Vietnam Wrap Up

Hey loyal fans and followers...

We've been seriously lagging on updating our blog. Internet has become a bit more scarce and, to tell the truth. a bit less interesting than the real-life stuff we've been getting to do! SO-- Vietnam summary:

Yes, the HaLong Bay tour is one we won't go into details on, except to say it was so terribly run that there was nothing to do but laugh at how ripped off we got. A 24 hour boat ride with an overnight stay somehow became a 4 hour boat ride and accommodations in the worst hotel we've been in all trip (and we have low standards, let me tell you!) Besides NOT being on a quiet, beautiful boat in the middle of Ha Long, we stayed in the kind of dive that was in the middle of the city, with bedsheets that had been signed by previous guests and electricity went out 5 minutes after we checked in. Oops, there I go with the details....I'll just wrap it up and say 30 very very angry people spent most of the tour cussing out the guide who, on the last day, pulled a disappearing act.

Cuc Phuong National Park was an incredible. Ditto to everything Mar said. Even though he gave my glasses away, I'd like to think I got a more authentic experience without the barrier of polarized glass to separate me from nature. On our mountain bike ride, even my eyeballs got in close personal touch with dirt specks and leaves. Plus langurs and lorises and gibbons, oh my! An unforgettable place.

We spent one last day in Hanoi and saw the cold, lifeless body of Ho Chi Min. He looked rather uncomfortable propped up in the super air-conditioned room in his glass enclosure. We stood in a line that was probably at least a mile and a half long (I am NOT taking creative license!). Although it was the longest line of my life, it was also the most efficient, as guests are only allowed 30 seconds in the room with His Pickled Greatness and are quickly escorted along. I think this has to count for the most bizarre tourist thing we've ever done.

What else to do after seeing Ho Chi Min but to go to Ho Chi Min City? We hopped a plane (We'll pass on that 40 hour bus ride thankyouverymuch.) and suddenly found ourselves in the South. A very different feeling than Northern Vietnam. I can't quite explain it, but it wasn't quite as hard to cross the streets. That evening we checked out the night scene and saw a pretty swingin' band play at a cafe. Marshall had to defend his racial background to a particularly drunk Vietnamese man who insisted that Mar was Mexican. Very entertaining to watch. We also had the following conversation with him that I must document here: (Note: Marshall and I don't actually talk at the same time, but I can't remember who said what...)

MAN: Where you from?
T/M: California
MAN: Ohhhh California! Ahnold Swwarrseeeenger!
T/M: Haha, yeah...well, he's not governor anymore...
MAN: Pooor ahnold. Poor, poor.
T/M: ...
MAN: Brian Wilson!
T/M: Yeah!! A giants fan!! Isn't he the greatest? [Brian Wilson is a pitcher for the SF Giants who just had surgery on his arm.]
MAN: ...(looks confused)...such a shame.
T/M: Oh, about his surgery? It went well! It's okay!
MAN: So so sad.
T/M: No, no! It's okay! He'll be back!
MAN: WHAT? How can he be back?! He's DEAD!
T/M: WHAT?!
MAN: ...
T/M: ...
MAN: ...
T/M: Ohh wait...do you mean....
MAN: Brian Wilson! Beach Boy! Dead! [starts singing] T bird, T bird, mommy took the keys away!

An interesting night.

We spent the next day at the War Remnants Museum, which covered all the horribleness of the Vietnam War. A very heavy afternoon, and with that, wrapped up our Vietnam experience.

T

Here, take my girlfriends glasses

After a comically bad tour of Halong Bay we regrouped and headed down to Cuc Phuong National park. From the bus station and after about an hour of intense haggling that filled up 2 pieces of paper with maps, global oil prices and conversion rates, we hired 2 moto drivers to take us to the park entrance (point B on the map) or the top of some mountain 25 km away (point A on the map) or somewhere completely passed all that (point C on the map), we weren't entirely sure. As we hopped on the back of our bikes, my driver, seeing me put on my sunglasses, asked if he could wear Tina's which he saw in the bag. And me, being the brilliant person that I am, handed them right over. Let's just say I remembered that I had given him these right about when Tina and I were looking through pictures of the motobike ride in our room later that afternoon. Brilliant.

Cuc Phuong though did not lose any of its brilliance however, even if viewed through squinting eyes. Tina fell in love with the swinging fellas at the primate rescue center and I helped build a hanging ladder toy for the gibbons. The next day we trudged up on bikes through the jungle out to some pretty expansive and completely empty caves and a thousand year old tree. Ours were the only pedal powered bikes in the lineup of motos at the top of the hill, and everybody we passed on the road (or rather, who passed us) either looked at us like we were crazy or just laughed.

If you're ever in Vietnam and see a moto driver with a new pair of Electric sunglasses, ask him about the kind American traveler who gave them to him.

M