we are pretty excited to finally be in Vietnam. Remy and I have been enjoying Vietnamese food for our more than 26 years together and we have had many conversations about how great it would be to experience the food with the culture and visit this diverse country someday. Here we are!!
Our journey started in Hanoi, the capitol, that was all aflutter getting ready for the biggest holiday of the year, TET ( Chinese New Year)
Several locals at the airport tried to tell us that it would be "impossible" to find a restaurant or a guesthouse open during the holiday and so we should stay with them to ensure accommodations. We thought this sounded ridiculous so took our chances and grabbed a taxi to the Old Quarter. It turned out to be the first of MANY lies we were told by several Vietnamese people.
For some reason every one of the 6.5 million people that live here were carrying small trees on the backs of their motorbikes! We later learned that they use peach blossom or kumquat trees in much the same way we decorate pine trees at Christmas, except that their trees can cost up to $800 USD and they get re-planted after the holiday every year. They place them prominently inside their homes or places of business and decorate them with greeting cards and good luck symbols. They are a symbol of wealth and are said to bring prosperity for the coming year. We were lucky to be here at this time of year to see the transition from one year to the next and to witness the rituals like the cleaning of the entire house or business. No sweeping or cleaning is supposed to be done during the 10 day holiday so EVERYONE was getting it done now. Even the motorbikes were getting a good wash.
We called our family run Guesthouse from the taxi and they were all set to welcome us to our 2 rooms with A/C and close to the lake. Excellent.
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| The streets are so busy! And traffic seems to flow in every direction- literally. |
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| We still marvel at how many people and how much stuff gets transported by motorbike. - note the blossom branches on the back of the bike. They probably can't afford the whole tree. |
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| A kumquat tree - a BIG one! |
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| The streets are fascinating to us. We are SOOOOO glad we aren't the ones driving. Little did we know we were about to encounter our first scam of our trip. One of MANY in Vietnam.
Our taxi stopped in front of what we thought was the Camellia 6 guesthouse and a very friendly man named Bing jumped into our taxi claiming to be the guesthouse owner. He informed us that our guesthouse was full but that they had a second location very close by and they had two rooms for us. He would take us there so we could see it. We were disappointed but what can we do? At least we had an option in this crazy, hectic place. I bet all of you travellers out there have already recognized the scam but believe me, this was so slick even veterans like us were completely oblivious to what was happening. Read on......
We checked into the Ngoc Mai hotel, dropped our bags and got ready to venture out to the crazy streets. We were approached by Bing about booking a tour of Halong Bay. This was something we wanted to do anyway and his prices seemed to match what we had been told by friends so we booked for the following day when the weather was supposed to be sunny. 2 days on a luxury boat with unlimited drinks and fantastic food sounded like a great way to explore the bay. More on this later...
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| Every bit of sidewalk space is taken up with the over 6 million bikes in Hanoi. There is no choice but to walk in the crazy streets, single file and always on alert. |
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| Imagine trying to cross from one side to the other! We had some advice to just start walking and they will weave around you. Don't stop, change your pace or make eye contact with the driver. It works! Its scary as hell to do and goes against all instincts but it does work. |
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| Everyone is getting dressed in their finest for the family gatherings |
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| Overpriced donut lady. She never made a sale with us. |
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| These balloon bouquets get so big and the Vietnamese people are so small we half expected them to lift right off the ground! |
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| I will never complain about traffic in Calgary ever again. No, this is NOT rush hour. |
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| A beautiful assortment of fruit but it's all covered in chilli pepper- bummer |
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| If you can't afford the whole peach blossom tree you buy a few branches
As we crawl into bed our first night and start thinking about the events of the day it hits me!! We've been scammed. Bing has intercepted our ride to the Camellia 6 hotel aided by our taxi driver who knew where we were going and overheard my conversation with the real guesthouse owner. OMG. I'm so pissed but Remy is asleep so I have to keep it to myself and I have a brutal time falling asleep. I called the Camellia 6 in the morning and sure enough, they had held two rooms for us and we never showed up. SHIT! I'm so sorry. "No problem" he says. We learn this type of behaviour is very common in Vietnam. Everyone is trying to get business away from everyone else which makes it stressful being a tourist.
None of us feel great about now getting on a 2 day cruise booked by Bing the Scammer but we don't have any choice. We have paid in full and Bing has left the city for Tet so there is no chance of a refund. Double Shit. We will deal with this when we get back and hope that the tour is a good one as it was very expensive.
After a three hour cramped mini van ride we arrive at the pier in Halong City to board our luxury boat. Uh oh..... this doesn't look at all like what we expected.
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| It's all downhill from here. |
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| Bowls are put to many uses in this country. Not all of them are for soup! |
It's a bit grey today but the bay is still a beautiful place. This view is from the Dragon cave.
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| We are still waiting for our "free drinks" |
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| Hollis' new pals |
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| There are almost 2,000 of these beauties out there. |
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| We finally got a few "free drinks!!" |
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| Cat Ba Island. Beautiful but we didn't expect to spend the whole day here! Why aren't we on the boat enjoying the views of the bay? |
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| Does this mean you can buy a live chicken for lunch too? |
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| We aren't on the boat enjoying free drinks and the view but we are enjoying a nice hike. |
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| Laughing gas, seriously? We don't find it particularly funny. The boys had many stories to tell us about their night on the town watching people inhale nitrous oxide for fun. Weird.
Here's the worst scam story ever. Grab a coffee and relax..... it's wordy.
We were sold a "luxury" two day cruise with meals, booze and accommodations included by a fellow named Bing. What we got was the backpacker special - no water offered at any meal unless you paid over inflated prices, constant shuffling of all our belongings from one boat to another so no time to just relax. No drinks although I got that part in writing so after arguing with the brown toothed tour guide for about an hour I downed 4 vodka sunrises and Hollis gulped 7 beers!
We stayed in a super skuzzy hotel the first night and were told our beautiful bungalow on the water had been affected by the tides and were not livable. Ya right
Day two we lolled around Cat Ba island for the whole day where all the shops were closed due to the Chinese New Year. The misty cool weather only contributed to our misery and we had lots of time to think about how badly we had been scammed.
We were served the same boring food for 2 lunches and two dinners. Stir fried cabbage, piles of white rice, veggies with crunchy onions, way overcooked fish- head still on of course, cold spring rolls and 1/4 slice of watermelon for dessert. No beer, wine as promised and no water. If we brought out our own we were threatened with a 10,000 dong sir charge ( about .75 c for water) and about $10 for wine or beer.
Day 2. We are promised our night on the boat will be on the Red Dragon, the nicer boat. When we arrived back at the pier ( at dusk so no time to enjoy he beauty of. Halong Bay which is exactly why we were there in the first place) we were told to board the crappy boat for sleeping. About 10 of us were all promised the Red Dragon and we had all decided we would stick together and refuse to get on the crappy boat.
Well, of course that's exactly what happened. Imagine two ferries tied up to the wharf. 10 backpackers standing on the wharf freezing in the 15 degree temps and refusing to move until we get what we have been promised. Both boats are filled with other passengers bundled up in long pants , sweaters and scarves who are drinking beers and watching the showdown. The Tompkins family has paid $135 US/ person while everyone else has paid about $60. Guess who is most pissed?
Of course I am the spokesperson for the whole group and carry on an arguement with the skinny Vietnamese guy about how this whole trip has been one scam after another and that his job is to take care of his passengers. We are NOT getting off the dock until we get our room on the Red Dragon!!!!!!!!
Skinny guy gets on his cell phone and rings up brown tooth who has just abandoned us at the wharf and made us all walk about 100 meters to the water - not "luxury" treatment"
He passes his phone to me and I get into another discussion with brown tooth about how he has promised us all the Red Dragon and now we are expected to get on the crappy boat He says Red Dragon is full and is not his fault. Too bad I say. We are not moving.
Much yelling goes on between skinny guy and brown tooth guy then he hangs up and gives us an ultimatum. Either we get on the crappy boat now or they are leaving us there on the wharf and we will have to walk back 100 meters to the parking lot and hope someone is there to take a back to the skuzzy hotel.
The boat Pulls away from the wharf and we are all in shock that he is actually going to dump 10 passengers on the wharf in the dark.
We figure this is just a scare tactic and that they won't actually leave. The other two women ( who are wearing shorts and tiny tops are visibly shaking from cold and from nerves) nearly start to cry. They are wanting to defect and are apologizing to me for wanting to give in. I assure them that they need to do what is best for them and that I am speaking for me and my family. They can do what they need to do for themselves.
By this time we realize the boat has stopped and is coming back to the warf. More arguing goes on between me and skinny guy. He gives me a sob story that it is Chinese New yr and while everyone in his family has gathered to celebrate together he is working and hasn't eaten all day.
Remy jumps into the ring and tells the guy we are not concerned with his nutritional status for the day, Connor throws in the one two punch which includes an F-bomb which nearly knocks skinny guy out of his knock-off designer jeans and we all decide to board the crappy boat.
We are told there is room for two people on the Red Dragon so we give that up to one of the shivering girls and the rest of us wait in the dining room with all of our stuff taking up a whole Bunch of room.
We wait for about 20 minutes then skinny guy comes back and tells us to move over to the next boat- no easy feat to do with a 20kg pack on your back 5 kg on your front, a ukulele, an electric guitar and a food bag!
So we move to Red Dragon and are given 2 room keys! We are shocked! He has kicked out the Korean group and has given us their rooms. Our room is a little used and there I a pair of underwear left in the bathroom but we can love with that. We all gather for another boring meal of fried cabbage and overcooked fish and share our sob story with our new friends.
I went to our room about 9pm for a cold shower ( also not luxury treatment) and to read my book. We awoke to breakfast of one cold fried egg, white bread and tea. No water, no juice, no salt and pepper even.
It took us over two hours to finally get two small bottles of water for the 5 of us to share. Later that morning while we were cruising back to the harbour I noticed skinny guy and the bartender were enjoying a beautiful bowl of hot noodles for breakfast. I went over and snapped a photo and told him it was interesting that he was eating so well while his paying passengers were fed a cold egg and white bread.
He was very upset with this and came over to our table to inform me that this was the only meal he had eaten in he last 24 hrs and how I wasn't appreciating the fact that he had given us two bottles of water for free. Well, that's when Remy laid into him about how water is a basic human need and the fact that they weren't supplying their passengers with enough of it was totally unacceptable. Skinny guy went back to his table and finished his breakfast with his back to us and we carried on playing Uno with our new Swedish friends.
The entire trip was a disappointment The bay is beautiful but the mist and fog set in so it was hard to get a good view.
I could go on about how we were scammed to book the trip in the first place but my thumbs are getting sore.
-we are going back to talk to Bing about getting a partial refund and threatening him with having his Visa privileges revoked for fraudulent charges against us if he refuses. Fun!
Today is a new day here in Hanoi and we are so happy to be on our own again and free to drink as much water as we choose. We have a lovely little patio that looks over the very quiet lane off off the very frantic street and we have a fridge to keep our tonic cold for a G&T later.
Back in Hanoi!
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| New Years Day and the streets are covered in sparkles |
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| There are lots of lovely narrow streets to explore |
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| A big celebration taking place right on the sidewalk. We were invited to join them for some whiskey but the boys were expecting us. Darn. |
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| A really beautiful hotel, likely without an elevator. |
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| The Camellia 6 hotel owner (far left) and a very small woman we met at the local temple down the street. We finally made it here to stay a few nights. Good, honest people! What a relief. |
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| There are many very cool bikes like these in SE Asia. |
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| Eneryone is dressed to the nines - we are the exception. |
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| Communist art |
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| West Lake in the heart of Hanoi |
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| Begging monks. This was an unusual sight for us |
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| gold, gold everywhere |
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| More creatures to release for good luck. Connor should be buying a lottery ticket next to try to cash in all all this "luck" he has accumulated. |
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| I often wonder if Asian men get tired of taking all these super posed photos of their wives/ girlfriends. |
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| A sticky and sweet treat made in front of the temple. |
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| Temples are great but pagodas are awesome too! |
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| Water Puppet Theatre- just like it sounds. It was originally developed to be played in rice paddies. The coolest part was the music, played live beside the pool. |
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| A total stranger offers us help. We are suspicious, but they ended up being great people. |
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| Another sparkly hotel |
If you ever go visit don't walk out of line, don't whisper in the tomb, don't wear your hat, don't get too close to the tomb without taking off your sunglasses and definitely don't try to bring in your home made machete. Guess which things we did?
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| Suitably sombre and at attention outside Ho Chi Minh's tomb. |
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| A smiling Vietnamese woman- quite a rarity! |
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| Grilled Pork Banh Mi- It's taken us days to find one like this. |
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| Museum of Ethnology- we should build one of these in Inglewood |
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| Travelling with 4 boys I can never get away from talk of penises, not even at the museum. Remy is giving a not-so-subtle hint. |
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| This woman from Sapa says the footbath is good for our health. Now if only our feet fit in the bucket. |
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| Hoan Kiem Lake- A nice oasis from the chaos in the streets. We are leaving Hanoi on a high note but look forward to seeing the sun again as we head south down the coast to Hue.
~Liz
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