J'aime - Vietnam- A la Folie

The first part of my trip through Vietnam I traveled with Thomas (the one I started the banana diet with in Laos). We met each other again in Vientiane after my visit to the Xaiyasith family. The last part I traveled by myself again.
Together you can share experiences and do things I never would do alone: going to a waterpark or spa for example. But alone I can come closer to the local people and enjoy small and basic things around me, like they do.

Vietnamese People also have the ‘Asian smile’, but in comparison to people from Laos and Thailand they express more, much more their emotions and needs. If they don't have patience, they will tell you so :) and if they want to skip you in a queue, they will let you feel with their elbows without saying sorry; so I learned not to say ‘pardon’ anymore, in crowded situations ; they don't care that much.
They have also their own way of helping others. Once, when I was looking for something on the map a helpful lady took without asking, my map to show me the place where we where. For me it was OK, this time I didn’t have to ask for help, although she turned me in the wrong direction, further away from my guesthouse ....

I went again by bus from Vientiane to Hanoi in 25 hours. Easy if I remember my 32 hours trip to Montenegro via Sarajevo a couple of years ago. This time it didn’t take that long because of the long distance but because of the sort of transport: we started with passengers from Laos and Vietnam and some travelers like me. But we didn't leave the bus station before each empty space was used for (non) food packages, to be delivered along the road to Hanoi.
Later, in Vietnam, I expected the stuff would be dropped time by time, but instead of that we had to give up our last free (leg)space for even more (non) food packages. So I started questioning myself: is it the package that travels with me or am I traveling by (non)food transport ?!?!:) However, by watching the Vietnamese panorama and listen to the claxon of the bus driver every 5 seconds (to alert local people on the street to ensure ' faster' traffic), we finally arrived save and sound in a beautiful Hanoi.

Hanoi is.......Paris in a cosy way.
In Hanoi's small streets everybody is almost sharing his living room with the pedestrian, sometimes with a small (or big) shop in front of it. And a lot of trees share their shadow with me, making it livable the whole day long although there are a lot of motorcycles (90% of the traffic) in these cosy streets and there are no traffic rules.
So everybody uses his klaxon to say 'Here I am coming, so hurry up
-move- or be aware!' and so on, every 5 seconds :)
I was lucky I already had had some experience in Jakarta last year, where I once said: 'to cross the street you have to run for your life or just start walking and thus force the traffic to wait for you'
Here it is almost the same, but the cosy, small streets with a lot of crossings made it sometimes impossible to 'tell' the motorcyclist you want to reach the other side of the street ALIVE, cause they appear at the last moment. However, I never saw accidents. Does no traffic rules and a lot of chaotic moments make people more careful? or more experimented to participate in unexpected situations???

In Hanoi I went to a hairdresser, an expensive professional from Paris, to lose some weight on my head. After explaining by hands and feet my expectations of my next look, a well dressed lady waited for me to wash my hair. It was almost a full body treatment; they gave me head massage after head massage for at least 25 minutes, in a room where all the women were lying next to each other. One of my neighbours was an employee taking her siesta. When I finally reached the chair to have my haircut, they started cleaning my ears (to be sure no washing water was left there behind) and giving me a neck and back massage.
Then finally the hairdresser came to cut my hair in less than 10 minutes.... and after drying it (with assistance!) and a final-touch-haircut, I got my new ‘Asian’ look; the upper part too short and the lower part still too long...But however, I kept it like this thinking maybe I will appreciate it later, and I did :)


Hue
From Halong City - to have a look in Halong bay- back to Hanoi again, to take the second bus to Hue, we waited for a long time for the bus that never came. So, cheated or a misunderstanding, we decided nevertheless to buy new bus tickets for the sleeping bus. A sleeping bus sounds relaxed till I met my new bed in Asian size (yes indeed, small)
When we had installed ourselves satisfactorily to sleep, I realized we needed 5 sleeping places for ourselves and our stuff. We were very lucky to be able to keep this space because our Vietnamese neighbours –to-be-that-night were willing to look for another place when they saw my face :)
Next morning after having had breakfast at 6 AM (Asian people are used to it) we continued sleeping till 10 AM while our Vietnamese fellow travelers looked backwards in amazement from time to time, cause they were much less used to this sleeping habit.

Hue has once been the political centre of Vietnam. Today it is beautiful because of its emperors history and some pagoda's and Japanese bridges which we went to see by motorbike.


*From Hue to Hoi An by bus; 3 hours*

Hoi An
Hoi An, for me a miniature Hanoi (atmosphere, architecture) but in many ways also the opposite of Hanoi. Hoi An is less crowded which makes it a peaceful place to stay and we did, from June 3 – 9, also a festival period where Miss Vietnam and Miss Universe will visit the city but during their visiting hours I was still sleeping or chilling :) so I missed miss whatever.
It was also Full moon which means: no electricity in the old town and a lot of lanterns dropped in the water of the harbour by Vietnamese people. But whenever I asked the local people about the meaning of all these things, they didn’t know. They didn’t know why June 3-9 is so special and they didn’t know the reason why the electricity got cut during Full moon. The last day, while I bought some lanterns for home, a television crew of 'Ho Chin Minh TV' asked me for a tourist interview about the lanterns of Hoi An while I was taught how to make a Hoi An's lantern by myself! so I did; see the movie...


*From Danang to Saigon by plane 1H10*

Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City
Before I could start looking for a cheap hotel, a thin, tall lady asked me to follow her for a cheaper than cheapest room. A bit suspicious, because what will it mean cheaper (?) I decided to follow her. She brought me to the smallest street ever with a maximum possible number of living-rooms on one hectare in Southeast Asia, hidden behind the main streets of Saigon. While I was thinking about what my next sleeping place could be in this cosy ghetto area, I arrived at a small and high (typical Vietnamese style) house, very well kept compared to the neighbour houses that were made of iron plates. A small private hotel run by a whole family (Grand father and Mother, Sisters and Brothers and their kids watching TV, while grandmother was preparing a meal :)
So I arrived tired but satisfied at what was to be my new home.

I was told people in the south of Vietnam are nicer than in the North. I think that’s not true, they are the same. People in both parts are nice, only in the south they express their feelings more easily. Here in Saigon, I go very often to the same cafe to eat. When they see me coming, they start yelling to welcome me. In Hanoi, they would never have done so. But there, one of the waitresses of the cafe where I used to go for my meals expressed her appreciation of my visits by writing on a handmade postcard that she was happy about me coming there. The way is different, but in fact it is the same.

Every morning when I leave the house, I walk through the small ghetto area to enter the main street. On a corner a woman already starts preparing my breakfast before I can take a seat (baguette with egg and vegetables!). This area is a place where the poor meet the rich: an old man is reading his paper in front of his iron (box) house, or someone is sleeping on the street. But next to him, someone is checking his email-account on his laptop. It seems it’s no issue for neither of them although I haven’t checked by asking them (they don't speak English at all and starting a conversation on this subject by hands and feet, no way!)

Vietnamese life is always busy. Although they don't work all day long (just as I saw in Laos) they get up very early (4-5 o’clock) to do some health exercises (they told me so) on the streets or in a park nearby, before all the motorcycles will appear. In the afternoon, during sunset or evening hours, a lot of people are eating noodle(soup) on the streets or have social talks drinking Vietnamese (iced) tea, especially in Hanoi where they gather around the Hoan Kiem Lake. Between 10 and 11 o'clock everybody goes to bed and then it is really quiet on the streets apart from some lost tourist that is still walking around :)

Guesthouses here were a new experience in comparison with the other countries. Each room I rented was sort of a surprise: from a private waterfall behind my head to a private sauna in the bathroom of the next guesthouse, both times due to a badly functioning AC system. Or we could play volleyball in a super- spacious room! My last sleeping place in Vietnam was more like a home: someone making a coffee or preparing some fruit for me when I came back from daytrips or even someone sleeping behind the door to be able to open it for me when I arrived late at night. But even here(!) I had a nice surprise! One morning they all went outside and closed the door! So there I was inside with no keys to open it and I had to catch the daytrip bus! Lucky me that this time I found some 'lost’ or ‘forgotten’ keys with which I was able to open the door. I escaped to have my breakfast at the usual place where I also met the housewife who looked at me with shame and amazement at the same time because of my unexpected appearance!

During my stay in Saigon I made a daytrip to the Mekong Delta and I really enjoyed it, but if you ask me “is this something I must absolutely do when in Saigon?” I ‘d say “No, if you go to the Loosdrechtse plassen and see reed everywhere, imagine a palm tree or a tropical plant instead and it will be the Mekong Delta!

I also went to see the Chu Ci tunnels: the Vietnamese once started to build/dig them to be able to attack the French during their colonial period and used them again later (and extended them) during the Vietnam war. It was really amazing to see the different ways they were able to attack the enemy and you really feel the history when you have entered the tunnels. But be aware! don't take the wrong direction and end up in Cambodia!

(More pictures of Hanoi and the movie as soon as possible) !!!