we finally are further south in central vietnam

[Kristina Hoffmann]

hello hello, (attention - long again)

 

(dabord: mes chers amis francophones... je vais essayer aussi ecrire en francais bientot.. mais j'ai pas assez du temps. desoleeeeeee!!!!! alors ici en anglais deja :) )

 

finally another email from me.. i know, it's been long. :) and i'm pretty sure this email will be it too, when i manage to finish it.

 

life is still so busy . but we are moving on - finally - direction south vietnam where it's supposed to be warmer, but rainy. but lets start from scratch.

 

i think my last email was from hanoi? we spent nice day there. had a 1-day trip to Halong Bay which is really worth seeing. big "mountains" in the see close to the coast. like in china. i'm sure many of you have seen pics of it before. the trip was nice, but incredible how touristic it is. boats boats boats everywhere. but just to see it and be on the see with a bit of peace and quiet was worth it.

 

then a 3hour busride back to hanoi to pick up a ready-packed backpack and within 10min off to the trainstation to take the night train to go to Sa Pa. a twon in the mountains from where you can see the highest mountain of vietnam. unforatunately it's been really cloudy. and cooooold!! we knew it would be colder.. but like this... brrr. and room without heating of course. cold everywhere. but in the sunshine during the day. so we did a bit of trekking to see villages where a couple of minorities are living (there are 54 minorities in vietnam). it"s been really interesting and we had both days a guide for ourselves. which made even better. very nice impressions of the people, very colourful, the landscape (amazing.. as long as it wasnt too foggy), the rice fields (amazing structures)... everything. our last guide even invited us to a house of his friends to drink rice wine with them. ... well, it"s drinkable, but i'm not a fan of strong alcohol... i mean: to drink it pure. ;)

 

but especially in Sa Pa (bit like everywhere) it's been amazing that we were 'welcomed' by many kids asking "where are you from?", "what's your name?" ... just to talk to you, "become friends", follow you, if necesssary for kilometers when you start talking to them, just to sell you something in the end. incredible what a good english they had... just because of all the tourists...

 

but by now we know  how to ignore people and to say 'No'.. even if i dont manage to pronounce it in vietnamese.. it works in english very well. :)

 

the two days in Sa Pa went very quickly - so back to Hanoi and one day of a bit more sightseeing and already sending the first parcel back to germany. somehow my backpack is just too small... dont know why. i dont have many things with me ,but apparently it"s still too much. so i sold my own little daypack and bought a bigger (fake) backpack in Hanoi. now it's already better.

 

next day - off again. i think it was the 1.12. by now. taking the bus to Ninh Binh from where we took at tour to the oldest (i think) nationalparc in vietnam: Cuc Phuong. veeery nice. not only because i loved the wild forest, but also just to be outside of the city, the noise, have jsut nature around you, green, animal noises, smells, good weather, ... and no other western tourists. :)

we spent the day there and on the way back we experienced our first traffic jam. wow... if nothing goes anymore, everybody just looks for a space to go on - no matter how or where. so blocking the other/opposite side of the road happens as well and where is which direction in the end... is a good question. the main rule in the traffic is: the stronger one goes first. and please always use your horn to make sure you get your right.

and given that the streets are filled with little motorbikes, bicycles and also cars, trucks, busses, ... but especially the first two.

oh - and another thing: women use to wear a protection in front of the mouth. before we thought this is because of the smog and pollution, but now we know it's also becuase of beauty: be pale and you are beautiful. so sometimes teh women are covered everywhere with coloured tissues and only the eyes are still open.

 

but anyway... after this very nice "break" in the nature we took the nightbus further south to Hue. there - what a luck - no sight of rain as the forecast said, but blue sky and sunshine. so quickly breakfast and visiting the old city of the emperor. Hue used to be the capital of vietnam for a while, until 1945 if i remember right. now it's Hanoi again.

 

our plan to sleep for once longer the next day (we get up between 5-7am every single day) before taking the next bus changed again.. as all our plans. we cant waste the hours of the morning and "rented" motorbike drivers to take a 4-hour trip to the country side to visit a couple of pagodas (buddhist temples in vietnam), see buddhist monks praying, an old arena where elephants and tigers used to fight (well.. it has to be mentioned that tigers are the 'bad' ones as they kill men and animals, and elephants the 'good' ones as they work for men etc. so...they took of the claws and big teeth of the tiger to make sure that the good wins over the bad ;) )

we enjoyed this trip a lot. not only speeding with the motorbikes (ok, only 50km/h), but also - again - out of the city and seeing the real vietnam, little streets, people, rise fields (which, by the way, are flooded in winter to use for fish farming), ... just a great morning and one of the best ideas so far. :)

 

Hue has been a nice stop and city and i really liked it  as it's been quieter and more relaxed. not to mention the sunshine. :)

 

and to make sure that the "holiday stress" doesnt finish: again the bus further south to Hoi An.

a beautiful bus trip which i hope not to forget. through mountains, looking down to the valleys with still green rice fields (like on postcards ;) ), .. anyway.. we arrived, surprisingly, on time.

 

nice guesthouse again. it seems we get more and more luxurious rooms.. but nothing else to get here. but we dont complain to have a room with big bed, even balcony and bathroom with bathtub. would you!???

yes, the trip is rather very touristic, but as we want to see as much as we can and 3 weeks are not enough at all, we do a lot of booked tours ... BUT it has to be mentioned that this means in tgeneral that you go with a minibus and get your own guide for the day. which is nice to be just the 4 of us and no stress, asking questions as much as you want etc.

 

ok, but now i'll finish in a minute as we have to go and get some food before taking the night bus again.

 

just to say that we didnt do any tourism here in Hoi An as we had enough of it. but we went shopping again. the first time getting clothes ... readily made withour measures. wow. and i have to say - they look good. :)

but so.. my backpack is fuller again. but we plan to send another parcel home in Saigon anyway.

 

and today we still made a tour to an ancient city an hour away from Hoi An from an ancient population here: My Son. very nice.. BUT we had the first time just rain, rain, rain...

well, but i wont complain. no real tan yet, but many many beautiful impressions and experiences.

 

ok, will stop now for real. sorry that it got so long again. (but fortunately you know me)

 

thanks to all your emails!!! i'm REALLY happy to read them and am very sorry not to have replied! but we are maybe in the internet to read emails, but writing takes so much time which we dont really have here at the moment. so many things to do and see. so sorry again.

 

but - as usual - i'd be more than happy to get news from you! can i jsut ask you one little favour?? it would make it much easier for me if you could send me a separate email and not reply to my long one here. i loose a bit track if not who i have replied to and to whom i didnt. thanks so much!

 

a very smiley hello from Hoi An in central vietnam where it's raining cats and dogs,

kristina

 

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