Rice and Rock Concerts

Have you ever wondered how english songs end up in the charts in non-english speaking countries? We spent an hour or so at a bar in Saigon called 'Acoustic'; a pretty plush live music venue. Until covers of Jon Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams came on we were entertained by local Vietnamese music that was actually pretty good.

Today was one of those days tourists need when they have travelled for a few weeks - sleep in, grab a late breakfast, shop, shop, shop, grab lunch, shop, shop, hotel for shower, beer, meet shannon, beer, meet shannon's new girlfriend, have dinner with shannon, steve, lizzie, quan, and jenny, then go to aforementioned bar. To anyone trying to contact me by mobile I apologise - whilst in Asia my phone bill became due and from lack of net meant it was late by 7 days, and 3 Mobile in their wisdom has cut me off. So, to 3 Mobile, reconnect me seeing as my bill is paid! Quite possibly the most average service I have seen from a telco in a longtime.

We fly back tomorrow night and while we've loved every minute of our trip it will be nice to be home and not living out of a pack and moving every couple of days. A retrospective and a 'culinary journey' update is due shortly. See you all soon.

Three Suits, Four Dresses, Five Skirts, Four Jackets, Three Coats, Thirty Six Shirts, and Six Pairs of Shoes; Hoi An of course!

There is more to Hoi An than their tailors, but we certainly ensured that we had plenty of time to get everything made that we wanted. We arrived in Saigon last night from Hoi An, and I'm about to head down the street for some pho so I'll update some pix now, and do some writing this afternoon, but this means the blog is almost back up-to-date.[gallery]

I think we forgot to be tourists in Hanoi. Whilst we rolled our eyes when Shannon sent us a message telling us we were going to spend Saturday in Hanoi at the Aussie Big Day Out, once we were there we loved it. More of a trade fair than a rock concert, it was hosted by Auscham, and was a place for the Australian/Vietnamese business communities to come together and watch the Dream Team AFL Match (which was a crock concept, and result,) eat hotdogs, and drink a lot of beer.

We were pretty novel as three tourists rather than expats, but Lizzie spoke to economists, Steve chatted to importers about wine, and I kept busy speaking with media and NGO's. By the end of the night we all agreed that after a fortnight of non-stop travel it was good to have a day off from thinking.

Lizzie and I caught a cyclo and went to see Ho Chi Minh lying in state in his Mausoleum, and though I found the concept slightly weird, to see the complex and the regalia attached to it was fantastic. That was seriously about it for Hanoi; bought some DVDs, ate KFC, yes, KFC (none of us woke up 100% after the BDO), and then caught a lift with Shannon to the airport in his Australian Embassy Landcruiser, complete with Chauffeur.

Note to anyone flying Vietnam Airlines from Hanoi - pay the $10 'fee' and relax in the Business Class Lounge. We did, and ate and drank far more than it cost us to enter. There will be no receipt issued though, and we're pretty sure it didn't go in the till!

I'll update with a few happy snaps from the weekend later today.

I don't know if it was the nine hour train trip from Sapa, the 4am arrival, the five hours in a hotel in Hanoi, or the 2 hour train trip to Ninh Binh, but it didn't get off to a great start.

Lonely Planet and few other sources had talked up Ninh Binh, 97 km south of Hanoi, as a place to see the real Vietnam. Rice fields, farms and pushbikes, but having taken the train through the mountains to Sapa we'd seen it all and more. The city is sleepy and whilst that is a characteristic that shouldn't be considered undesirable, it's perhaps something we were looking for in a small town rather than a big, loud city.

Lizzie wanted a hairwash and cut, and Steve and I were well due for a shave, so we found a 'salon' around the corner. Steve went first, and at the halfway mark I decided to stick with the beard. This left Lizzie nervous as to what was in store for her, but she escaped fairly unscathed with clean, and slightly shorter hair. Not at all confident that we weren't at a motorbike repair shop rather than a hair salon.

Ninh Binh does hold the record for our cheapest meal in Asia - 57,000 dong for a bowl of duck pho and a bottle of coke for the three of us; AU$1.20 Each! The next day we rented motorbikes and paid for a guide so we zoomed off chasing our man into rural Vietnam. To its credit Ninh Binh did have some amazing scenery that we would have greatly appreciated had we not just been in the North West Mountains. A climb up thousands of stairs and we had a great view over the rice fields and limestone stacks, and if there was ever a place for a coke machine it was a the top, but alas, just a strategically placed pagoda.

Once we were on the motorbikes we found the journey far more fun than the destinations - Tam Coc near Ninh Binh is on a river where we paid to be rowed in a boat through the limestone stacks, but it was too hot, and suffered from day-trip package tourists from Hanoi venturing down and ruining the serenity.

The road-toll in Vietnam is horrific, on average 36 people die per day, and given their population is just four times Australia's they're clearly doing something wrong. We rode motorbikes through tunnels under construction, on roads inches from rollers and graders, and at one stage on a huge concrete storm-water drain on a 45 degree angle. We loved every minute of it and with a decent motorbike and a GPS I could be very tempted to go on a moto odyssey through Asia.

We went to a National Park on the next day which consisted of a 6km walk. The Vietnamese are not big users of trundle wheels though, and it was more like 10km, and our guide, nor map mentioned it was up and down a mountain. The park has a monkey sanctuary that made the long trip worth it; endangered species are bred in captivity, and reintroduced to the wild. Dozens of zoo's from around the world have donated funds and expertise, and it was good to see the Adelaide Zoo was a contributer.

Before we knew it and we were on the train back to Hanoi, where we were meeting Shannon for the Australian Chamber of Commerce's Big Day Out. To be continued![gallery]

OK, so due to lack of internet in Sapa, Ninh Binh, and then Hoi An this blog is far from up-to-date, but hopefully by tonight we'll be sorted.

For people who don't know me I'll let you in on a secret - I've got a lot of time for bakeries. So when Lizzie was looking for accommodation and found Baguette et Cocolat I was sold. The experience sleeping in one of the four guest rooms, and waking to the smell of pastries being baked in the basement was nothing short of sensational.

I had read plenty of reviews and travel reports about Sapa, and had heard that it can get pretty chilly and wet. I thought I was smarter than the average traveller and had kept track of the weather at nearby Lao Cai. Little did I know that Lao Cai was only 38km away, but 1km lower than Sapa, so a pleasent 28°C, Sapa was rarely above 15°C - shorts and t-shirts were no longer the appropriate attire.

After enjoying a great breakfast we headed off towards Cat Cat Village, just a short walk from Sapa. The views were spectacular, and we were accompanied by three women from the Black H'mong tribe. These women, like nearly all tribal women we came across, were selling everything from scarves and pillow cases to silver jewellry. It was clear from the start that they were going to follow us until we bought something, but after Lizzie broke early and purchased a bracelet for a sizable figure (by Vietnamese standards) it was obvious we would have them with us for a great deal more time. We actually skipped past Cat Cat as there were hundreds of package tourists jumping out of their buses when we arrived, so we just kept walking along the path past houses and small farms all built on steep terraces.

The coffee we drank on the walk back is worth mentioning. Just past Cat Cat, but not on the itinerary of the tour buses, we stopped for a 10,000 dong coffee (about 75c.) It was the coffee that could start wars and solve world peace all at once; even stronger than the water buffalo that greeted us on our walk. Turns out it’s also the same coffee that people in Sydney are paying up to $50 a cup for, you know the one, where the cats eat the berries then someone goes through their number-two and gets the coffee bean.

On our walk back we went to a ‘restaurant’ that we’d walked past earlier that had some amazing looking skewers getting cooked on a small charcoal fire. It was nothing more than a spot in the street with a tarp for sides and a roof, but the food was spectacular, barbecued pork, charcoal rice, Bun Cha, which is pork soup, charcoal greens, a bowl of rice, and a couple or rounds of cold beer, all for a couple of dollars each. So good, we even went back for dinner that night. Which goes to show that Sapa is a little lost on their food - the place is fully set-up for tour bus package tourists, who are eating mostly western food, with some Anglophil asian dishes thrown in for good measure. We just couldn’t find anything that was good, cheap, and local that wasn’t street food.

After our lunch we bartered with three motorbike riders to take us to Tram Ton Pass, which was a road under construction at the time of riding on it. It took us from Sapa to the road to Lai Chau, which in turn takes you from the coldest town in Vietnam to the warmest. We didn’t head into the town as the 30km ride on the back of the bike was pretty tough work, but the ride was for the views, which were absolutely breathtaking.

Our last day in Sapa began with another brilliant breakfast (I’m getting a few jibes about constant referrals to food, but I insist, I’m on ‘culinary journey’) and then met our motorbike riders from the previous day. A quick trip down the hill to see a Red Dzao village resulted in more shopping for Lizzie, Stevo firing a cross bow in a house, and me being the token photographer trying to take buffalo photos.

Lunch was in the Sapa market where we were served Bun Cha again, and the pork that was going into our soup was getting charcoal grilled before our eyes. The temptation grew too much and we asked how much to grab a chunk of grilled pork and have it sliced; 20,000 dong - about $1.25 for enough meat for three of us! It was like having a sunday roast in the market.

Before we knew it the time had come to head back down the hill to Lao Cai, and with some help from a cafe owner we had our train tickets in our hands and we made it on the the plush Livitrans Express back to Hanoi.

Our knack of finding the locals again proved true as we spent most of the trip back to Sapa in the bar drinking counterfeit Jack Daniels with the security guard, Ha, which resulted in victorious arm wrestles for Australia, and a mind-blowing hangover for me.

Off to Ninh Binh south of Hanoi now...

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