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