Scribbles Abroad

A shiver rushed down our spines not from the bouncy landing by the pilot but from his announcement that the temperature in Hanoi was a chilly 13 degrees celsius.  A quick check in our heads, multiply by two and add thirty, put the temperature at 56 degrees Fahrenheit.  After spending the past 3 and a half months in hot asian countries we had become acclimated to the tropical pictures in the brochures.  But when we looked down onto the tarmac and saw the workers in parkas, then looked down on our slippers and shorts, we knew we were in for a new round of acclimatization.  Luckily for us, Hanoi is a shoppers haven and we had new outfits to keep us warm by the next day, but the first night was spent making creative outfits and headgear out of sarongs.

We found a crackseed store and bought 4 kilos of the stuff.

Once checked into a hotel and after fighting with a cab that tried to rip us off, we set off to find some Pho.  We ended up eating Pho at least once a day while in Vietnam and often twice.   On one occasion we had Pho 4 times in one day.  I was inspired to start a Pho shop and coming up with names was fun.  Tell me what you think……..Pho Shizzle (a Snoop Dogg inspired and sponsored joint, no pun intended), Phobama (inspired by our new President), Pho Getaboutit, I could keep going but I’ll spare you.

The next day we met up with Liz, Louises’ college room mate.  Its always fun to have someone to meet up with and Liz has been a ton of fun.  She would be with us for a whole month and considering I never really got to officially meet her, this trip was partially a test trial to see if I was truly Louise worthy.

You can see our eating habits.  Liz eats the fastest.

While in Hanoi we happened to be there for Christmas Eve.  As we slept awaiting for Santa to come down through the cracks in the freezing walls, a roar began emanating from the streets at around 12:30 am.  Right away it woke me up as I sleep lightly and ignorantly figured it was some kind of Christmas celebration.  I woke up Louise and told her we had to go see what was going on.  When we got down into the streets mopeds were flying full speed down the streets with huge Vietnam flags flying behind them.  As we continued towards the roar we saw what can be described as a sea of red, yellow, and black screaming what sounded like, “Vietnam Hooray, Vietnam Hooray.”  Its not what they were saying but I got half of it right and whatever the other word was it sounded like Hooray.  For the rest of the trip in Vietnam, if I were to say that to any local, they chant the saying back at me.  The reason the people were clogging the streets and going ape shit on Christmas Eve was because they had just won the Asian Cup of Soccer.  The party in the streets went till around 4 in the morning, it was absolutely wild!  I was later told that usually a few people die a year from these soccer/futbol celebrations.  Mostly from mopeds teaming up and getting participants to climb on their backs in order to form a human pyramid while zooming down the streets.

We found Santa Claus.

The next day we began a tour, quick note: tours suck, we are so sick of them but often they’re a necessary evil.  We were going to Ha Long Bay, considered to be one of the worlds gems and since we were so close we had to check it out.  We negotiated a stupidly cheap tour trying to save money, but lets just say you get what you pay for.  If you want to do it right, suck it up and pay $100 or so and do it in style, if not, be ready to laugh and be patient.  We had a great time by turning the ridiculousness of the tour operators disregard to their customers desires or comfort into laughs with the new friends we made.  We became good friends with three guys from the East Coast named Kent, Mike, and Ben.  They kept challenging each other to dares.  One night it was to jump into the Catba Harbor, which is a thick black soup peppered with colorful trash.  In the morning in the light you could see what they had actually jumped in and it looked like the kind of water that automatically gives you staff infections.  The next night it was to jump off the boat we were staying on in Ha Long Bay.  You should have seen the captains face when Kent jumped in, we thought he was going to shackle him up and take him to the engine room where we imagined a dingy rat infested cell. There were bets being made of whether Kent, who was almost naked, was going to get molested by the hungry crew.

We did end up getting the best room on the boat though.

We spent Christmas night in an empty bar overlooking Catba Island and the highlights were a small little corner of the bar that offered free use of the face painting kit and the free vodka bottle that came with entering its doors.  Going back to college days and painting eyes on Dons face when he was passed out, I painted eyes on the girls but in their case they were willing subjects.

Ha Long is a beautiful area but Louise and I were a bit jaded after spending the past week and a half in El Nido, Palawan, Philippines.  See previous post.  Regardless we were pleased to witness Ha Long and would recommend it to others.  But if you had a choice between the two to see, by far, go to El Nido.

Upon returning to Hanoi we decided to sign up for the open bus tour ticket through Vietnam although the blogs and forum boards suggested otherwise.  Due to bad roads and occasional bodily outbursts from carsick passengers, most suggestions pointed towards trains and planes.  But with a price of $40 USD from Hanoi all the way down to Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City, aka HCMC), the price seemed worth the potential punishment.  The beauty of these buses were the fact that they were also sleeper buses.  Two leveled behemoths with beds and a bathroom onboard.  The next night we headed for Hoi An with a stop for a few hours in Hue.

It had been rainy and cold since arriving in Vietnam and we had yet to see the sky or sun so the drive down was pretty slow.  Such weather and light schedule provided for a minimal view but we hardly noticed since we were passed out for most of the time.  When we arrived in Hue the rain had let off a little so we decided to take a expedited tour of the city on the back of motorbikes.  Within about two minutes the rain was back but we persevered.  Soaked, we checked out the tombs of old kings and then checked out an old bunker used during the Vietnam War, or what they like to call the American War.

We arrived in Hoi An and found a nice guesthouse.  The room we acquired was at the top of the hotel, it seemed to be a converted attic space but we preferred to call it the Penthouse.  Hoi An is a World Heritage Site due to its rich tradition and intact architecture.  Its got a great vibe and we ended staying there for almost a week. 

We rented bikes and strolled around the city.

The best part were the custom clothes we got made.  I got a jacket and pants made while the list of items that the girls got made would make this blog too long.  It was fun playing the rich and famous.  You could get a really nice suit for under $300 bucks and a cheap one for $75.  The girls were in heaven and even got custom shoes made.

For New Years we met some fellow travelers on the way to dinner and we joined up and had a fun dinner exchanging stories and advice.  We decided after dinner to hit up a bar a block away.  The rest of the night was full of beer, laughs, new years drama, balloons, and just good times.  As the night went on, things got foggy.

Hoi An is very close to Danang and while we were there we got the opportunity to meet up with some friends of the family that I haven’t seen since I was Jason, which means around 20+ years ago.  We spent New Years Day dinner with Auntie Nobaleen, Uncle Bill Fanamel, and a few of his colleagues.   The feast was spectacular and the best part was that we didn’t have to do dishes, the maids took care of that for us.  The expat or foreign worker life usually includes a maid and a driver making life a bit easier to handle.  The next day Bill and Nobaleen took us golfing.  Bill was instrumental in putting the Nam Hai Resort and the Montgomery Golf Course together and it was an honor to check the resort out and play on the course.  The hotel was voted nicest in Vietnam, or was it SE Asia, and the course was the nicest course I have ever played on.  Not the scenery but the maintenance and landscaping.  I was really impressed, plus I had a caddy!  Never had a caddy before.  She would fill my divots, wash my clubs, giggle, and help me line up my ball.  I really felt like a high roller and after living the backpacker lifestyle for the past few months a bit of pampering was nice.

Look at my face on this one, its like, what the hell this is awesome!