I were exhausted, but ecstatic, when we got back from climbing so we called it a night early. We extended our R&R through the following day because it was raining. Then the next day we decided to explore the island in more detail and try to find a bouldering spot that Onslo and Eric had tipped us off about. We rented a motorbike again and spent all afternoon cruising the mostly empty and very scenic island roads. After lots of wrong turns and fun encounters we finally figured out that the directions we had been given were slightly wrong. Instead of left-right-left, it should have been left-right-right. But, Eric was very drunk when he gave us the directions so I could not really hold it against him. Regardless of the faulty directions we still eventually managed to find the bouldering spot and got some really fun problems in while some local kids looked on and shyly gave it a try. The next day we just walked along the coastal boardwalks and went swimming in the ocean before heading back to Hanoi.

[Photos from HANOI & CAT BA]

Back in Hanoi did a fair bit of shopping and figured out our rough game plan for heading down the coast of Vietnam. We ended up taking the train down to Danang and then took an 'easy rider' to the nearby Hoi An, with a stop off at the Marble Mountains on the way. In Hoi An Kala got herself some very nice tailored dresses and we explored the ancient My Son ruins outside town, which were impressive. Then we headed to the nearby China Beach, which was a big American GI hang out spot during the war, and spent two days surfing. The waves were good and I had fun teaching Kala how to surf. It took her a some considerable effort to get the hang of it. But within the first couple hours she was already getting up on the board and getting some short rides. We both had a blast and Kala got really into it, so me might try to pick the sport up back in the states.

Anyways, from China Beach we made the short motorbike trip back to Danang and caught an overnight train down to Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon. Surprisingly, the rail line in the south of Vietnam was much better and we had a much more pleasant trip down. However, we arrived into Saigon at the unfortunate hour of 4:00am. From the train station Kala and I made are way across town to the main tourist district in a slight daze. We took a couple detours on the way there to check things out, but once we got to the tourist district we were all buissness. We got a room for the night, booked a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels for that day, and got breakfast.

A little after 7am our tour departed and we rode a bus out to the tunnels, which were an hour outside town. Then we spent the next couple hours learning about the tunnels and exploring a restored section of them. The tunnels amazingly allowed the Viet Cong to infiltrate to withing just a few kilometers of Saigon despite the large US Military force there and serious bombing campaign on the area. The whole system was very elaborate with 3 levels of tunnels, various logistical room, booby traps, snipper holes, underwater exits, and a whole host of other ingenious and resourceful things. One of the most clever were extra narrow sections put in the tunnels which were two small for larger American GI soldiers to fit through, but still allowed the smaller stature Viet Cong to fit through.

On the way back into town from the tunnels we had the bus drop us off at the War Remnants Museum, and then spent several hours exploring it. It had some sobering exhibits on war photography, the effects of agent orange (most notably birth defects), and tiger cages (US interrogation chambers) to name a few. After the museum, we went back to our hotel, booked our onward bus ticket to Cambodia, and went out for dinner. Thus, we wrapped up our memorable time in Vietnam.

[Photos from HOI AN & HO CHI MINH CITY]

Well I am still making progress. But I still have Cambodia, Thailand, and Nepal to summarize for everyone. Hope you enjoy this post and I will try to get another up sooner than later.

As always,
-Russ