Hue - land of lies

Arrived in Hue to a swarm of young Vietnamese men trying to secure our custom at their commissioned hotel. When all you want to do is get your bags off the bus and orient yourself, it’s a tiring dialog of ‘no thank you’ ‘we’ve already booked’ ‘no, thank you -we just want to get our bags please’. To escape it all we jumped into a taxi which after 3 seconds we realised was a big mistake. He asked for flat fee first, then agreed eventually to put his meter on. He proceeded to take us around in circles on the scenic route and then eventually to our hotel after we threatened to get out. The scams, lies and hassle can be disappointing and tiring and only seem on the increase as we head further north.

The hotel we got dropped off at was a little out of our price range and of course super nice. They were lovely and took us to a sister hotel with cheaper rooms. In contrast perhaps not as plush but overall our room was excellent value (a/c, cable Tv, fridge, bath, balcony etc) for $12 a night. As usual the staff asked us where we were going and what we were doing each day, then urged us into taking a river tour. In fairness we planned on taking a river tour eventually. We were also nicely urged into a private car to the airport. The line was drawn however at the DMZ tour (de militarised zone, the border between the old north and south Vietnam) which is over 100kms away.

 Dave sitting in front of the flag tower within the Hue Citadel

Our the front of the Ngan Gate outside the purple palace.

Dave in front of the Emperor Gia Long's reading room

Dave in front of the Thai Hoa Palace

The Koi in the lakes near the entrance to the Thai Hoa Palace

You could pay 2000 VND to feed them and they were very hungry!

Every time that you venture from your guest house or hotel you are accosted by locals and asked EXACLTY the same questions. First they try to get your attention by clapping, then they say ‘hello’ and as we are not completely rude we respond with a greeting - bang, they have you hooked and proceed with ‘where you from?’… ‘Australia’…. ‘ahhh Sydney or Melbourne?’… ‘Melbourne’.. ‘how long you in Vietnam?’ ‘ 1 month’… ‘very nice…have you done a tour?’ ‘no thanks’ ‘how about an easy rider bike tour’ ‘ no thanks’…. ‘do you need a car to the airport’ … ‘no thanks man’ … ‘you have guesthouse?’… ‘no thanks’.

Today we got scammed into having lunch with a nice man who said he had family in Melbourne and would love to chat. He then paid for lunch and said he would be happy if we bought him a bottle of wine for him to enjoy with his family and the monks at his temple. We agreed, but he wanted Dave to go to the market alone with him which we declined as politely as possible - so we just had to offer him the money for the wine and his face suitably lit up. We asked how much it normally was, he said we should choose how much -  but the nicest bottle was $250000 VND, we decided on $100000 VND and handed it over. 2 seconds later a cyclo driver told us the man was a liar and scammed tourists often. We may sound stupid for being believers but it’s so hard to be rude and cause confrontation when you feel something isn’t right.

We never get scammed out of a lot of money - the most damage is done to our trust when we reach out to create genuine connections with local people. Overall we have found many of the Vietnamese that we meet on the street (in the North) to have an ulterior motive. Every time you walk down the street we feel like we have giant neon dollar signs above our heads. It’s hard to be made a fool of, it’s hard to travel when you are not respected enough to part with your money for a genuine service or item at a fair price for both parties but mostly it is hard to feel compassion and understanding for the hardship that ultimately motivates some people to treat you in this way. This is not an overall Poo Poo of the Vietnamese people, on the contrary so many have been delightful, friendly and lovely. Let’s call it a observation of a slight issue that has been wearing down our armour.

On another positive note Hue offered us some stunning temples and palaces which we explored on bicycle and foot. The tour turned out to be well run and interesting too - most stunning were the beautiful tombs of 2 of the previous emperors. 

 In front of the Thien Mu Pagoda

 By the Song Huong river near the Pagoda

 Our our Dragon tour boat

 Lunch on the Dragon boat

The Tu Doc Tomb on the Song Huong River

Dave under the arches at near the base of the tomb

Keeping cool near one of the many lake of the tomb

In and around the ground of the Tomb

Mr Iguana...

Tomb of Minh Mang

 The stairs that lead up to the tomb

Amelia on the stairs, in the sweltering heat!

In and around the grounds of the tomb

The walls inside the tomb are covered in Mosaics that took thousands of people, working non-stop 6 year to complete.

Up close to the details..

Hoi An - you buy from me?

Arrived at 5.55am in Hoi An, disorientated and in dire need of a toothbrush. So we sat at the Sihn Café for 20 mins to rejuvenate and then took a taxi to town. Hoi An has an Ancient Town which is heritage listed and the newer town surrounding it, the taxi dropped us off at the edge of the old town (no cars are allowed within the old town). After 2 seconds a woman approached us and asked if we needed somewhere to stay (backpacks say a 1000 words), we said YES and 10 mins later we were asleep. Our room was old, humble, large and rather charming…with yellow wooden doors, opening onto an ornate French colonial balcony. As always in Asia anything you need comes to you, you don’t need to put in any effort. Sometimes this means there are lots of things on offer you also don’t need! And in our case it was a very persistent lady insisting repeatedly that we go to her tailor shop…not what we really needed at 6am after a 11hour bus ride. 

A view down the street from our hotel balcony

After a nap we woke and walked the streets unfortunately venturing unknowingly straight to the market. Hoi An is the shopping capital of Vietnam and if you want a break from the selling you shouldn’t hit the market - we were bombarded with ‘Lady, you BUY from ME’, ‘Hello, Excuse me, Buy from ME’…etc etc. After 10 mins Dave asked what I thought of Hoi An, I declared I wasn’t impressed. However once we emerged from the hot stinky market we were blessed with the quaint streets and a SHOE SHOP! 20 mins later our feet had been measured and we had 3 pairs of shoes on order…(Hoi An started to look like a 10/10)…next thing we knew we were in a Tailors (the sister of our shoes maker) who were delightful, 1 dress, 1 coat and 3 shirts later walked on air home (well I did!)…after a 2 ½ month absence from fashion and shopping - it was heaven :) 

We returned the next day to pick up our clothes, further tweaks were made and we agreed to return again that night. We were also were invited to dinner, cooked by Tam’s (our Tailor) family…5 sisters, Aunt and Uncle. We were blessed with a lovely dinner that night with 10 people around a little table sharing rice, fish, tofu and delicious vegetables. All the girls thought Dave was hilarious as he had learnt some Vietnamese and was trying it out at every opportunity. It was a lovely night of genuine food and fun…we will be emailing Tam when we return home with more clothes for her to make for us!

Can you spot the Aussie?

The next day we hired bikes and rode a rather hot and sticky 5km to the beach. Once we arrived Dave realised he had forgotten his wallet, so he did the extra 10kms to our hotel and back to retrieve it. We needed money to pay for parking our bikes and it also costs $1.50 to hire a sunbed with a grass roof umbrella to relax under - we no longer lie on the sand!!

Our nights and days in Hoi An mostly consisted of walking around the beautiful streets and gastronomic delights - the food was beautiful, plentiful and cheap. 

One of the many Chinese influenced temples

 Amelia and a nice friendly Pheonix

In and around the streets of Hoi An

The Japanese covered bridge

Amelia by the river enjoying the architecture

Typical (and of course very beautiful) Hoi An Architecture

Dave again wondering the streets

Every morning also consisted of a breakfast at the Green Moss café, so I could have ‘Noir’ the perpetually trembling black Chihuahua sit in an awkward ball on my lap. Noirs's mum (the cafe owner) knew I loved him and would place him in my lap every time we came in - a daily highlight for me!

Noir, Noir Noir!!!

Nha Trang - Surfers paradise...much?

A tacky tourist trap at first site but after further exploration it offered more than enough for a good time. We hired sun beds under the comforting shade of grass roofed umbrellas, the water was clear and aqua and actually refreshing with a slight chill before the warm. A shore break ensured the water was deep and there was plenty of waves for Dave to dodge. After 4 chapters of my book we decided to hit it and check out the local cuisine, which Nha Trang offered up in plentiful tasty morsels. First stop was Pho Carli, fresh rice paper rolls and delicious soups with fresh chili, herbs and bean shoots that we know Vietnamese food is famous for at home. After a suitable stuffing we were happy to return home, once again trying to be a pleasant as possible when deciding not the buy books, sunglasses, cigarettes, tissues, and more sunglasses from the local mobile street vendors.

Our spot on the beach

The 'Beaconsfield Pde' of Nha Trang

Dave negotiating the shore break

The night after we went to Truc Luang for dinner where Dave was able to select his own fresh fish and a squid from the ice baskets out the front, which they then BBQ’d  and delivered to the table, seafood in Nha Trang was plentiful and tasty from all of Dave’s accounts (including his King prawn curry that resembled a never ending supply if crustaceans)

Apart from sunglasses, Nha Trang also offered diving companies in their hundreds and after careful consideration we booked with Coco Dive centre, because they have the biggest boat. Next morning at 7.30am we headed out to the harbour with 9 other divers, boarded the lovely boat (indeed quite large), to then watch all the dive boats unsuccessfully leave at once, there were at least 3 collisions!

The harbour of many collisions

The view on our way out to the reef (cable car to VinPerl resort)

Once we were free we headed out to the first reef, suited up and the people who actually knew how to dive jumped in. I on the other hand slowly suited up and sat nervously on the edge while some guys attached some sort of inflatable vest, an air tank and fins. To do a ‘try dive’ you don’t need to do or know anything, they hold your hand, control your flotation and anything else you might need to know if you wanted to dive. So a nice French dive master answered my nervous questions and then held my hand for the next 35 minutes and 7 meters in depth (a total of hand holding never accrued through repeated attempts with Dave). Overall the diving was amazing with 20 meters visibility, colourful fish and coral. Dave saw a scorpion fish, a lion fish, octopus and a trumpet fish amongst many others….diving a further 10 meters past me.

Dave emerging from his second dive

The view from our boat once we reached the reef

A nice man encouraging me to jump in..

Mr puffer fish...or some sort of fish that looks like one

Giant star fish!

All done, squashed face and all

That night we caught a sleeper bus to Hoi An, which is an experience - there are 3 rows of bunk beds and which are sort of like a sun beds, the back half angled slightly so you can’t sleep flat. Overall it was pretty comfy and for an 11 bus trip it felt really quick..