We speak of wishes and dreams and generally give little thought to an outcome. I am so very grateful, my dream has come to be. I am so blessed to have the family I do; my Dad who introduced me to Vietnam as a child and answering all my questions as we watched news casts of the US war in Vietnam. Kelly and Dean who you know so well, Mur and Christina for always believing and of course Randy for being who he is. I arrived, I ate well, I slept amazingly well, we laughed, I lived. We met the most amazing people who welcomed us, genuinely happy to have us as guests and most going out of their way to make us welcome and share their way of life with us. Some we met had so little and that mattered not at all. I have had the best traveling companions. Together we have sailed, strolled China Beach, risked our lives on the back of scooters on treacherous mountain passes and in unbelievably crazy city streets, barreled down horrendous mountain roads at breakneck speed in a rattling sleeper bus, arrived at an airport to find our tickets had been booked for 2014 (how does this happen), we have seen uncomparable beauty and kayaked in the South China Sea. There was so much more that is so difficult to put into words so I will end with this - I am so very happy to have seen my Vietnam Dream 1967 - 2013. It was everything I ever dreamed it would be and then so much more.
Holly Therrien.
Vietnam.
Whether it's the war from a not so distant past or the pho that I'm sure most of us have tried, Vietnam has made its mark on a lot of people. But to actually see and breathe it in, is a whole other story. To wait impatiently over the seemingly endless slow drip of an individual percolator, dripping over a bed of sweetened condensed milk. To the fantastic, traditionally based ingredients of the mouth watering spring rolls. From the screams of the street hawkers, to the exasperating honks of the impenetrable barrage of motor scooters. Vietnam is truly an exhilarating assault on the senses. It really makes you question your beliefs in life on what's edible and what is not. You really can push your limits. Fluffy little rabbits, they're so cute. But delicately slow roasted, their cuteness turns to pure deliciousness. Vietnam truly has a belief that if it moves, it can be eaten. They take this belief to the far ranges of what most of us in the western world believe to be incomprehensible when it come to our beloved fur babies. The scary things for us, we feared that if we had tried dog or cat, we may have liked it. We had heard from many travelers that when it comes to Nam, you either love it, or you hate it. For us, we feel that our 6 months on the road has numbed out the reptilian part of our brain that screams DANGER with all the chaoticness that is Vietnam. For Holly to travel with us, we're sure she felt comfort having us on either side. Most travelers we talked to said, Vietnam truly started once they got off the bus and were dumbfounded at how they were supposed to get across the street to their hotel. To us, it's chaos, but to the trained observer it's Beethoven's symphony at a rock concert.
We started in the south, Saigon. Kelly and I had our first real taste of luxury since leaving on this trip, thanks to Randy (Kellys Step-Dad). He was of the belief that if his wife was to backpack Vietnam, she needed to rest and recoup after the long flight. Holly arrived looking refreshed and ready to go. She was expecting to be sleeping in a dorm room, so when we showed up to the 5 star hotel, (which was a surprise) she actually seemed a little disappointed. But as the day wore on, her eagerness settled down and the need to get caught up on sleep crept in. The 5 star comfort became a welcomed, unexpected pleasure as she dozed into a silent abyss for 12 hours of sleep. :) All the while, Dean laid in the next bed over hoping his ibuprofen would kick in after a nasty mishap with hot, oily soup broth that burnt both his legs and a thumb. The 2nd degree burns would put him out of commission for the next day, which was disappointing.
Museums are not usually on the top of our list of places to visit, but after some really good reviews online, Kelly and her Mom decided to give it a go. It's important to learn about the history of the countries we visit, especially ones that have as much history as Vietnam. Nearly 3 hours later they left the museum with a heaviness looming over from the purely horrific portrayal of the Vietnam War, or better known here as the "American War". The tourist attractions in and around Ho Chi Minh are helpful. Painting a very clear picture of the well known war, how the people endured it, survived and moved on. We visited the famous Cu Chi Tunnels which were impressive to say the least. Amazing what people will and endure to ensure their survive. To lighten the mood we spent an evening on scooters and went on a scooter/food tour. We all had so much fun and ate some very delicious food. We left Saigon after three days and began our cross country adventure.
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| Just one of the many booby traps used by the militia. |
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| Inside the Cu Chi tunnels. Made bigger for the tourists. Used by the Vietnamese for 30 years. |
We started the journey from Saigon to the highland cities of Da Lat and Boun Ma Thout. We were forced to head to the interior due to a typhoon hitting the coast. Da Lat was a beautiful little city that the french had established as their highland get away for big game hunting. We had a lovely couple days walking around and one day was spent on a guided scooter tour arranged through our guesthouse with the owners son. He was, without a doubt, the nicest guide we have ever had. Such a pleasant, good hearted young man. Holly sat on the back of his scooter and the entire trip they talked, him showing her everything. The drive was gorgeous. We visited a silk farm, rice whiskey brewery and observed the excruciating hard process for removing granite boulders out of the hills to make granite bricks. We went to Elephant Falls and Holly really pushed her limits by hiking down to the bottom. It was such a great experience to watch her conquer an obstacle that she wasn't sure she would be able to do.
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| Almost to the very bottom of the falls. So happy with our progress. |
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| Huge boulders of granite which gets broken into small bricks by chisel and hammer. |
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| Inside the silk factory. A big source of income for Vietnamese people. |
Boun Ma Thout near the border of Cambodia doesn't see many white foreigners. This was made evident when Kelly and Holly went for a swim in the outdoor pool. They were causally swimming around when they looked up and the entire conference room which was full of people, everyone was now standing at the windows taking photos. Embarrassing? Just a little. We had plans to visit a small village out of town where we could ride an elephant to a near by river and give them a bath. But unfortunately for us, when we showed up, the river was flowing to fast and was to high for the elephants to enter. We left Boun Ma Tout for Da Nang on a 16 hour sleeper bus. Despite the luxury of 'lay down' seats, the ride was long, too long. We vowed we wouldn't do that again...at least not when Holly was with us.
Da Nang. We arrived just missing the typhoon. The beaches were in full repair mode. So much sand had been blown off the beach and onto the streets and boulevards. It was all being swept up and delivered back to the beach. It was a shame because this was the famous "China Beach". One spot that was on the top of Holly's must sees. Despite the fact that we couldn't swim, we had fun on the beach with our umbrellas and dipped our toes in a few times. We had some fantastic meals here and did some sightseeing to the Marble Mountains with their impressive caves and temples.
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| Dragon bridge. Shoots water and smoke on Saturday and Sunday. |
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| This was a beautiful cave with a temple built in it. The Buddha in the upper back left was carved out of the marble in the mountain. |
We also spent a day at the neighboring town, Hoi An. We arrived not knowing what to expect and were pleasantly surprised. The town still has its original charm from when the french built it. It was too bad that we didn't have more time to explore. After enduring the 16 hour bus trip, we elected to fly to Hanoi. Why not? Tickets were only $38 each. Slight problem though, the tickets came in for 2014 and we didn't realize it until it came time to check in. Oops!Oh well, nothing a credit card and a smile can't fix.
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| Hoi An at night lit up by hundreds of lanterns. |
Hanoi. We arrived in the old quarter of town and found a pleasant place to stay. Our plan was to head out to Ha Long Bay for a 3 day/2 night tour. We quickly put the plan into action and booked ourselves on a ship leaving in a couple days. It wasn't sunny, nor was it hot, but the fact of the matter was, we wouldn't have wanted it any other way. What we had was perfect in its own way. The almost 2000 islands jet straight out of the ocean and when viewed from a distance, appeared magical. Almost like an optical illusion.The food served was top notch. We sure got our seafood fix. We met some great people (2 Irish girls who work for Facebook, who were an absolute hoot). Had fantastic service, so good that our room greeted us with a free bottle of red wine, fruit and a bouquet of red roses.
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| Our boat. |
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| Fertility Cave :) |
On our 2nd day, we boarded a smaller day boat and found some relatively
untouched waters. It was clean, calm and perfect for jumping off for a
quick dip. When the boat anchored for lunch we got to go kayaking and
boy was it stunning. We were thrilled to find out that we were paddling only 200 meters from the water border of China. Kelly says that those few days on the boat were in her top
highlights of the trip so far.
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| We stopped at a pearl farm. We were all to cheap to buy anything. |
We ended our 3 weeks back in Hanoi shopping, eating and celebrating Dean's birthday with a movie at the theater. Yep, 31 has arrived for him....isn't he getting old? ;) It was such a pleasure to share the time with Kelly's mom in a country that has a always been on the top of her list to see. It was also nice to have family see how we have been living for the last 7 months. To be able to appreciate the joys, sickness, exhaustion, laughter and awe that comes with this sort of traveling. So, in saying that, the next few months are exciting as we will be visiting the top 3 countries on Dean's list of places for this trip. Philippines, Myanmar and India. And it just so happens we will be meeting up with friends we met in Borneo for the Philippines. Dean's parents for Myanmar. (and Christmas!) And Dean's cousin for India. :) This year just keeps getting better and better!!
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| Vietnamese Currency - Dong |
