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.
No comments:
Post a Comment