03 July 2005
Ha Noi by Any Other Name
Would be Hoi An. Take the open bus tour they said. Air conditioned comfort they said. We'll give you a ticket they said. So we did, and none of those statements proved to be accurate. We boarded the Camel Travel bus last Wednesday for Hue without anything even resembling a ticket. Which, you'd imagine, would be somewhat of a problem. Surely at some point during a 12 hour bus ride the "operators" would find time to check that the passengers actually paid for their bus ride. But, of course, they did not check our tickets and were quite happy simply tormenting us for twelve hours with an average of sixteen honks per minute and a new found obsession for finding every pothole in the street.
After arriving in Hue the lady issued us tickets without even calling the head officee. We just told her we hadn't been given tickets and she fixed it like it happens every day. I imagine it does. We've decided that Veitnam's tourism motto should be "Vietnam: where everything works but nothing works as it should" (or "Vietnam is for lovers" after our boat trip). With only four hours to kill, we hopped on the back of motorbikes (perfectly safe: there is a driving test you have to pass, or you have to carry enough money to bribe the police) and headed to Tu Duc's tomb. A tomb's a tomb. Then we went to an awesome pagoda down a dirt road and watched monks chanting their daily prayers. Back onto the bike then back onto the bus and we arrived in Hoi An.
Hoi An is an awesome city. The rivefront is full of a little cafes serving great Vietnameese and French food, the "country pancake" was surprisingly delicious. The bars have long happy hours and the patissere has a cake happy hour. The beach is a leisurely 5km bike ride away which gives you a good amount of time to think up witty responses to hawkers. Our newest one is saying we are from a new country each time though Guam did not seem to translate well. The Vietnameese have a knack for putting seventeen shops selling the same thing on one block and in Hoi An they've taken this a bit further. There are well over two hundred tailors in the city which is more than many continents can boast. Naturally, we got suits made by the crappiest one here with the worst prices and while Ed is a little disappointed, I couldn't be happier about my custom tailored Hawaiian shirt and tie (both made out of board short material). After his initial dissapointment, Ed went on a three hour shirt binge fueled by Larue (beer) and Passionfruit Cheesecake. We have yet to see the finished product but I have a sneaking suspicion (blogger needs a spell checker) we will see fitted metalic shirts.
We're off to the beaches, islands and booze cruises (and 12 hour bus rides) of Nha Trang. Happy 4th of July to everybody and Happy Birthday Alex!
Steve and Ed
After arriving in Hue the lady issued us tickets without even calling the head officee. We just told her we hadn't been given tickets and she fixed it like it happens every day. I imagine it does. We've decided that Veitnam's tourism motto should be "Vietnam: where everything works but nothing works as it should" (or "Vietnam is for lovers" after our boat trip). With only four hours to kill, we hopped on the back of motorbikes (perfectly safe: there is a driving test you have to pass, or you have to carry enough money to bribe the police) and headed to Tu Duc's tomb. A tomb's a tomb. Then we went to an awesome pagoda down a dirt road and watched monks chanting their daily prayers. Back onto the bike then back onto the bus and we arrived in Hoi An.
Hoi An is an awesome city. The rivefront is full of a little cafes serving great Vietnameese and French food, the "country pancake" was surprisingly delicious. The bars have long happy hours and the patissere has a cake happy hour. The beach is a leisurely 5km bike ride away which gives you a good amount of time to think up witty responses to hawkers. Our newest one is saying we are from a new country each time though Guam did not seem to translate well. The Vietnameese have a knack for putting seventeen shops selling the same thing on one block and in Hoi An they've taken this a bit further. There are well over two hundred tailors in the city which is more than many continents can boast. Naturally, we got suits made by the crappiest one here with the worst prices and while Ed is a little disappointed, I couldn't be happier about my custom tailored Hawaiian shirt and tie (both made out of board short material). After his initial dissapointment, Ed went on a three hour shirt binge fueled by Larue (beer) and Passionfruit Cheesecake. We have yet to see the finished product but I have a sneaking suspicion (blogger needs a spell checker) we will see fitted metalic shirts.
We're off to the beaches, islands and booze cruises (and 12 hour bus rides) of Nha Trang. Happy 4th of July to everybody and Happy Birthday Alex!
Steve and Ed
