A little blue Austin & the Emperors Tombs

Day 7 The Royal Tombs

At dinner a couple of nights ago we got chatting to our lovely little waitress and ultimately organised for her to be our ‘tour guide’ for a visit to the Royal Tombs.  Linh organised a driver and met us in the lobby at 8.30am.

First stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda, situated on the edge of the Perfume River.  Housed at the back of the pagoda is the little blue Austin car that Thich Quang Duc drove to Saigon in 1963.  The wold will remember Thich as the monk who self-immolated in protest at the pro –US policies of then President Diem.

 

 

 

After this we headed to check out an incense and conical hat village.  We had basically let Linh work out an itinerary and I guess she followed a fairly standard tourist route.  Seeing the incense and hats being made was interesting but I would not have really felt we’d missed anything if we’d nit stopped here.

 

A short ride round the corner brought us to the tomb of Tu Duc .. emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty who reigned from 1848-1883.  The tomb complex itself was built between 1864-1867  and was used both during his lifetime and as his final resting place.  It has beautifully landscaped grounds centring round a lake with a small island in the middle.  Apparently the Emperor used to row his little boat round in the afternoons to get away from the affairs of state.  I suspect it was more likely he was trying to get away from his 101 wives!

 

 

 

 

 

Final stop was the tomb of Khai Dinh.  Each emperor determined the location of his tomb and once you climb the 179 stairs I can see why he chose this spot – stunning views greet you from the top.  Khai Dinh ruled from 1916-1925 and his tomb was completed 6 years after his death.  At first it looks quite cold & boring – even though the architecture is quite ornate, it’s just grey –stone & concrete. 

 

 This absolutely belies what greets you when you step into the actual main building.  Separated into 3 rooms with the Emperors tomb in the central one, it is completely covered, floor to ceiling with ceramic mosaics – stunningly beautiful!  There is a sign that says ‘no photography’ but after seeing about half the other visitors ignore these signs, I did too… just once!

 

 

Tomorrow is the start of the Hue Festival … what a bugger I did not know about this before we settled on our itinerary.  The city looks like it is about to bust .. flags, banners, lights, the bridge lit up at night and a sense of excitement everywhere.  We’re going to miss all the excitement – we head for Hanoi tomorrow morning.  We’ve loved Hue.

 

Cold Chisel meets the Tunnel Rats

Day 6 .. the DMZ

Here I was thinking that being on holidays meant sleeping in .. a bit! … wrong!  6am alarm, 6.30 breakfast and a 7.30 pick up with Mr Phuc (pronounced Mr oo you rude people) and we were off to the DMZ.  Now I know there were no Aussies up in this part of Vietnam during the war but….

 

Dong Ha is the capital of the Quang Tri provence and was the HQ for the US Marines from ’68-69 and is the closest town to the 17^th parallel and the DMZ between North & South Vietnam.  Our guide Mr Vu is based here and we arrived to pick him up about 9am.

Heading west along Route 9 (built by the French) towards the Lao border, through a wide valley ringed with tall peaks (well maybe not that tall – the heights actually range up to about 1000m) wre are actually travelling vaguely parallel to the actual DMZ.

First stop was at Firebase Elliot, looking out over the Rockpile and further on to the radio relay peaks controlled by the US Marines and the NVA area further north.  The Rockpile is a huge solo lump of rock – very appropriately named, steep and un-climbable.  The 10 Marines stationed there were dropped in, re-supplied and replaced by helicopter drop.  Some seriously good flying since the flat bit at the top is only about 10m x 3m – and not exactly flat. 

Firebase Elliot straddles Route 9 and has great views to the north… the Marines & their big guns were based here.  It’s littered with bomb craters and the evidence of US forces is everywhere – we found the remains of beer cans, ponchos, sandbags, boots etc – all just laying round and this is after the locals have been through looking for scrap metal.

 

Next stop was  Khe Sanh – legendary title of the Cold Chisel song and scene of a siege which was in fact intended as a diversion from the main Tet Offensive of early 1968.  The NVA besieged the Khe Sanh airbase for 5 ½ months from January and during the fighting the Yanks dropped 100,000 tons of bombs on the area .  When the siege was finally ‘broken’ (the Marines ‘rescued’ by the army) and the Yanks pulled out, everything was destroyed so what we saw is replica/reconstruction.

 

 

Tony & Vu walking the airstrip at Khe Sanh

 

 

There is a small museum at Khe Sanh with a photographic exhibition

 

 

On the way back we stopped on a section of the Ho Chi Minh trail

 

It was now getting on towards lunch time so we headed back to Dong Ha and Vu’s favourite little family eatery for lunch (which cost us 100,000 dong – about $5 for all four of us)

The afternoon sites were to be the actual 17^th parallel and the bridge over the Ben Hai River.  This was where the North and South faced off armed with loud speakers among other things.  The original bridge is long gone and the replacement is apparently not on the ‘exact spot’  Strangely it is painted blue for one half and yellow for the other half – each side painting, repainting, painting again trying to get the psychological upper hand. There is a small museum nearby with a couple of loud speakers out the front – the ones on the north are massive.

 

 

 

You are now entering North Vietnam

 

 

 

Last stop was at the Vin Moc tunnels.  Vin Moc was a small fishing village of about 350 people before the war.  When the Americans started naval bombardments, the locals refused to leave and instead, dug themselves a series of tunnels to live in.  Three levels deep, ranging from 12 to 23 metres deep and with openings into the cliff side facing the sea (for ventilation and escape) they are nothing short of astonishing.  A communal kitchen, living spaces, individual family rooms and a maternity room were carved out of the stiff clay earth and the spoils used to fill in bomb craters… talk about ingenious.

The tunnel entrances have been reinforced

 

but the rest is still the same clay the villagers dug out in 1967

 

 

17 babies were born in the tunnel 'maternity room'

 

 

The drive back to Dong Ha was via the coastal road – along past some of the most beautiful beaches you will see anywhere.  Just wait till the Hiltons or the Sheratons figure this out … though part of me hopes they never do and the locals can continue to enjoy them without the corruption that invariably comes with this kind of development.

 

We dropped Mr Vu back at his office and finally arrived back in Hue about 7pm.  A long day, but fascinating.

Tomorrow is thankfully a later start – we’re heading out to see the tombs of the Nguyen Emperors.

A Palace & a Prime Minister

  Day 5 Hue Citadel

Woke to a glorious Hue morning – not too hot, but with the feel that it was certainly going to warm up considerably.  Buffet breakfast on the top floor of the hotel with amazing views over the Perfume River and the Citadel.

Destination today was the Hue Citadel.  Camera & water packed, & laundry organised to drop off at the little lady on the corner of our street.  We walked across the Truong Tien Bridge, passed the ‘bridge maintenance crew’ as the motorbikes streamed across in their lane and stopped at the only shopping plaza in Hue.  To call it a plaza is just a bit presumptuous actually, though it did have elevators and a/c, and a good selection of toe socks – the kind you can wear with your thongs (flip flops for my o/s friends who may be reading this)

The Citadel is really cool.  Home of the Nguyen emperors between 1802 & 1945, and scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Tet Offensive in 1968. It had the crapper bombed blown out of it by both sides and is slowly being re-built following UNESCO classification as a World Heritage site in 1993.

 

The Forbidden Purple City is the centrepiece .. exclusive residence of the Emperor, his mandarins, and the maids & eunuchs that made up the royal court.  It its heyday it would have been something really special.

Today’s visitors also included the Prime Minister of Bulgaria & his wife.  We had seen his motorcade go into the citadel while we were having a coffee at a little place on the edge of the moat.  A whole string of big black cars, several buses (which we discovered later were full of press) a couple of police cars with sirens and lights, a fire engine and an ambulance.  We were re-directed from the main throne room because the big wigs were having a chat. 
 

It is also the centre-sage of many of the activities associated with the Hue Festival and there were work crews setting up stages & lights all over the place.

We also checked out the Museum of Antiquities and an open air museum of war machines - tanks, helicopters, a MIG, and a USAF chopper,

 

 

 
then headed back for lunch at the same little street stall where we had enjoyed a coffee on our way to the Citadel.  Spring rolls & a couple of beers cost us the princely sum of $5…. Gotta love street food.

We have 25kg of luggage space from now on so I started to fill it up this afternoon.

Tomoffow we’re off to the DMZ – Khe Sanh, & the Vinh Moc tunnels.

Half a million mororbikes

Day 4  HCMC to Hue

Another early start.. 7.00am pick up for the trip out to the airport for our flight to Hue.  There are rumoured to be about 1.3 million motorbikes in HCMC… and it seemed like half of them were on the road this morning.  Tony had pre-booked and paid for a taxi through the hotel since e were not to sure how easy they were to get early in the morning without booking. The driver told  us “taxi is already paid for but you can tip” .. I don’t think so, especially since the fee was well more than it had cost us to come into town from the airport the other day.

 

The flight to Hue was uneventful and we landed about 10.30. A taxi into town (20 minutes) was 162,000 dong ($8).  The Moonlight Hotel is lovely and we even had a welcome sign up for us. We have a good view of the Perfume  River from our balcony (which is bigger than the one at the Green Suites in HCMC but still not a patch on the balcony at the Vieng Mantra in Chiang Mai. 

 

 

Out to find some lunch – we had left the hotel in HCMC  too early for breakfast  and the coffee at the domestic airport was the worst I have drunk so far on this trip.  Then a wander round town to try and orientate ourselves.  Hue was the Imperial capital of Vietnam several hundred years ago and has retained a calmness that is certainly not present in HCMC.  It just feels like an overgrown country town….  it doesn’t have a shopping centre.

 Hue now has a Night Market … on appropriately named Walking Street .. down on the edge of the river so we thought we’d check it out so we could easily navigate our way back there tonight.  Running the gauntlet of the ever-present cyclo drivers (and the lady who followed us for 5 minutes trying to sell us a boat ride on the river) .. down along the river and back into the centre of ‘town’.  By now the temperature was dropping and the humidity was rising and it looked very much like we were going to get a storm.  The motorbike riders all got out their ponchos but we ploughed on and the grand total of 73 drips landed on us!

 

Back to the hotel but our nap didn’t eventuate – the hotel housekeeping staff were doing the room across the hall and the ladies were obviously gossiping about someone if the giggling was any indication.  Out late afternoon for the night markets & dinner … only the night market has been suspended in preparation for the Hue Festival which starts here on Saturday (bugger, we’re leaving for Hanoi on Saturday)

 

Ended up having dinner at this cool place called Hot Tuna.  Chatting with our lovely young waitress and we organised for her to give us a tour on Friday to the Royal Tombs, the Pagoda and a couple of villages out of town.   Turns out that the night market not being open was indeed fortuitous.  Should be a fun day – she is a uni student studying to be an English teacher.

A spot of shopping – an pair of pants for Tony – he spilt beer on todays pants (and we need to find a laundry place in the morning).  And aside from the usual offers of ‘cyclo’ (no I don’t want a ride in your bloody cyclo) .. twice tonight he was offered drugs!  First time in all our travels in SEAsia that this has happened!

A Beer in the Grand Hotel

Day 3 .. Vung Tao

We both woke before the alarm .. obviously our systems are still at least partly on Aussie time.  Breakfast on the roof terrace then off to the bus company office to get our bus to Vung Tao.

 

Anyone over the age of 35 will remember the Redgum song “I was only 19” and the reference to drinking tinnies in the Grand Hotel on a 36hr rec leave in Vung Tao .. well that’s what today was all about. 

We booked seats (110,000dong – about $5.10 each/one way) on the 9am bus which arrived right on time.  Only problem was that these buses are generally for the locals and most of them are under 5’6 – or have short legs – or both.  Our seats were 29 & 30, in the corner on the back seat with barely enough legroom to satisfy a hobbit… it was going to be an uncomfortable 2 ½ hours!

 

Several months ago they stopped running the Saigon-Vung Tao ferries after one of them caught fire and sank … fair call actually.  There is a shiny new expressway – well actually only part of a shiny new expressway and it took almost an hour to get out of the city and onto the new bit of road. 

 

We stopped about half way for a toilet/food/drink/driver ciggie break and arrived in Vung Tao about 11.30am.  Vung Tao is an unusual city – somehow laidback but still busy – something like Kampot in Cambodia but bigger.  In fact it is a much bigger city than I had expected. 

 

 

I had figured we could just wander from the bus station to the beach and we’d find the Grand Hotel … aaah no!  We walked to the beach – but Vung Tao has several beaches –  named Front Beach, Back Beach and Later Beach. We had walked to Later Beach and we needed to be at Front Beach.  We had bought a map (labelled entirely in Vietnamese) and realised it was a long walk, and it was hot, very hot, so we grabbed a taxi for the   trip round to the Grand Hotel.

 

It is actually rally quite grand – though I doubt it looked like this in the late 1960’s.  Lunch cost us $12… including beers.  Our old neighbour Ray is a Vietnam Vet who asked us once to go back to Long Phouc Hai and find his leg (he lost it when the armoured personnel carrier he was in drove over a land mine).  My beer was for him.

 

We wandered down onto the beach, checked out the fishing fleet but without shade, it was too hot to walk too much along the sand – which is clean & fine  & white.  Conscious of the time and how long it would take us to walk back, we headed back into the town itself and found a little coffee place to sit & watch the world go by – and take photos of some of the strange things they carry on motorbikes in Vietnam.

 

 

 

 

We caught the 4pm bus back and stopped again about half way ... on the opposite side of the highway - at the original drive through.

 

 

 

Desipte the evening peak hour traffic, we reached the bus station just a couple of blocks from our hotel just after 6.30pm.  We were both surprised how busy the roads around this part of town were – crawling with motorbikes – ti seemed that half the population of Saigon was out.  Rather than brave the bikes, we chose to walk down a couple of blocks to a set of traffic lights – something new since we were here last time – traffic lights with pedestrian crossing lights attached.  Past the locals playing badminton and the high energy/high volume exercise/pump/dance class happening in the park. 

Our original plans for dinner tonight had been to eat at one of the little street food stalls that spring up along the alley our hotel is in, but sadly when we got there just after 7.30 there were no tables – and none of the people looked like they were going to be finished any time soon so we headed out onto the main drag and found a likely candidate… ‘The Viet Restaurant’ .. serving Vietnamese cuisine … funny that!  We had Vietnamese pancakes & stirfried noodles with beef and beers for about $15.

Back to the hotel via a little coffee place for another iced Vietnamese coffee.  We have an early start tomorrow – off to Hue on a 9am flight.

Hot & sweaty in HCMC

Day 2 Air Asia  KL to HCMC

Clocks re-set to KL time, body clocks still on Oz time but we answered the alarm at 4.40am and headed to the LCCT (Low cost carrier terminal) for our flight to HCMC.  It is low cost for a reason, and is in its last month of life.  The new low cost terminal – creatively named KLIA 2  is finally due for opening (it has been delayed 3 or 4 times for various reasons) on May 8^th.  Poor old LCCT is looking very unloved.

We arrived at HCMC’s shiny new airport (well new since we were last here in 2004) and headed for the Visa on Arrival counter.  Filled in the form & waited for our names to be called – not too long actually, then to the very slow moving line to the immigration counter.  By the time we did all that our bag had been taken off the carousel and was standing forlornly with about a dozen other unclaimed bits of luggage – they obviously needed this carousel for the next incoming flight.

Caught a taxi into town – about half an hour and 160,000dong (about $8) through the Sunday morning rush hour.  Our hotel is down a little alley in District 1 – too narrow for the taxi so we walked the last 50yards.  The Green Suites is not exactly salubrious, but it is clean, the a/c works, it has free wifi, the staff seem friendly (and were happy for us to check in well before the usual noon entry time) and for $35/night who cares that our balcony is exactly 1m square and it doesn’t have a pool. 

Now it seems the powers that be in these parts are not too fussed by facebook and I couldn’t get on.  Down to the lobby to see the nice ladies at reception and one of them sorted the proxy server thingy which apparently short-circuits the issues.  OK .. that’s sorted…. Well maybe!

We unpacked and headed out to explore the area round Pham Ngu Lao .. the backpacker district.  We wandered through the local market before stopping at a little place down an alley off the main road for an early lunch – you may have forgotten we had breakfast at 5am but my tummy hadn’t.  Spring rolls & iced coffee … boy I had forgotten just how much I love Vietnamese iced coffee! 

Pham Ngu Lau has a lovely long park running right up the middle, and I noticed all the street lights are powered with re-newables.  Each light pole was equipped with a little solar panel AND a little wind turbine thingy – OMG… if Vietnam can get it’s act together on this… why on earth can’t Australia. 

 

At the end of this is the famous (or infamous- depending on how you like to view these things) Ben Thanh Market.   We did a lap of the outer ring which has fixed prices and no really pushy sales people before venturing inside.  Some things never change – you just have to ignore the constant cries of “Madam, what you want to buy” and “I have nice t’shirts/pants/watches/handbag/scarf for you.”  I did try responding to one “what you looking for?” with “a new husband” … but somehow the joke was lost.  Tony forgot to pack his pjs so our only purchase was a pair of lairy floral shorts for him to sleep in.

By now we were melting .. the temp was in the mid 30s but the humidity was running about 98% so we headed back to the hotel for a nanna nap.  I tried to catch up with FB, but somehow the proxy thingy had decided not to work and I really didn’t fancy another trip down to the reception right then, I decided to write up the first part of today’s adventure before I forgot too much in my hot, sweaty & sleep-deprived state.

We want to visit Vung Tao tomorrow so the next item on the agenda is to sort out our bus ticket.  We got a price of 140,000 dong from one of the travel agents we passed, but having checked the price online I don’t think we’ll be going back there…. Apparently the tickets are only 85,000 … I’m not about to be conned out of $3!!!!!

Headed out again about 4pm, stopped at the bus office, seems e do not have to book ahead, but can just turn up in the morning and get our ticket then.  A bit more exploring and our bellies were grumbling again so we found a little place in one of the side streets nearby and ate there.  Chicken with chilli and pork ribs .. very good especially when they are washed down with a Saigon Red beer.

Back to the hotel only to find that our little alley had been transformed into a street restaurant – heaps of  sidewalk tables & chairs and masses of people eating – guess we’ll be eating close to home tomorrow night!

Still having trouble with the internet up on the 5^th floor so I’m about to head down to the lime green lounge in the lobby to post this.

The Next Adventure Begins ... off to Vietnam

Day 1.. Sydney to KL on Air Asia.

Sitting at the airport with another half hour before we can even check in.  Seems a bit of a conspiracy to me – Tony, remembering our long and winding trip in an airport shuttle least time booked for this one to come an hour earlier, and Air Asia moved the scheduled departure time back an hour. 

So here I sit .. killing time, ham & cheese croissant eaten, coffee drunk, check-in not yet open,  I’ve filled in the outgoing passenger card, and I need to get a book to read on the plane.

Next update from KL