Sing Chao Vietnam

Crossing the border into Vietnam I felt so lucky to have got over whatever illness I had as this is the first border we’ve come across where the officials scanned us to test out body temperature. Had I still been unwell and measured an unhealthy temperature I wonder where I would be right now as we had already officially left Laos and if Vietnam wouldn’t let me in I might be taking up residence in No-Mans-Land! But all’s well that ends well and so none of that matters.

Out first stop was the town of Hue (pronounced hway) where we were only staying for one day so we spent it on a boat and took a cruise up the Perfume River to see a temple and a tomb and enjoy a day out on the river. We passed many fields and paddies where people were working away but all along the river we passed many small boats, low to the water and filled with sand or gravel, heading in the direction of the city. Further up the river we found where they had come from as the river was alive with activity, lots of boats working the same part of the river dredging the sand, separating it from the water, loading it on to boats and sending it homeward for use as building materials. Most of the workers we have seen wear the cone shaped hats made from reeds that we have all seen on the tv, I had wondered if this was now just a tourist gimmick but they’re still very much in use by locals, they must be cheap and effective. The language barrier became more apparent on this day out as the tour guide’s English was good but he couldn’t grasp our use of tact or consideration, he looked around us all so he could compare someone’s belly to Buddha’s, he read a girls palm and told that she’s stupid and soft in the head and then he said we all have big bums! It was really quite funny; we wonder how aware he was of the offensive way this had been put across.

Our next stop in Vietnam was a town called Hoi An, best known it would seem for making clothes for people, every second shop is a tailor keen to make a made-to-measure dress of jacket or shoes at a very reasonable price. While I didn’t have anything made many other people were unable to leave Hoi An without something new for their wardrobe. Other than that it was a lovely little town to walk around, ignoring the tourist shops there are some lovely old buildings to look at, it’s a very pleasant place to wander and soak up. A huge market on the riverside sells everything from fresh seafood to all fruit and vegetable varieties you can think of to household goods. Some of the stalls had a load of vegetarian alternatives, vegetarian meat slices, vegetarian beef chunks and even vegetarian pigs ears! Why any vegetarian would look for them I never did find out though as asking a question means getting chased around the market by the stall owner offering you a better price or asking why you don’t want to buy the thing you showed an interest in! It’s a nightmare, running away from them, and it also means we are back in the tourist hell of being asked every 5 minutes if you want to buy something, very annoying!

The main historic tourist attraction is the Japanese Bridge, just a small bridge over a small part of the river, it’s a covered bridge and very quaint and also has the alternative name of the Faraway People’s bridge which is my personal favourite. This part of the river is where a lot of international trade took place and so boats arrived here from many different countries leading the locals to name the bridge after the ‘faraway people’, how lovely is that?

While I’m so far enjoying my time in Vietnam I have to say that it hasn’t yet lit any fires in my soul and I’m keen to see other parts of the country that I might find more interesting. I know the north is far more enchanting but we aren’t heading in that direction, we’re heading south towards Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) via the beach, so I’m sure the landscape will appeal to me more soon. In the mean time, I am just making the most of their food and soaking up what is left of their culture through the tourist haze. The food is not bland but a curry I recently ordered had little in the way of flavour, it was more like a chicken soup, it tasted lovely but it never would have entered my mind to have compared it to a curry. The other dishes I’ve had have all been delicious though, very typically Asian with rice, noodles, soups and spiced meat, very nice, but once again the tourist trail shows its face as we are being given cutlery rather than chopsticks which we have to ask for.

Heading to the beach now on a sleeper bus, I miss seeing the countryside out the window but I enjoy the night buses, I still find it a novelty to have a bed on a bus!! After all the times I’ve slept on buses and trains these sleepers are just genius and I doubt I could get bored of them. Next stop Nha Trang.