Hoi An, Vietnam

Arrival: 02/15/09 7:00am

Departure: 2/18/09 at 1:30pm

Sight Seeing: Beach, Market, My Son,

People: Friendly

Food: Delicious, great seafood

Accommodations: Grassland Hotel ($10 per night)

Pictures: Pictures of Vietnam

Summary: Hoi An is a fusion of Asian and European culture in a quaint, cobble stone covered, village by a river that flows to the South China Ocean. You can chill out on the beach, grab a bite to eat by the river, or show off your new custom made outfit or shoes around the town. It is by far one of our favorite cities offering a variety of things to see and do.

Details: I've decided not to bore you with the daily activities of our trip but to focus on the highlights, cultural information, and lessons learned.

Hello Moto: After cursing the countless motorbikes, Adam and I finally broke down and decided to rent one for half a day. We found an eager man willing to rent one to us for $8 and after some haggling we ended up getting it for only $5. Living up to his word, he met us at our hotel the following morning at 7am with a relatively new, automatic motorbike and two helmets. Adam was the first to give it a test drive. I opted to watch from the sidelines as he got more comfortable with maneuvering it. With all his experience on a bicycle, Adam picked it up in no time. I was next. With my helmet strapped to my head so tight that it was giving me a wicked double chin, I hopped on the bike and gave it a little gas. My shaky arms made it challenging at first but I got the hang of it too. I turned the bike back over to Adam and hopped on the back and we were off to see some more ancient ruins in My Son, meaning beautiful mountain in Vietnamese. The hour ride led us through picturesque rice paddy fields and windy roads through small villages. After getting off the bike, our ears were ringing from the wind. It was great! We explore the ruins, which were beautiful, but couldn't hold a candle to Angkor Wat. I guess we're a little spoiled now. I drove most of the way back "home". We had a wonderful time and are already considering getting a bike when we get back home.


Vietnamese Cuisine: As most of you know, Adam and I are big fans of cooking and even bigger fans of food. In Hoi An we took a cooking class where we had our own personal instructor that taught us how to make three Vietnamese dishes, including fish in a banana leaf, sweet and sour pork, and fried shrimp cake. The class took about an hour and a half and we got to eat our tasty meal at the end. It was a ton of fun and we're very excited to cook it for everyone when we return home.

Bigfoot: Hoi An is a maze of cobblestone streets and old yellow buildings, now converted into hundreds of shops, from clothing stores with personal seamstresses to art galleries. You can get just about anything for a great deal. I opted to have a pair of sandals custom made to fit my big feet. I've never had someone measure my feet in three places and take down a custom design of my choice. After a day and $7 dollars later, I was sporting my new sandals with a smile.

 

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Arrival: 02/11/09 7:00pm

Departure: 02/14/09 7:00pm

Sight Seeing: Beach, market

People: Friendly

Food: Delicious, great seafood

Accommodations: Song Linh Hotel ($10 per night)

Pictures: Pictures of Vietnam

Summary: Nha Trang is a wonderful combination of city and beach without that many tourists. You can layout on the beach, grub on some super cheap seafood, or shop around the city. There are also a ton of islands to check out.

Details: We arrived after dark so we immediately took a motorbike (yes, at one point I cursed these buzzing bikes, but they are so much fun and way too cheap to pass up) to our hotel. Shortly thereafter we found ourselves in a Vietnamese restaurant eating fried tofu and rice with a tasty cold beer. After the long bus ride and dinner we decided to call it an early night.

The following morning, I checked our the market, which was just as uneventful as all the previous markets we have visited. No more markets for me. Adam and I ended up getting a killer seafood dinner with prawns, red snapper, and veggies all for a reasonable price.

The next day Adam worked and I relaxed on the beach. That night we had more seafood in the form of a hot pot which is basically a where the server cooks your food on a burner they place on your table. It was better than I thought it would be. Traveler tip: always have low expectations and you're sure to be pleasantly surprised, most of the time that is. That was another early night.

After laying out on the beach and getting a mile sun burn, or a base coat depending on how you look at it, we checked out of our hotel and stood on the street corner contemplating how we were going to kill seven hours until our bus to Hoi An arrived. With perfect timing, our motorbike driver, Quy Nguyen, came strolling along. After several failed attempts at trying to get us to go somewhere, he finally convinced us to go have a beer with him. Now this was not just any beer. It's called Beer Hoi and just a few street vendors sell it for 7,000 dong ($0.50) for one liter. AWESOME!!! Adam and I kicked ourselves for not knowing about this beer earlier. Eight liters of beer later, Quy and his buddies were reading our palms, telling our future, and teaching us how to say Happy New Year in Vietnamese (Choc Mung Nam Moi). It turned out to be the perfect way to kill some time. We ended up going on a walk around the town later, where my sturdy flip flops gave out and I had to go back to the market for another pair of sandals (which turned out to be horrible). After grubbing on some so-called indian food we made it back to our hotel where the bus to Hoi An picked us up. We arrived in Hoi An eleven hours later. Whew!

Mui Ne, Vietnam

Arrival: 02/10/09 1:30pm

Departure: 02/11/09 1:30pm

Sight Seeing: Beach, Sand dunes

People: Friendly

Food: Delicious

Accommodations: Ngi Than ($10 per night)

Pictures: Pictures of Vietnam

Summary: Mui Ne was an old fishing town at one end of the beach and a wanna be high end beach resort town at the other end. I wouldn't recommend stopping unless you want to break up the 10 hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang.

Details: After another five hour bus ride, Adam and I were happy to stretch our legs with a walk on Mui Ne beach. It was overcast and humid. On the northern end of the beach, there were hundreds of fishing boats in the harbor. We could see the unfortunate effects of the fishing industry after walking on the trash filled beach. I wouldn't recommend swimming in the water, but it was very beautiful to look at. We discovered the town had little to offer but a few restaurants and beach resorts where Adam ordered a watery coconut. It doesn't taste anything like you would imagine. The rest of the evening we laid low and relaxed in our cheap accommodations. The next morning we caught a cab to the famous sand dunes. There was a big miscommunication between us and the cab driver who wanted to take us to some other sand dunes that were lord knows how far away. It ended up costing us way more that we planned on spending but it happens. We we arrived at the closer sand dunes and they were anything but memorable. I guess that's what you get for living in the most beautiful place in the world, California.
After lunch, we caught a 1:30 bus heading towards Nha Trang, another beach town.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Arrival: 02/05/09 3:30pm

Departure: 02/10/09 8:00am

Sight Seeing: American/Vietnam War Remnants Museum, Fine Arts Museum, Markets

People: Friendly

Food: Delicious and cheap

Accommodations: Ms. Hai's House ($12 per night)

Pictures: Pictures of Vietnam

Summary: Ho Chi Minh City is a wonderful big city, but with a small town feel. The motorbikes hum through the clean streets like a swarm of bees, the markets are filled with every kind of produce imaginable and the latest Vietnamese gossip, and the tall buildings light the night sky with a rainbow of color. The people always seem to be happy showing a friendly smile.

Details: Immediately upon entering Vietnam, Adam and I could see a significant difference in terrain and economic status compared to Cambodia. Fields of green agriculture and palm trees swept the landscape giving it us a beautiful welcome. As we entered Ho Chi Minh City, we were excited to see a bustling and clean city. Our first order of business was to find accommodations. Being dropped off in the backpackers quarters there were plenty of options from hotels to guest houses. We were lead down a labyrinth of small alley ways where the casual Vietnamese families gossiped in the streets and sold food. A family owned guest house gladly welcomed us to stay in their home. The room was wonderful with a comfortable double bed, TV with cable, fan, balcony, "regular" toilet and shower, and internet!

We walked around the backpacker's area and found a restaurant where they only served one dish - Pho, a traditional Vietnamese soup with rice noodles. It was delicious! If you haven't tried it back home, give it a shot. The Vietnamese are know for combining the perfect amount of flavors and textures to their dishes.

The next day, Adam and I decided to follow a walking tour suggested in Lonely Planet. Our first stop was the indoor market. The market was quite similar to the one we visited in Siem Reap and they sold clothes, shoes, jewelry, produce, fish, meats, souvenirs, and toiletries. As we continued on our walk, we passed the Reunification Palace and stopped in at a small restaurant for a beer. Much to Adam's delight, they just fried up a fresh batch of chicken. Adam's eyes twinkled at the sight and he ordered one immediately. With a tasty treat in our belly's our next destination was the American War Remnants Museum. Walking through the museum left both Adam and me with mixed feelings. The Vietnamese told a brutal one-sided story of the war with gruesome pictures and some things that are to disturbing to mention in this blog. In either case, it appeared as through the 16 year long war affected numerous people and families from both parties and like most wars, was probably unnecessary. On the walk back we strolled through a shady park and enjoyed the dry warm breeze.

The rest of our stay in Ho Chi Minh City was a little less eventful. Adam got food poisoning from some fried frog he ate the day before so we laid low in our comfortable accommodations. He's back to normal and we're excited about heading north to the beach.

Phonm Penh, Cambodia

Arrival: 02/01/09 3:30pm

Departure: 02/05/09 6:45am

Sight Seeing: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

People: Sketchy

Food: Sketchy

Accommodations: Angkor Hotel - everything was broke but it was a great place to get catch up on sleep ($15 per night). PKD1 Guest House - clean, but a little noisy at night ($10 per night)

Pictures: Pictures of Cambodia

Summary: One of the dirties cities we've ever visited. It a good hub and the Genocide Museum was very interesting. There is no need to be here more than one day, unless you're like us, and are waiting for your visas.

Details: Our overall advice for Cambodia would be to fly into Siem Reap for a week or so before flying to, uh, anywhere that isn’t Cambodia. Hell, even Bakersfield would be an improvement.

If, however, you find yourself stuck in Cambodia’s capitol, Phnom Penh, it’s best to avoid the pungent smells of the city by staying indoors with a cold beer (or 24 in our case). Phnom Penh is without a doubt one of the worst places we have ever seen, though one must bear in mind the tragic events this country- and this city in particular- have undergone in recent history.

Imagine if, only 40 years ago, everyone was evacuated from Washington, D.C, not to return for four years. Now imagine that the capitol’s deserted schools were transformed into concentration camps responsible for torturing and murdering the so-called “traitors to the revolution” as well as their wives and children. Well, that’s basically what happened in Phnom Penh.

The Khmer Rouge Regime was a destructive communist party of Cambodia from 1975-1979. Most of their power was lost after a Vietnamese invasion in 1978, but it wasn’t until 1998 when they lost all power. The Khmer Rouge Regime executed, tortured, starved, and forced labor on innocent civilians of Cambodia killing an estimated 1.5 million people (1/5 of Cambodia’s population at the time). These horrifying acts of genocide are strikingly similar to Germany’s Nazi party.

Tuol Sleng, a genocide museum in Phonm Pehn, was a secondary school turned killing ground during the Khmer Rouge Regime. Where monkey bars became gruesome accomplices to torture and former class rooms where used as cells. Entering and exploring the museum is a heartbreaking and tear jerking experience to say the least. Viewing the prison cells, torture methods and devices, and photographs of all the victims helps you understand why Cambodia remains one of the poorest nations in the world. The massive extermination of 1.5 million innocent women, children, and men only occurred less than 40 years ago.

When the Khmer Rouge Regime was defeated by Vietnamese troops in 1979, survivors returned to Phnom Penh, hoping to rebuild their lives.