See Ya Later Saigon

18.12.2002

G'day

Well I have now left smoking Saigon and arrived back in Sydney this fine morning. I was somewhat disappointed upon landing that they didn't play "I Still Call Australia home" but it's Cathay Pacific so I guess why would they? They also seem to have become a little lax with the spraying of the airplane...you know how they strut through the aircraft spraying some obnoxiously scented spray (I suspect DEET mixed with fermented boronia) tha tis supposed to ward off foreign nasties.

Since I last updated...

On Thursday I took a motorbike up to Cho Lon (Vietnamese for "big market" but affectionately known as 'Chinatown' after its predominantly Chinese population) and visited the Andong Market there. I had been informed that this was the place to buy genuine imitation designer shoes eg. Prada, Gucci, Fendi etc....and I was mildly enthusiastic about the possibility of making half a dozen (or so) purchases. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything I really liked. I'm quite picky with my shoes in general and even if they are cheap, well I don't want "el crappos".

After another market escapade....I caught a cyclo down to the riverbank where I stumbled upon the Fine Arts Museum and spent some time there looking at the politically acceptable artworks housed in the museum. Then back to the markets.... for some more shopping.

I went with Arne (German) and his room-mate (Jean-Pierre or something else quintessentially French) to the Vietnamese Institute of Traditional for a 1 hour long massage from a blind masseuse... it wasn't bad for about $AUD3 an hour... apparently though if you want a really good one though you have to go to Cambodia - didn't quite make it there this trip but am looking forward to heading back to SE Asia very soon.

When i got to Saigon I was strongly considering ducking over to Cambodia, but would have only had, at most, 5 days there, and with the hassle of changing my flight to Sydney, decided itwas too much...of course on the discovery channel on the plane on the way home they showed a documentary on Angkor Wat, just to torture me about my decision not to go Bastards!
We had dinner at a pho (Vietnamese noodle soup with greens, lime, chilli and who knows what else) stall in a kinda dingy alley-way near my hotel. The food was quite delicious and for 5000 dong (60 Aussie cents) a great bargain. Of course because it was so cheap we went out for second dinner at a nice Vietnamese restaurant which is a copy of the one I visited in Hue - run by a hearing-impaired group of people who cook rather well - I didn't get a home-made bottle opener this time though.

Friday and Saturday I spent doing a trip around parts of the Mekong Delta. Delta Adventure tours, the group with whom I took the trip, advertise their tour as better than the others because it is "More boat less bus" - not wrong there! Quite enjoyed all the scenery along the way. It was really interesting to see the locals going about the everyday activities from the boat: washing dishes and clothes in the river; fishing; doing business; swimming etc etc.... It felt a little intrusive peering from the boat into their lives, however the people, especially the kids, seemed to enjoy the attention! Tour groups go through the same areas every day, so I would have expected the kiddies would be sick of us all by now...but they appeared overwhelmingly delighted to make contact with the "people from the other world".

Thankfully my tour guide for this trip didn't have exceedingly long black hairs sticking from a mole on the side of his face like the last one did....I had my tweezers in my bag and was very tempted to get them out and pluck away (I read in the Monday SMH on the plane that there is a bit of a campaign to get going on Johnny Howard's monobrow....could be a goodbusiness opportunity there, monobrows and molehairs)...but of course I did not. He was a little quirky though - insisted on calling the toilets "dunnies" and sung and bopped to his favourite Vietnamese disco diva music for our enjoyment.

My motorbike guide from Sunday informed me that Vietnamese men like to grow these hairs because it is thought to be quite lucky - or is it wealthy? So perhaps that explains the increasing frequency with which I am seeing these grotesque hairs. I was also informed today that the reason why many Vietnamese men have disgustingly long fingernails is that it is a sign of wealth. Only 'wealthy' men can ever hope to have long nails as the hard agricultural workers have their nails worn down by their hard labour. Of course these 'wealthy' men also have an advantage if they ever decide to take up the guitar I guess it's similar to the rather plump blokes in Tonga who consider their size as a status symbol - men are fat because they don't need to work due to their wealth. Apparently the government are approaching Jenny Craig about setting up shop there to curb this epidemic of folk with extra adipose tissue.

Back to the Mekong Delta though...we visited a few floating markets - one at Cai Be, and another at Cai Rang where all sorts of fruits and veges are for sale (oh and also soft drinks, for the sake of us foreigners). If you don't know who is selling what, it's not hard to work out as the vendors have large (bamboo?) poles sticking from their boats with whatever they are selling attached to it. Some vendors sell not only potatoes, but also eggplants, kumara, cucumbers.....and so on. We hovered round one of the pineapple boats for some time where the lady chopped up fresh whole pineapples for us - very tasty (and messy). Even the very cute puppy got stuck into the leftover pineapple pieces...

We did a couple of stops on the An Binh islands, where we visited a popcorn factory, rice processing factory, vermicelli noodles factory, coconut candy factory (VERY nice indeed - no wonder dental health is a big problem in Nam) and went for a ride on one-speed Vietnamese bicycles around one of the localvillages with locals frequently stopping us so they could practice their English.

On my final day in Saigon I hired an Italian guide to take me to a couple more places around the city. I had been recommended this guide when I was in Hoi An as he has been living in Vietnam for a couple of years, has travelled all over the world, plonking himself for 2-3 years on several countries. He also speaks good English and (almost) good Vietnamese. I think in many ways also, a foreigner who spends much time in another country, is able to perceive a place in ways that a jaded local cannot possibly.

When people ask me about Australia...I really don't know what to tell them (some of the Europeans I met on this trip can probably vouch for this!) to accurately describe Oz. Sure I can tell them what sports Aussies like, a LOT about the language, and a fair bit about the fine foods on offer (Iced Vo-Vos anyone?) but I think I take for granted the uniqueness of Australian culture because it is just ordinary for me...it's difficult I guess to see something for what it is when you are a part of it...maybe I'm wrong...quite probably - who cares? Aside from this, I have hardly seen any of Australia...Perhaps I should get off my arse and hit the domestic route...

Anyway so I hired an Italian guide...who took me to about a zillion different places I hadn't been to in Saigon. Some of the more interesting included the Quan Am Pagoda, Notre Dame Cathedral (yet another one), Central Post Office (not quite as nice as the Palacio de Comunicaciones in Madrid), Vietnamese funeral carriage-making parlour, Saigon Caodai temple and an amazing pho restaurant - a favourite of businessmen with long-fingernails, wearing sweaty tuxedos and favouring Mercs to Motos.

At the Quan Am Pagoda my guide bought some sparrows and let them fly away into the distance (part of a prayer offering). The funeral carriage-making place was quite interesting. Unlike in Christian funerals, where the hearse just carries the coffin to the burial site, in Vietnamese (or more generally Buddhist?) funerals, the whole family (and sometimes friends) travel in the elaborately decorated and colourful funeral carriage with the coffin. If they don't all fit in the one carriage (often the case) they may have 2-3 or several of these carriages following behind.
We also witnessed part of one of the ceremonies. They hire a group of experts to carry out the proceedings because it is important the deceased is sent off in the right manner. Most of the family were dressed in white rather than black and they had a celebratory feast after the ceremony. Mourning is not considered highly appropriate... My guide told me that because ancestor worship is very important in Vietnamese Buddhism, the Vietnamese typically believe in the life of the soul after death and that the soul of the ancestor serves to protect the descendents.

In many of the fields you see in the countryside, you will see many tombs...in the middle of rice paddies, built into the lakes etc...this is to help their next harvest. If the body of the ancestor is in the fields, he/she is able to help the next yield - I think is basically how it goes anyway.
Spent my last afternoon in Saigon doing some more shopping... more CDs and anything else I could find that was interesting. Had dinner with some Pommie girls who did the Mekong Delta trip. They too are moving to Sydney.

It's difficult to sum up the past 4 and a bit weeks except to so eloquently declare that Viet Nam rocks - beautiful people, incredible scenery, delicious cuisine , maniacal motorcyclists, and I won't even get started on the shopping. Shame it was only four weeks as there is still a lot I haven't seen but no doubt I'll get back there one day - hopefully very soon.

Now it's back to work for me...need to start saving for my next trip (maybe the Andes or Himalayas)...oh and possibly a motorbike.

See ya
Bel x

Smoking Hookah-pipes in Saigon

12.12.2002 33 °C

Hola amigos...

Have finally hit the big smoke, once again, after 2 days of R&R in Hue and 4 more (mostly relaxing in the sun) in Hoi An. I have also developed a quite nice tan (the Hungarian chicks who frequent tanning salons to resemble oranges would be most envious) - thanks to my natural tendency (ahem) for 'olive' skin and doxycycline (anti-malarial medication), which is purported to make me photo-sensitive....

On my last night in Hoi An, I had lost all the troops I had befriended along the way but wound up having dinner with two very zany Australian women and a Scottish chick who has been based for the past 2 years in Saigon. Had a nice time comparing notes on our "same same but different" experiences in Nam, and conversing with the chef and waiter from the restaurant, Cafe des Amies. The food was absolutely divine. I had been referred to the restaurant by a Swede (who else?! It's impossible to escape them) and was not disappointed. They bring out plate after plate of exquisite food and just when you think it's all over...more food comes - all for a bargain price of 60 000 Vietnamese dollars (about $AUD7). Definitely worth the (relative) splurge. Quite enjoyed the 'surprise' milkshake too, although I still have not been able to figure out what the ingredients were. Sometimes it's better that way though right?

Caught a flight from Da Nang down to Saigon on Monday (Ho Chi Minh City, take your pick, my motorbike driver, 'Bic' (as in the brand of pens) claims that either name is perfectly acceptable. Upon my check-in for the flight, I was a little concerned to not see a flight to HCM City on the departures screen - well there were of course flights, but certainly not one at the time i was due to fly. Hmmmm....I had been warned that Vietnam Airlines liked to cancel unfull flights but surely not my flight!

I anxiously approached the check-in bloke, who tried to allay my concerns - "check in 5 minute counter 2 and 3". After 5 minutes, counter 2 and 3 began flashing up a flight, but not to HCM City....it was to Pleiku? Plei where? Strange....I checked the number of my flihgt VN433.
Uhoh.......

Very odd....my flight number was the same but didn't mention anything about Pleiku. Why on earth would I go to Pleiku - had heard of the place but where on earth was it? I quickly referred to my guide....SW of Dalat, in the Central Vietnamese Highlands. Bastards tricked me - although my ticket didn't indicated it was a connecting flight and only said DaNang-Saigon, it was apparently an indirect flight with a layover in Pleiku....grrrr. The bloke at the counter suggested I cancel this ticket and buy a new one for a direct flight - not likely!

Within 5 minutes of politely bickering with the Vietnam Airlines staff they had issued me (free of charge thank goodness) a ticket on the next flight to Saigon, on Pacific Airlines, the other national carrier. Woohoo! Problemsolved.

I had been a little anxious coming to Saigon....I had been warned that it was a crazy place. So naturally I approached my wanderings with a degree of caution. I hopped straight on a cyclo and went like a maniac through the wide boulevardes (and narrow streets/alley-ways) of Saigon to the War Remnants Museum. Until a few years ago, the museum was known as "The Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes" but deciding this name would offend the "Number One Americans" and do little to strengthen international relations with the Chinese, renamed it.

Name change or not, the message from the museum is pretty clear. It details, quite graphically, in photographs andwritten accounts, just how evil the Americans were during the war (mind you, the exhibition is quite one-sided). The photographs are very graphic (I'll spare you details) and the stuff in the bottles is also quite grotesque. The museum quite dramatically drives home though how war makes savages out of people who often don't really seem to know what they are fighting for (and in many cases have little choice in the matter)...and serves no purpose whatsoever - aside from death, heartache, environmental degradation and a screwed-up economy.

Anyway, after that, I walked down to the Reunification Palace (closed for a meeting - grrr) and so continued on a walking tour of the city, seeing the Hotel de Ville (aka the People's Committee Building), Uncle Ho statue (bastard is following me again) and shops Also ran into the Irish couple from Halong Bay. Nice to see some Halong people....they had been the first I had seen since the trip finished over 2 weeks ago. Dinner was served at my hotel at about 7.
My hotel is named originally named "No. 64". Áround the corner, is "No. 24" where an Irish friend Liz is staying, and Arne is staying at "No. 65"! You´d think they could use a little creativity!! Rani (Pommie friend) actually had a name for her hotel - though I can´t remember it right now.

On Tuesday I did a trip out to the CaoDai temple at Tay Ninh (10km from Cambodian border). CaoDaism is a very peculiar religion with about 2 million followers in Vietnam. CaoDaists worship the evil eye (I was informed it was a left eye - something to do with the heart being on the left side of the body) and their religion is a blend of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Catholicism and maybe one or two more....a 'bitsa' religion. CaoDaists regard Victor Hugo as their patron saint (true!) and also have Louis Pasteur, Shakespeare and Marilyn Manson (ok so I made that one up) as their holy dudes.

Also visited the CuChi tunnels (where Viet Cong had their underground world during the American War. Quite fun....even though they have widened the original tunnels to cater for fat tourists, it's still fun...and some of the tunnels are still their original size - really very tiny! Thankfully, I'm the height of the average Vietnamese superhero and not especially wider so it wasn't that bad for me. I was hoping to fire an AK-47 there as I had read you could do it for $USD1 a bullet, however the Nazis there have a minimum 5 bullets so it's a rip-off. Met up with Rani and Arnie (gotta love rhyming names) as well as an English and Irish chick for dinner.
We settled on this glitzy Vietnamese restaurant but after perusing the menu for a while ("Deep-fried Goat's Penis" anyone? Maybe "Brain piggy"?) decided against it. We settled for a plate of spring rolls and hit a local Italian restaurant instead

Yesterday I was delighted to have "slept in" til around about 7am. Perhaps it would have been later had I not been awoken by construction workers on the floor above me. I had no grand plans for yesterday...well actually I was going to just go shopping but thought that could get somewhat tiresome with the hoardes of vendors chasing the blonde woman around the city streets. I decided at the last minute to go in search of the "exotic animal market". It was one of those "Oh God, I really don´t need to see it because it´s horrible" but "I´m curious to find out about how it really is" situations. Perversely curious, I was, I guess. But, I was unable to find it - I´m not sure if that´s because it has now closed (hopefully), or because it´s forbidden for moto drivers to take foreigners there. So he took me to a street filled with (relatively well-looked-after) pets.

From thereI went to the beautiful Jade Emperor Pagoda before being invited to my taxi driver's home to check out his CD collection (he worked for the hotel I stayed at and seemed like a genuine bloke). It was quite an amusing experience - he only seems to listen to boy bands - his favourites are Westlife, Five and N-Sync. He was very disappointed when I told him that Britney Spears had dated Justin Timberlake. He was however relieved to hear that their relationship had since fizzled so maybe he still had a chance!

After too much listening to rubbish boy bands, I hit the markets, and then the CD shops....For AUD1.20 each, you can´t complain too much - even if the covers are photocopies and the quality is not always top-notch.

After yesterday's market expedition, I found the local beauty salon. Checked out the place - looked alright....so why not? So I settled on a haircut. And then they suggested I have a manicure at the same time...Ok...sounds good. Ok...and what about a pedicure? As well????? Ummm....had to say no there are my feet were pretty grotty from cruising about town in my sandals all day. So a hair-cut and manicure for a whopping 45000 dong...$6! Damn...good value.
Met up with my friends last night...before heading in search of art shops - some very good reproductions of Monet, Dali and Klee on offer..some not so good though. I´ve seen better Van Gogh done by a 5 year old!

Off tonight to the Institute of Massage, where blind masseuses offer 1 hour long massages for $US2. Not bad! Then it´s a birthday dinner for Arne, and maybe a look at some of the discotheques/karaoke bars downtown.

Am about to head to Chinatown to do some more shopping - hoping to find my same driver from yesterday. No doubt he will be waiting outside my hotel as he was an hour ago Gotta love their loyalty.

Tomorrow off To Mekong Delta for 2 days.....then more shopping in Saigon. Only a few days left!
Cheers

Bel xo

P.S. By the way, the subject line that headed the email was just for my parents sake and doesn't reflect in any way any shenanigans in HCM City.

Ole Ole, Ole Ole....Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

07.12.2002 34 °C

G'day

The sun finally decided to rear its ugly head (actually it isn´t at all ugly!), and did so with a vengeance....my second day in Hue was even hotter than the first and now in Hoi An....ouch!
Just after I wrote my last email, I ran into a friend from SaPa, Monique, and made friends with a a Pom (Rani), German (Arne), and Aussie (Marcia)....it's nice, because they are all heading south and on a similar time schedule to me so I suspected I would again bump into them in Hoi An, and Saigon........all the other people I had met had either come from the South or were about a week ahead of me.

On Wednesday, I took a motorbike taxi out to the Royal tombs surrounding Hue and also visited the Thien Mu Pagoda. One of the more famous images people see of Vietnam ( I think so anyway) occurred at this pagoda, where in 1963,the monk Thich Quang Duc, self-immolated himself to protest the then dodgy president's policies....scary stuff! A band of monks also followed suit soon after. According to my guidebook, the self-immolations themselves, were somewhat less shocking than the reactions of the president's sister-in-law, "Dragon Lady", who declared the burnings to be a "barbeque party" and with much glee, added "Let them burn and we shall clap our hands"....Very evil wench indeed....

The Royal tombs were quite interesting (by the way, "interesting" in this case, is not a term used to depict any sense of underwhelment, but rather just an easy choice of word for someone who is lexically challenged). Firstly I went to the tomb of Tu Duc, which LP says is "set amid frangipani trees and a grove of pines" - very lovely! The complex itself was quite exquisite, as was the one around the Tomb of Minh Mang. Tu Duc lived it up when he was emperor....he had over 100 wives, many many concubines but no kiddies...what a man! The Tomb of Minh Mang was similarly lovely and was surrounded by the "lake of impeccable clarity"....probably this was the case during the 1840s...but not so much so now

One of the main reasons I wound up in Nam was because of an episode of Pilot Guides (Globe Trekker) on World Food Vietnam a few months ago. And one of the more interesting restaurants they featured in the episode was one in Hue called Lac Thanh (I'm getting commission for this plug). It is run by a charming gentleman, Mr Lac, who can neither hear, nor speak, but is a great sociable character. In fact the whole restaurant is run non-hearing/speaking people. They cook the most divine food....I had stir-fried tofu, which you put together with lettuce leaves, and roll up in rice-paper crepes and dip in a spicy satay sauce (Kath, you would love it!!). Mr Lac also took great glee in cracking open my bottle of coca-cola with his home-made bottle opener (basically a piece of wood with a nail hammered through it). He signed one for me and I got to keep as a souvenir... he's a very cool bloke.

In true Vietnamese style, some other deaf-mute folks have set up restaurants on either side "Lac Thien" and "Lac Thuan" - they are, I suspect, "Same Same But Different"!
I don't think Vietnam had any copyright laws until a few years ago. My German friend pointed out to me that in LP Vietnam guide, they have a write-up on the Vietnamese bottled water-brands. Very interesting...not only can you buy La Vie, but you can also buy La Viei, La Vu, La Vi and La Ve...but wait there's more...La Vif ("The lively"), La Vide ("The empty"), and La Viole ("the Rape" - don't ask me....). Weird stuff! They all taste the same though; still, maybe it´s advizable to stay away from Rape-water!

On Thursday I caught a bus from Hue to Hoi An, with stops at the Hai Van Pass and Marble Mountain. The caves at marble mountain were quite nice....a good escape from the opressive heat and the non-air-con bus and outside world. I had my own personal tour-guide, a 7 year old girl with a dim flashlight...who tried to scare me by telling me their were rabid bats flying about the roofs of the caves....arrrrggggghhhh.

Coming to Hoi An, I had been expecting the temps to be in the mid 20s at the most...it is, after all, winter in Vietnam. Also, reports from fellow travellers who had been here a week or so ago, had warned of the rain....but it´s really really hot - and dry!

I'm staying at a nice hotel in Hoi An - a bargain $14AUD - own bathroom, TV complete with Vietnamese channels, one French channel and English cable channels with white-noise, oh and even a fridge! It's quite a conservative place...on the back of the door to my room they stipulate the guest rules...including Hotel Regulation No 7 -"bicycles, motorbikes, pets, fire-arms, explosives, stinking things, and even prostitutes are not allowed in the hotel" - glad they cleared that one up for me. Hmmm...

Not long after stepping out the front door of my hotel, I was befriended by a local tailor. She offered me a ride on the back of her bicycle down to the cloth market, where I was given several brochures to look through to decide what clothes I wanted to have tailor-made for me. Of course, being creatively-challenged, I opted for some rather boring items....If I have something specially made, I figure I want to have something that's going to get te wear to make it worth the effort...anyway, fun experience.

I also got shown the way to the alley of beauty parlours where I was offered a manicure for 5000 dong (65 Aussie cents)and a Vietnamese leg wax for 20 000. The beauticians smooth a talc stone on your leg and then attack it (your leg that is) furiously with fishing wire or something....can't quite explain it...I got a free 20cent coin size sample....quite bizarre!

Yesterday was a good day too...I started off by heading back to the cloth market to pick up my new clothes....On my way there, I was asked a grand total of 25 times, if I would like clothes made or a manicure....I finally found my trusty tailor and tried on my new clothes...not bad...but needed a few adjustments so I returned later in the evening to pick up the final products.
I then hired a high-tech Vietnamese one-speed bicycle (I think maybe a 1983 model) and did the 4km ride to the beach - I quite enjoyed dodging motorbikes, other bicycles, cyclos, dogs, buffalos, and pedestrians who decided to stop in the middle of the road for a chat or whatever! I ran into my German friend, Arne at one of the beach cafes and we spent much of the day soaking up the sun and swimming at Cua Dai. We had countless women come and offer us jewellery, drinks, coconuts, pineapples, bananas, mangoes, Pringles, beer nuts, even foot massage, manicures and leg waxing (like on the beach - yeah right!) Arne ended up telling the ladies that he couldn't buy from them because he was "promised to someone else"....I told him that that meant he was going to go to another country to meet his arranged-marriage bride and maybe that wasn't the best thing to say

We befriended a rather gammy looking old lady who decided my sarong was a good place to park her buttocks for a good 20mins in hope that we might buy some pineapple If I see her again tomorrow I might even buy some....in exchange for a gammy photo of course After too much sun, we wound up at Treat's "Same Same but Different" Cafe to eat Cao Lau (Hoi An speciality - basically a Caesar salad with noodles - the water the noodles are cooked in comes from one of the local wells so you can ONLY eat it in Hoi An!) and play some pool.

I spent this morning doing a tour of the Champa ruins at My Son. The Cham people had their kingdom at My Son between the 2nd and 15th century AD and according to our trusty guide (who promptly deserted us upon arrival at the ruins; I suspect he was in search of Karaoke), the Chams were not only 'dark people', but also pirates -hideous isn't it - well he certainly seemed to think so?!?! Because of the frequent trade with the Indians, the Cham people adopted Hinduism (Shiva was their 'patron saint' and is depicted in many of the sculptures), wrote in Sanskrit and had an Indian artistic bent (Yes, I looked this up!) Anyway, the Vietnamese like to compare the Champa ruins with those at Angkor in Cambodia....hmmm... Still it was very interesting and the surrounding scenery was quite picturesque. Much of it was bulldozed during the American War and consequently you have to kind of mentally reconstruct the sites in your mind...For now, it'll have to be my Angkor.

When I got back to Hoi An, I had lunch (including yet another banana lassi) and met my friends at the bike shop. We cycled to the beach and soaked up the afternoon sun. Just like yesterday, we had vendors come and sit on our sarongs offering to sell us everything under the sun.

I'm off now to meet some people at Tam Tam Bar. I'm also hoping to run into more cyclo-popcorn-vendors playing Lambada or Happy Birthday as they pedal through the streets of Hoi An - very amusing

Tomorrow I was considering hitting some of the pagodas but I'm getting a little pagoda-d out....so might wait til Saigon til I venture into them again. There are some fantastic art shops here so must head back to them too!

The nice gentleman at the reception desk of the hotel has kindly decided to crank up the juke-box with Richard Claderman music... maybe I'll stay here and soak up the lovely atmosphere some longer

But enough writing for now....
Ciao
Belinda x

P.S. I am considering starting up a rental-assistance business in Sydney. So far I have two (potentially three) clients... A Pommie chick and German Guy....they've both promised me dinner at 41 in Sydney if I can find them a place to live. So if anyone has any rooms for rent or knows anyone looking for a housemate for 3-12 months, please let met know.

Chasing Ho Chi Minh

03.12.2002 32 °C

I awoke for my last day in SaPa to the heavy patter of rain on the roof of my bamboo hut. OK, so I was staying in a hotel, but the roof was bamboo on the interior and there was pattering rain. It was a shame because I had been planning on heading back down the valley to CatCat village and saying goodbye to the cafe owner and family I had met a couple of days before... I also had grand plans of taking another motorbike taxi to one of the nearby villages, just for fun. It's quite a thrill to ride on the back of a Honda Om like a lunatic around windy streets through tremendously beautiful countryside and wave to all the locals (occasionally poking out the tongue doesn't hurt either). I'm constantly chanting "please don't crash" the whole time, but of course everything has been fine.

Considering the amount of traffic on the roads (so far) anddifficulties encountered as a pedestrian, it is quite surprising that I have not (yet) witnessed any road accidents. Actually, I think the Vietnamese aren't terribly bad drivers after all....after all, no-one actually drives any faster than about 40km an hour, their honking system seems to work quite efficiently, and, they are a fairly relaxed people so the road rage typical of many drivers in other nations (Portuguese men for instance), doesn't make them top candidates for road accidents. Then again, I think the stats on road accidents here would contradict what I'm saying so it's probably better I don't even mention 'em.

I was informed yesterday that Vietnamese road laws (say what?) stipulate that you must wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle and there are to be no more than 2 people on a bike at a time. Well.....I don't think most people can afford a helmet and I have seen motorbikes carrying at least 5 people on occasion - I have also seen a motorbike rider quite competently balancing 5 fat pigs ('com le' - I learnt a new word!) and several balancing as many as 30 geese!

Anyway, I wound up having lunch with a very pleasant American in a nice Vietnamese restaurant...it's funny how much mutual foreigness and power-failures get people talking. After getting chased up the main street of SaPa by one of the H'mong girls with a tennis racket (I kid you not, she was bitter that I didn't buy any more of her wares), I boarded the night train for my return journey to Ha Noi.

Lao Cai would have to be one of the more fascinating border towns I have visited. It sits about 3km from the Chinese Border and is an aesthetic gem by night! It's star attraction would have to be its miniature replica of Paris' Eiffel Tour. From our fair-dinkum Vietnamese diner we had a spectacular view of this architectural masterpiece - all 10 metres of it! The fact that we had one of the guest's dogs sitting at our feet for the duration of our dining experience, added to the whole Parisien feel. I am positive the Vietnamese Tourism Bureau is going to abandon it's "Vietnam, a destination for the new millennium" of recent years, and replace it with a "Lao Cai, a destination for the connosieur of fine Vietnamese cuisine"....

One problem with the night trains in Nam is that they leave and arrive at rather peculiar times. My arrival back into Ha Noi was at about 4.45am Sunday morning. It was too late for even the Karaoke noodle men to be up and boogying. In fact, I was beginning to wonder whether or not the train had truly arrived in Ha Noi as there was not a honk to be heard...I caught a taxi back to near my hotel and it was quite eerily silent...Actually the greatest amount of noise appeared to be coming from the hotel at which I was to be staying - the hotel manager's snoring! Because it was so jolly early, I was quite content to sit on the steps of my hotel and wait for them to open up shop. The lady in the hotel next door opened up quite early though, around 5ish and insisted on phoning my hotel so they would let me in. Within seconds I was ushered into the hotel foyer (the family living room) and given blankets and a pillow so I could sleep on the comfort of their lounge chair (a church pew!)!

The foyer was a hive of activity at this early hour and I didn't get a wink of sleep....too much interesting stuff going on. Firstly I had the hotel cat running around like a loony before settling happily in the basket on the front of the motorbike parked in the foyer. Secondly I got to see the garbage collection lady stroll past. And even more interestingly, the hotel manager's wife, whose turn it was to keep watch in the foyer, was quite a colourful sleeptalker. Of course it was in Vietnamese, so I had no idea what she was saying, but still very amusing. I was half expecting her to break into some somnambulistic trance around the hotel, but I had to be content with the sleeptalking ramblings.

On a more serious note, since Sunday morning, I have been constantly paranoid that I am being followed around Ha Noi. It all started with my visit to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. I caught a motorbike taxi over to the mausoleum (much to the disgruntlement of my pedometer) and queued up with the masses for my 'pilgrimage' to see the glass sarcophagus of Uncle Ho. Everyone who goes to the mausoleum must approach it in single file along Ba Dinh square and is watched with great scrutiny by the seriously underwhelmed guards. It is very tempting to try and get the guards to crack a smile. Somehow I didn't think it would go down so well at the mausoluem of Uncle Ho, so I resisted. The temperature grew colder and colder as I entered the mausoleum and finally I arrived in a dimly lit room where HCM lay at rest.

It was very very creepy...he looked rather like a wax museum model but the booklet I was given when I bought my ticket assured me it is really him....Anyway, since this creepy encounter, I have been seeing HCM lookalikes all over Ha Noi, particularly on the trek to perfume pagoda yesterday...

The rest of Sunday I spent wandering the markets of Ha Noi and perfecting my "Woo-woo" cyclo catcall in response to the invitations of cyclo drivers. I have yet to get the hand-waving motion down pat - give me a few more days and it'll be sweet. Some poms from the hotel and I found out they were showing a Man United/Liverpool Soccer match live at one of the nice cafes inthe Old Quarter so spent the evening down there. We probably could have ducked in to any house we walked past however as the Vietnamese are soccer-nuts.

Yesterday I spent doing a trip out to the Perfume Pagoda. Lonely Planet laud the pilgrimage to the pagoda and surrounding scenery as "something not to be missed", so I had pretty high expectations. Needless to say, it was a little disappointing. Whilst the scenery on the walk up the mountain was quite lovely, the pagodas were nothing out of the ordinary, and at the end of a 3km mountain hike was just a cave. It was an interesting day nonetheless, I met an Italian aeronautical engineer, and some MORE jolly Swedes! Swedes are good value.... maybe I'll do my next trip to Scandinavia. I also provided entertainment for the Vietnamese folk who werevery amused by my Vietnamese flag T-shirt. I'm not quite sure what was so funny, but I must have had at least 30 comments and cheesy grins from the Vietnamese people doing the pilgrimage to the top of the mountain.

This afternoon I arrived in Hue, in Central Vietnam - not far from the former demilitarized zone. It was quite muggy here on my arrival - at least 30 - and very humid. I headed straight out to the spectacular Citadel and Forbidden Purple City. The citadel contains some beautiful temples, palaces and gardens. Even though much of the city is in a state of ruins, it is very beautiful. Tomorrow I'm thinking about heading out to the Royal TOmbs of the rulers of the Nguyen Dynasty...and perhaps visit some more pagodas!

Will be heading further south to Hoi An on Thursday and may spend a day bumming on China Beach before hitting Saigon and Mekong Delta.

Gotta go, dinner is beckoning.

Bel xx