Tag Archives: vietnam

Once upon a time in Saigon

Fact #1: Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, not Saigon (came as a completely surprise to me)
Fact #2: Ho Chin Mihn City is the official name, but nobody in the south ever uses it. It is Saigon.

Arrived to Saigon at 4:30AM. Shared a taxi with Singaporeans I had briefly met on Lang Biang mountain in Da Lat. A guy on a motorbike found me a room for the 1€ fee. I made him carry my baggage to my room too. Continued sleeping. Woke up two hours later. Went outside and met a fellow traveller from the Laos phase, who was about to leave Saigon. Funny how it goes.

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Saigon has got nice bustling energy. It is sometimes compared to Bangkok, but not as large and not as wild. Saigon is the city of ubiquitous motorbikes. Reputed for its mad traffic, where crossing a street can be a challenge, but I did not find it that intimidating. The worst traffic I saw was in Ulaan Baater with its too many cars, no traffic lights and complete disregards for any traffic rules. On the other hand, Ulaan Baater taught me how to cross a street. The secret is to just go, full of confidence and clearly showing your intentions. Saigon is piece of cake comparing to the capital of Mongolia, as most of the traffic is motorbikes with higher maneuverability. As a bonus, uou can cross the street in any fashion (diagonally across a roundabout for example). Unlike Bangkok walking around Saigon and gazing at the local street-life is surprisingly pleasant, although the heat was killing. There are some parks scattered around the center and tree alleys French style providing a refuge from the heat. The dehydration was ever-present and no matter how much I drank I could never quench my thirst and during the day body hardly produced any urine. In a true backpacker fashion I saved 2$ on A/C in my room, but had to pay with constant sweating. On my last day I went to Botanical Gardens to escape the heat and chill out only to find out that the “garden” was full of caged animals and theme park attractions.

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Saigon has two “must visit” sights: The Reunification Palace and War Remnants Museum. The Reunification Palace is left in its more or less original form after the war ended and is a fascinatingly strange place, indeed. There are very few individual exhibits, the whole place is rather one gigantic exhibit. Very 70s and very charming. The basement is particularly interesting with its semi-empty office rooms, outdated communication equipment, metal tables and wall maps. The roof has a replica of the helicopter Americans used to flee, when North captured the city. Good stuff. The War Remnants museum is, on the other hand, a proper museum. The front-yard proudly displays captured American war machines and has got a replica of prison cells used to hold Vietkong prisoners.
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Inside the museum are the exhibitions dealing with a brief history of the war, Agent Orange, aftermath and so on. The exhibitions are very graphic and sport in your face attitude. No toned-down Western style. The general message of the museum can be summed up as: French came, we kicked their asses. Americans came, we kicked their asses. Chinese came, we kicked their asses. Several travelers have complained that the museum gives an one-sided picture of the war, but hey what can you expect. It is Vietnam, it is communist and it is their war.

I like Saigon. There is nothing much to do in terms of sights, but said before the city sports nice energy. You get constantly pestered by motorbike drivers (Hello! Motorbike?) offering their service, but their attitude is good-natured and friendly, although persistent. Not for the weak-spirited. After two days in Saigon it was time to move on. I pondered between Mekong Delta and Phu Quoc and finally settled on going to Mekong Delta. But after talking with fellow travelers from Canada, Niels and Stephanie, who were going to Phu Quoc, I suddenly realized that I had seen Mekong already and change my mind to fly to Phu Quoc. So the finale beach phase has begun.

Highlands again – Da Lat

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Da Lat, the City of Flowers. A third stop in Vietnam, 13 hours by bus from Hoi An with a short stop-over at Nha Trang. It is the third highlands I have visited so far after Cameron Highlands in Malaysia and Bolaven Plateau in Laos. All the three are very different to each other and Da Lat is almost taiga-like with very little resemblances to the tropical nature. It is also the most developed of the three and in fact is a sizable city with population of 120000 (and probably the equal amount of tourists), bustling traffic and flourishing tourism industry. Da Lat itself is rather boring. If you go by the recommendations of Lonely Planet, it will be most certainly a big disappointment. There are many places to eat, drink and have fun, but not a lot in terms of sights. There a lot of pretty French built villas, who built them back in the day to escape the heat of lowlands, so Da Lat shines on the architecture front. There is even a mini version of Eiffel Tower or at least something that looks like one.
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One fascinating thing is Crazy House, which fully lives up to its name. It is a partly hotel, partly tourist attraction designed in Alice In Wonderland meets Middle Earth style. Very bizarre and very not socialist art-like. The architect studied in Moscow back in the Soviet Union days, which makes it even crazier. Room rates start from 32$, but I would imagine constant hordes of tourists (dominated by Russians) would make the stay well rather crazy. Flower Park, another attraction in Da Lat, is rather bland. I would rather go see the nature instead flowers planted in an organized fashion.

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The beauty of Da Lat is outside the city. Just rent a (motor-)bike and go to any of four directions to marvel at the beautiful nature of highlands. Сoniferous forests, greener than green hills, some waterfalls, vegetable plantations and at least one climbable mountain, Lang Biang. Elephant Waterfall is nice, but after seeing so many amazing waterfalls in Laos, I was not all that impressed. The waterfall and cave quota is exceeded on this trip. Lang Biang, on the other hand, was more exciting. There are two peaks. The lower one with a paved road leading do it and a restaurant on the top and the higher one just a mud path. Motorbikes and bicycles are not allowed, but visitors are encouraged to hire a mountain taxi to go to the top. I opted for walking to both peaks instead. I made it to the first peak just minutes before the storm, waited the storm to calm in the cafe and continued to the second peak after. The end result was climbing up a really slippery mud path in a rush and trying to make it there and back before the sunset. Made it to the top, took a couple of pictures and almost immediately clouds obscured the view completely. Five minutes on the top and I had to start a hasty descent before the sunset. Somehow I always end up in the jungle on a mountain just before the dark. Never been stranded on the mountain for the night so far, but the prospect of navigating my way down in the dark is not appealing at all.

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It rained every day and at times was rather chilly and even cold, but it was a nice change after the heat of “lowlands”. Dorms are scarce in Vietnam, so I got into habit of sharing a room with strangers. First it was a Chinese guy I met on the bus, then David from Catalonia, whom I had met in Hoi An using the same tactic. A great company and half the accommodation costs. Why not, indeed. Furthermore sharing food is always a plus in Asian countries. Deep-fried frogs and a deer salad on one occasion and seafood delicacies on the other one. 5€ per person for a selection of exotic seafood plates and a bottle of Da Lat red wine. I shudder to think what the same set would cost in Finland. Food is definitely one of the best things about Vietnam, especially after rather bland Lao food.

I spent three days in Da Lat and did not reach the “I wanna get out of here now” point, but it was enough for the first time. I arrived to Da Lat by a sleeper night bus and left the same way to Saigon. I can think of better ways to get a good night sleep, but the hectic schedule dictates its own rules. To be continued…

Two ancient cities: Hue and Hoi An

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Hue is the ancient capital of Vietnam. Today it is home to some relics of the past as numerous of royal tombs and Imperial Palace also known as Citadel. Hue reminded me of Xian, an ancient city in the central China, which I visited last November. However, unlike Xian Hue actually has an old feeling about it. While Xian is all new and modern and would easily pass as an European megapolis, Hue is much smaller, not as polished and has its own character. Plus antic relics actually look old and not as if they were built in the last decade. The Citadel is somewhat similar to Forbidden Palace in Beijing, but is not as boring and is in fact a nice place to spend a day in. It s not very well preserved, nature takes its hold forming a fascinating combination of ruins of the past grandeur, canals, lakes and tropical nature. It is very green and very decayed, and the end result is just lovely. Hue has got a cultural touch with its galleries, open door photography exhibitions and a fascinating outdoor collection of bonsai trees. There are probably more things to discover, but that’s how much I saw during my short stay there. I made it to Hue on 1st of May and there was some kind of festival going on with food, live music and acrobatics performance (Labour Day? End Of American War Day?). Not bad for the first day in Vietnam. Beach is some 15km from the city center and is easily reachable by ubiquitous motorbike taxis. I spent only one day in Hue, so did not have a chance to visit any tombs or visit the beach, but I would not mind visit Hue again. All in all, it was a very enjoyable beginning of adventures in Vietnam.

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Hoi An was next on the agenda. Another ancient city, a three hours drive away from Hue, just 25km away from Da Nang. The town is even smaller than Hue and is very boutique. Pretty architecture, stylish restaurants with excellent food, art galleries, inexpensive boutique hotels, souvenir shops everywhere, tailors and shoemakers, who will make your order ready the next day, fresh beer for 4000 dongs (that is around 15 cents) and all kind of sights around the area. Scenic green rice fields are just outside the city and en excellent beach is only 4km away. Oh, the joy of swimming in the sea (China Sea nonetheless!) after one and half months spent traveling inland and swimming in waterfalls and in the muddy Mekong. China Beach stretches all the way from Hoi An and Da Nang making some 30km long of rather undeveloped strip of sand and palms. No resorts, no bars and no restaurants. A personal highlight was making a motorbike trip to Da Nang with Tigen from Australia to see Monkey Mountain and Hai Van Pass. Monkey Mountain is a green peninsula just next to Da Nang. Again very undeveloped at this point, but the early signs of the birth of tourist infrastructure are there. A road to circumvent the peninsula and several resorts are being built, but nonetheless it is still pretty much mountains and jungle, just a walk away from the the third largest city in Vietnam! Hai Van Pass is amazing with its sharp curves and “foggy streets” Plus it features one of the most breathtaking sceneries I have ever seen.
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I keep saying that a lot, but landscape views seem to get better and better along my travels. Taking a futuristic glass elevator to Marble Mountain was awesome too. The mountain itself is not bad either, but souvenir shops selling all things marble around the mountain spoil the impression. In a nutshell Hoi An has got everything for a quality holiday. It is very touristy, but I did not mind it all. Somehow all the mass-tourism does not spoil the lovely atmosphere of Hoi An. I would have loved to spend more time in Hoi An, but the tight schedule made me to continue my progress further south. The next time I will be more prepared and order a pair of shoes and fancy clothes.