Day 23 and 24: Bicycle (12 and 13 Dec 2008)

Today we are going to try and survive the Vietnamese roads on a bike ('bike' as in 'bicycle'). When you are on some kind of vehicle, you have to respect the local traffic rules. The bike is a very common transport mean in Vietnam, and the roads and traffic rules are scaled to the speed and size of bikes. However, the scooter and slowly also the car are pushing hard to overrule the bike. Not to mention that the roads and traffic rules did not change in the mean time. People tend to drive at the right side of the road, but exceptions are the rule. You never stop, you just slow down or change direction. If you enter a road, it is not done to take into account the traffic around you. And whatever happens, never, NEVER look behind you. But Oma and Moeke/Vake, after all it is not as bad as it sounds, taking into account that everyone drives slowly, really slowly (as live is). On a number of occasions, we were overhauling scooters rather than they overhauled us.

The purpose of the bike tour was to visit some of the Nguyen emperor mausoleums. We had a little map and driving directions, so full of selfasteam we were heading off. After less than half an hour we were lost, and the local population was not really helpful. The imperial mausoleums are dispersed in the country landscape around Hue. With hardly any signs and a no English speaking population, we found out that tourists just have to help tourists. When we were completely lost, we found another lost tourist couple from Czech Republic, and together we could figure out where the tomb from Tu Duc was. (it is like the fresh Nems: do it yourself).

The temple was impressive and in a better state than the imperial palace in Hue's citadel. Tu Duc was the most cruel emperor, so absolutely the most interesting one to my account. The body is not buried in the actual grave, scared as they were for grave robbers. The legend says he was buried in the woods with his treasure, to mislead the treasure hunters.

After Tu Duc's tumb, we decided to continue through the countryside through the rice fields and the mud. We found the ruin of the amphitheatre were elephants used to fight the tigers to entertain the emperor. According to Trotter you could walk around on top of the arena. However, the access was blocked, and when we climbed the stairs anyway and crawled underneath the barrier, a police man appeared out of the blue, so we had to interrupt our visit. A little further we found another temple in decay next to a little lake, totally deserted, devoted to the brave elephants that did not survive the arena battle.

The bike tour was an absolute success, and regardless the aching lower part of our backs, we decided to repeat this experiment on the next occasion which would be in Hoi An.

The next day our private driver drove us over the 'Cloud' Pass near the sea and we visited the Marbled Mountains (some kind of Vietnamese Scherpenheuvel) on our way to Hoi An.

Intermezzo: Life of Brian (August and friends)

Enjoy the pictures of August with his local fans, who all want to be immortalized by the camera with the blond-blue eyed god. When everything turns back to 'normal' in Australia as we hope, we will have to work on his attitude; he is quite addicted to adoration so far! If the fans provide their E-mail address, we send them the picture. Sometimes we get a reaction back as we got from Duong Hong Chuyen (the nice guy that wanted to practice his English in the Literature Temple in Hanoi):

'how are you.Tlyhank you for your picture.I have just received it.It is so nice Where are you now?I think now you are not in Vietnam.

I so happy when spoke to your family.I hop that in future we can meet you again.

I wish you are always happy and have a nice trip I am looking forward to receiving your reply.

Bests and regards'

Also Steven made a friend: a very sexy looking woman owning a liquor shop around the corner. Because we are such good customers, Steven was allowed to take a picture of the nice lady together with his humble self. Nice little detail: when she was looking for the cheapest bottle of wine in her stock, Steven had to take care of the grandchild (Steven did not figure out whether it was a boy or a girl, after 10 years of Agent Orange gender cannot be distinguished anymore in Vietnam)

Day 21 until 22: Camouflage (10 until 11 Dec 2008)

A comfortable Vietnam Airlines flight brought us to Hue in no time. The temperature here is more agreeable than in Hanoi, where day temperatures reach seldom more than 20°C in winter. Also the people seem more warm-blooded, less distant and more friendly than in Hanoi. It seems that the majority of the inhabitants have imperial blood running through their veins. I didn't notice any difference with the Hanoi habitants, but still the city breaths a royal atmosphere thanks to the grandeur of its buildings and it boulevards. Because of the space, the traffic seems less busy (though there are still a lot of scooters).

The city is located at the borders of the Houng Song or Perfume River, known for the medicinal herbs that grow on its borders. In the city you find quite some shops with traditional herb based drugs, as well as drugs derived from reptiles, insects and other animals. And of course the city is known for the palaces and mausoleums of the Nguyen emperors, who ruled from 1802 until 1945, as far as the French allowed them to.

Our hotel is located in the middle of a backpackers quarter, and breakfast was served on the top floor allowing us to enjoy every morning the views on Hue. On the first day upon arrival the view though was disturbed by clouds and rain, so we had to postpone our planned bicycle tour to the next day. In the late morning it stopped raining and we headed to the other side of the river to visit the market, always an adventure in Asia. Regardless our commitments not to buy anything anymore until we arrived in HCMC, we were persuaded to buy some stuff. August made again more 'friends'.

For lunch one of the by trotter recommended restaurants was selected, Lac Thien, where the owner developed his own (patented?) kind of kung fu bottle opener which he demonstrated with a lot of show on 4 beer bottles at the same time. We took some of the openers with us, and at home August will give a demonstration upon request. In the mean time he wants to exercise a lot and we have to drink all these beers.... Burps. The servants in the restaurant are deaf-mute, so it is always a surprise what you get on your plate (not that you would notice if it is not what you ordered with our limited knowledge of Vietnamese) . The specialty of the restaurant are fresh nems, but then literally (you have to roll them yourselves). You can compare it with fajitas: you put meat and vegetable on a rice paper leaf, some salsa and chilli and than you try to fold it until it looks like a nem (little loempia). Messy but delightful.

In the afternoon we visited the citadel, or better the remainings of. A combination of humid (sub) tropical weather, moulds, termites, the war and more specifically the destructive Tet Attack in 1968 (this is not what you are thinking, Mr Corbanie), and a lack of money returned these marvellous buildings and temples in ruins or in the best case damaged buildings. Taking into account that the Nguyen dynasty buildings are only maximum 200 years old, the Forum Romanum in Rome is far better conserved. But luckily this is slowly changing now: with Unesco money and money from private investors, some building are being restored.

The buildings are though much more sober than the Thai temples, very beautiful and well integrated in the landscape. They have a very elegant and poetic appearance. Let the pictures speak! After the cultural bit, we enjoyed a nice local beer at a terrace on the river banks. Did you notice that we look too big for the Asian furniture?

Day 19 and 20: Mystify (8 and 9 Dec 2008)

Halong Bay in the North East of Vietnam. A bewitching and mysterious landscape with over 20.000 mountain tops rising out of the water. Barely drown mountains, with strange and astonishing shapes, caused by 'the descent of the dragon' according to the legend.

We went for a boat trip with a wooden junk for 2 days to discover the bay. The weather was excellent for the time of the year (it can be quite foggy and cold): a bright sun accompanied us for the whole journey. The company was mixed: A very nice Canadian couple close to retirement (he was working for SNC Lavalin in Qatar, piping - again, why can't I meet people with a normal profession), a very friendly German couple who actually did visit the Cook Islands and Rarotonga, our last stop, a family from Singapore and a German guy who lives and works in HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City) for the Hyatt Hotel Group. He booked this boat trip to escape after 6 months eternal noise in HCMC and get some peace and quit. HCMC is far more busy than Hanoi, we were warned by now!

Everywhere you can see fishermen who live from and on the sea. Some of them earned enough to build some kind of shelter on a bigger raft. The wifes try to sell some souvenirs and food to the tourist on the junks.

We visited Sung Sot , the cave of the surprise, and Hang Luon, the cave of the tunnel. The latter is not a cave, it is a enclosed green sea lake surrounded by mountains, only accessible by a little boat through a tunnel. Steven joined the group climbing a mountain to enjoy the superb views. Little August however decided that he had enough physical exercise for the day climbing in the caves, and stayed (with mama) on the boat. He took his job as the boat's second helmsman very seriously, and hardly left his position next to the first helmsman.

After Hanoi's jungle we absolutely enjoyed the rest and quiet on the boat. After a last night in Hanoi, we are heading for the city of Hue about 650 km more to the South, the city of the Nguyen emperors.

Day 16 until 18: Apocalypse now (5 until 7 Dec 2008)

Noise. People. Noise. Scooters. More noise. Cars. Bikes. Buses. Salesman pursuing you continuously. Chased by Rickshaw bike drivers. A city with 6 million Viet who never seem to sleep (for god sake, the one child policy of China is not such a bad idea. The Adams family would comply with it anyhow). To draw a parallel with NY Manhattan is not unlogic, but aspecially the rush of scooters reminds me of the streets of Genua.

And a hotel with a room at the first floor facing the street side, with single glass panes.

After a full day being exposed to the biggest chaos (apart of Mumbai) in the streets of Hanoi I ever experienced, and looking forward to a sleepless night, we were longing a little bit back to the more serene Thailand. I could trust my mother to get around in the streets of Bangkok, but even China town was nothing against the violence of Hanoi.

The pictures will tell you part of the story, but after all they remain static: a moment in time . I will try to take you with me on a stroll through the streets of Hanoi.

The historical centre of Hanoi is a cluster of little streets where every street is dedicated to a certain type of crafts work, reflecting the medieval craft guilds. You walk through the streets with the cardboard and paper, sugar and candies, shoes, Christmas decorations, carpenters, computers, watches, wedding gifts, etcetera;

The shops are quite small - the regulations say that the width of a house cannot exceed 3 meters. So the exhibit the majority their goods on the walkway, and if not than people are cooking meals on the walkway or the streets, or the walkway is being used to park scooters, or used as little open air 'restaurants' where you can sit down and eat a pho (noodle soup), sweet fried potato, or dog (which is a Viet specialty).

Among the street jungle you may notice sometimes the façade of an old wooden house, in bas shape though because the government has other priorities than rescuing their (non political)

National heritage. Luckily Unesco and some French private organisations are trying to save some of them.

The climax of the street jungle is of course the market, where all sensations are exponentially magnified. Of course you can buy everything in Vietnam. We bought a fake Deuter backpack for me since my current one was falling apart for less than 8 % of the price we paid for Steven Deuter on the internet.

We tried and learned how to cross a street in Vietnam: Just keep on going and try to perceive the traffic as one big organic habitat where you are part of. For the S-F amateurs amongst you: let you neural nanonics go back in the primary mode, and you are fine. Any form of panic or hesitation will be fatale in these streets (Oma and Moeke/Voke: August survived so far).

And a railway cuts its way through this chaos: 2 guards and a police office are required to close the crossing and keeping people of the tracks to allow the train to pass.

The people in Hanoi are except for those who want to tie up innocent tourists to sell any piece of trash, are much more reserved and distant than in Thailand - almost cold. But there our secret weapon (little August) did its duty again and opened up doors that would have been closed for us otherwise.

In the literature temple we met Duong Hong Chuyen, a nice recently graduated guy who told us that he came quite often there to try and approach tourists to practice his spoken English. Further we met in a little (but splendid) seafood street restaurant Le Duc and his girlfriend (or wife) , who turned out to be a HVAC engineer. Why can't I escape these AIR guys! I do not mention the numerous contact we had in the streets, people wanting to know where we are from , how old our son is (they all think he is 2 years old, and are yelling baby, baby at him), touching his hand, head, cheek, etcetera. We have to put him daily in bad to get rid of the smell of the streets.

The Viet food is very nice and fine, though I am still suffering from withdrawal of the adorably spicy Thai food. In Hanoi you have roughly 2 classes of restaurant: The street restaurants where you see hardly any tourist, and fancy luxurious places. The latter though is quite affordable for Europeans: you can wine and dine for 30 €, where the same meal would cost you 5 times more in Belgium. The upper class restaurants offer as a rule Vietnamese and French cuisine, thanks to their prominent presence in the 18, 19^th and the first halld of the 20^th century. Strange enough there are no real middle class restaurant, so we tried the first night a nice restaurant 'The seasons of Hanoi', where they served a very decent Margarita.

The next night however we risked a little seafood street restaurant, where you go to the water basin and indicate the kind and number of crabs, shrimps, or clams you want. A couple of minutes later you receive them on your table with some noodles and lemon/salt:chilli dips.

Absolutely gorgeous, I had the best (venus) clamps and shrimps in my life. In these kind of places people are not distant, and if they are comfortable enough with their knowledge of the English or French language they will try and start a conversation. And to overcome any communication issues, we have the point it booklet (thank you Ann and Hans for let us borrow it) which is very useful in Vietnam so far. Pointing at a puddle on the streets resulted in a bottle of mineral water, and (of course) I know the Viet word for beer as from the very first day: bia, to make sure the supply chain would not hamper there.

By the way: non of us was sick already from the food , though my stomach protested again the strong Viet coffee!

Een brief van August voor K3A

Liefste juf Wendy

Lieve kindjes en vriendjes van de klas

Dank jullie wel voor het berichtje en de mooie foto's van de sinten en de zwarte pieten.

Met mij gaat alles PRIMA. Ik heb al met de boot gevaren, in vliegtuigen gezeten, op een olifant gereden en véél gestapt.

Het is hier (in Vietnam zeggen mijn mama en papa) erg druk: heel veel mensen en brommers op de straat en veel lawaai. En ze kijken zo raar naar mij. Sommigen knijpen in mijn wang of strelen mijn haar. Mijn mama heeft uitgelegd dat dat is omdat ik blond haar en blauwe ogen heb.

Ik heb kindjes van een school tegengekomen die allemaal met mij op de foto wilden en heel de tijd aan het giechelen waren. De kindjes hier hebben niet veel centjes en kunnen niet altijd naar school en dat is wel erg.

In Thailand heb ik ook aan het strand gespeeld en in de zee gezwommen. Er zijn hele mooie vissen in de zee en ik heb er zelf eentje kunnen vangen. Ik heb ook aapjes gezien en ze eten gegeven.

Het eten is ook best lekker. De spaghetti is een beetje anders dan thuis en ze hebben hier speciaal fruit. En ik heb al drie weken geen choco meer gegeten maar dat is niet erg.

Ik mis jullie maar ik kom nog niet direct terug, ik ga nog veel spannende dingen doen!

Dikke kussen van August en tot het volgende briefje.

Day 14 and 15: Road to nowhere (3 and 4 Dec 2008)

We got up at 5:00 AM (23:00h Belgium time) and started what turned out to be a 30 hours long journey. A long tail boat brought us to Ao Nang , where the first of a row of mini vans would pick us up. Apparently the system of the minivans and busses does not look transparent at all to a 'farang' (= white face or English people for the Thai), but it seems to work very well. A network of little busses connects various places though the country, although it remains a mystery how they interact with each other. It must be the drivers themselves who are kept up to date through their mobile phones which they use half of the time (and of course hand free is not an item of discussion here, though I saw several construction sites and petrochemical industries with a 'safety first' sign. Of course their not 'beyond zero' yet.

Anyway, we switched regally busses drivers and of course travelling companions, which is always nice. From a speed devil to a calm driver, from no music to a real disco bar with a complete eighties revival (eye of the tiger, forever young, the final countdown, la isla margarita, and last but not least one night in Bangkok), we covered a pretty wide range.

Regardless the many changeovers, it was difficult to get food, since the stops were very short and unpredictable. However, near the border with Malaysia we managed to find a little Chinese shop for a take out meal. After 2 weeks Thailand we are getting rid of our initial precaution and prejudice against food prepared and served on the street, and our acceptance criteria for food was considerly lowered so we eat now about everything which is cooked. Unfortunately the Chinese served only noodle soup, and take out meals are served in plastic bags. So there we ended up back on the bus to continue our journey with a bag full of little bags filled with hot little soup and noodle bags floating between our feet. Of course engineers find solutions for this technical problem, and we poured the soup into our plastic too brush beakers. The whole bus smelled, but after 2 weeks Asia you do not care anymore. The only problem is that we cannot get rid of the noodle soup smell in the beakers. (Ma can you please send some eau de javel?)

The landscape changed to more agricultural as we went further south. The formalities to get over the border to Malaysia were time consuming but went smooth. Immediately the landscape become much more cultivated, almost clean. At the bust stops, we noticed restaurant with a dedicated Halal area for the moslims.

After the second to last bus change we found ourselves back in the absolute luxury of a sleeping bus, with seats, that could be inclined to allow a good night rest. Unfortunately we had seats in the back on top of the very noisy and hot engine block. The bus tended to be overbooked as well, but finally everyone got a seat and the bus went off.

One of the unfortunate travellers who was ending up on a seat on top of the engines next to us was Simon. He is a docent English literature and drama at the Bangkok international school, and was (and is) heading back to the UK for his brother wedding. Due to the situation in Bangkok, he decided to take the bus to Singapore. When we met him he was already 24 hours on the road. But he will (likely) make it to his brother wedding (congratulation by the way).

Around 6:30h Singapore time we arrived at the border and after passing the formalities, we took another bus to the centre and took a decent break fast. As you can imagine, the only one of us who had a good night rest and was alive and kicking was August. He actually enjoyed the whole journey, still working on his benchmarking study to compare all means of transport he experienced the last couple of days. Anyway, after a real crispy (and not spongy) French Baguette and 3 cups of strong coffee we started to feel human again and able to face the day. At noon we checked in at the Changi Village Hotel and dived into the pool.

Bye bye Thailand, and: Vietnam, here we come!

MESSAGE FROM STEVEN, THE PHOTOGRAPHER: PICTURES WILL FOLLOW WHEN WE ARE IN HANOI. After a good night sleep.

Day 10 until 13: Die Sonne scheint (29 Nov until 2 Dec 2008)

Finally some peace: sun, sea, ... and the rest. The resort in Kata Beach on the Pucket Peninsula was absolutely perfect to kickoff the more quiet part of the Thailand trip; the son certainly did welcome this part as well. Basically there is nothing to see at Pukhet apart of the beaches and the night life, so you do not feel obliged to leave pool/beach/bar for some cultural excursion. Shopping diehards would like it here as well, but shopping is something I absolutely dislike (unless shopping for food on a little market). So the only shopping we did was to look for an appropriate restaurant, which we did after a while at Richie's place, who turned out to be a crazy Swiss which was homebound (or commercial) enough to organize weekly Cheese fondues. Anyhow, we tried to convince him a couple of times that his London watch was not indicating the right time, with no result. Switzerland after all is not Europe; Anyhow, the restaurant offered a salad buffet, which we welcomed after 10 days of fried rice or noodles, curries and soups. We could stuff August finally with vegetables after a diet of noodles and rice (and sometimes banana's)

On day 11 we exchanged Kata beach for Railay Beach, an area south of Krabi that you can only reach by boat. The area is recognized for its beautiful beaches surrounded by rock formations very popular for professional climbing. Luckily for us we were located at West Railay, which kept up to the promises; but if you had the bad luck to end up in Each Railay, where the beach was a muddy mangrove field, and where the electricity generator for the whole island was located, you were screwed. At this side of the island though the cheapest restaurants, bars and shops were located, which is no surprise. And after all, after sunset you do not see the mud anymore and Bob Marley pushes the generator noise to the background. In general it was not that easy to get alcohol - quite some places are owned by Moslims (whereas the North and the Centre of Thailand are dominated by Buddhists)

Our lodge was centrally located, so we could easily access several beaches. In the morning of the day after arrival we discovered the amazing Phra Nang Beach (the pictures speak for itselves), where we spent the rest of the day and the next day. We gave ourselves a treat with a foot scrub and massage (the latter only for me, Steven is to 'kietelig' at his feet).

However, the Bangkok airport blockade threw a little shadow over these days. Finally we decided not to await the outcome of the situation in Bangkok - even if the blockage was eliminated, it would take more than a couple of days to organize the exodus of over 100.000 frustrated waiting passengers. Not surprisingly all reasonable priced flights from the regional Thai airports were fully booked for the next week. The Thai travel agency was not very helpful either so what was left was a long trip over land by bus from Krabi to Singapore (1300 km), to catch the flight to Hanoi on Friday Dec 5^th. We could of course wait and see what would happen in Bangkok, which would almost certainly jeopardize the start of the Vietnam journey (which we are determined not to miss, Hanoi is said one of the most authentic cities in Asia, and Halong bay is a must do. So we went for the bus trip and shortened our stay in Railay Beach with one day in order not to sacrifice Hanoi.