I am on the night train to northern Vietnam…it’s 10pm now and the train is due to arrive in Lao Cai at 6:30am tomorrow morning. Then it’s on a bus to Sapa and I’ll be in the mountains. This is actually my first sleeper train ever and I am lucky to have 3 other Western girls in my cabin. Actually I was originally in the one next door but there were 3 Vietnamese guys in there, and well, let’s just say I prefer to be with the girls. So it will be a relaxing night I think.
Today we left Cat Ba Island with a 4-hour boat ride back to the mainland and then a 4-hour bus to Hanoi. The weather was still gloomy all day but having good company made for a good day. Noi and I shared a hotel room last night and we had dinner together as well. She is really such a nice girl – I am very happy to have made a Thai friend.
On the boat it was Noi, Don, me and Annie from Australia. At one stage another boat pulled up selling fresh prawns and crabs (literally catching them and selling them) and so those guys bought some and had them cooked on the boat. I really don’t know anything about the cost of seafood but apparently it was very cheap and really good too.
I had dinner in Hanoi with Noi, Don, Annie and another guy Paul before getting on the train. Thai food believe it or not but Noi was missing her food from home. It was excellent…now I am ready for some rest.
Views of Halon Bay, Vietnam
Buying fresh seafood right on the boat
Noi and I having a beer (trying to keep warm!)
January 26th, 2002
Another rainy day in Vietnam…this time from the coast though ao at least it’s different scenery. I am in my hotel on Cat Ba Island just off of Halon Bay. Yeah, so I have to admit that I succombed to a package tour today and paid $14 which included a 4-hour bus ride to the coast (east of Hanoi), a 4-hour boat ride, hotel, meals for 2 days, and the journey back to Hanoi. Halon Bay is a really beautiful area filled with limestone cliffs jetting out of the sea – it’s a shame that the weather is not so nice to fully enjoy.
So on the bus ride here I sat with a really nice Thai girl named Noi (also travelling on her own). It was fascinating to talk with her about her childhood and education because she comes from a pretty wealthy Thai family and so her experiences are much different than a typical Thai person. We also met Don, an Australian in Vietnam on holiday, and we had a good time drinking beer with him on the boat.
Most interesting of all was an older Vietnamese couple sitting next to me on the boat…in talking with the woman I learned that they have been living in Canada for the last 11 years but the woman’s English was not so good and I was having a hard time understanding and I didn’t know what she was talking about when she kept saying that before they moved to Canada her husband had been in the north in the mountains doing’re-education’ for 10 years. I thought it was her bad English and I kept asking, well what was he studying? Finally I came to understand that her husband had been fighting for the South in the’American War’ as it is called here and in 1975 when the North took over he was sent to prison for 10 years while she raised their 5 children alone in the south of Vietnam. Sent to prison for’Re-education’ for fighting against the North. And here this man was sitting next to me on this boat with his wife, now back in Vietnam visiting family on holiday. I am very much aware that I am in a Socialist Republic here in every sense so everything here is twisted into the story that the government wants it to be. Calling prison a re-education program for instance. Completely incomprehensible to me. I did ask her what her husband thought of the Americans and she said that they helped him a lot during the war.
On the way to Halon Bay the bus stopped at a roadside stop for food and drink and they had these young girls sitting in rows weaving these yarn landscapes of Vietnam. Above them was a big sign explaining how this was a humanitarian program to help handicapped children of Agent Orange become skilled and employed. Now who really knows if these children are even handicapped (ok, I saw one with only one leg but the rest looked totally normal) and if they are is it really a result of chemicals used in the war but you can’t help feeling like shit about it when you read the sign and look at the girls.
It is certainly a mind-opening experience to just be here, my first time in a communist country even. I’ve entered the country on my Australian passport and I think I’ll continue to introduce myself as an Aussie just in case. I have heard of a few instances of Vietnamese people saying to Americans’you killed my people’, surprisingly enough in the South…
On a different note, I did some excellent shopping last night buying some new CD’s for the long train/boat/bus rides. Apparently Hanoi is THE capital of pirated CD’s in Asia and at less than 70 cents per CD I can see why. That’s 1/3 of what they cost in Bangkok!
So tomorrow on tha boat again (some sun maybe please!), then on a bus back to Hanoi at 5:30pm, and then the overnight train to Sapa.
Inside the caves at Halon Bay (yes, I am FREEZING!)
The limestones formations of Halon Bay
A much simpler life, eh?
January 25th, 2002