Its Cheesy but... "Good Morning Vietnam"!

Landing in Hanoi from Taiwan it was immediately clear I had jumped back in the level of country status (putting it as politely as I can think). The international airport was similar to a country Australian airport with almost no security and the oldest of old equipment.

From the airport I took a cab ride to the city directly to my hostel. It was now dark and it was pouring with rain, harder than I had ever seen before. But it didn’t stop me from exploring my first evening.

The rain eventually stopped and I found a street corner to stop and grab a beer and something to eat. The beer was the cheapest I had seen in Asia so far a whole 25 cents Australian, it was also some of the best I had tasted, it wasn’t light like the Chinese or Korean beers but not as heavy as the Australian carb beers. It was perfect. The street corner also made a perfect place to sit and watch the motorbikes and street vendors walk past and all the noise and excitement that goes with that. It turned out to be a famous corner in Hanoi known to the backpackers and the locals as “the beer corner”.

The following morning I started to explorer Hanoi. I headed to the Hoan Kiem Lake to see the Ngoc Son Temple. The Lake was a large round lake with a small island in the center, this island had a temple with lots of bonsai’s on it. The artwork and carvings were also very noticeable of a turtle and a tiger.

I walked around the lake and then double back on the old quarter of Hanoi.

I headed past what appeared to be the fabric and textiles trading section of the town, a old official building with a fountain in the middle and 3 stories high was jam packed with vendors of all types and colors. Even the center floor was packed with people.

Continuing on I was heading towards a larger lake called the West Lake.  It took me a good hour of walking before I reached the lake, the lake was much larger than I imagined, my map only showed a ¼ of it as it ran off the edge of the map. There was a small island on the edge of this lake as well with a small temple, this temple had a pagoda with 11 stories and small Buddha’s at each level. Sadly the temple was in pieces as it was being reworked.

Along the edge of the lake were 20+ men fishing, they were using a stick and a hand reel. I stopped for a while to sit and watch them, they appeared to pull a fish from the murky water every 2-3 minutes, the fish were small granted but there success rate was very very high, they also appeared not to be using any bait. Very impressive.

I continued on my walk along the edge of the lake towards the presidential palace, and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.  


Along the way the guards on the roads grew in number and the flags changed from the typical Vietnamese Yellow star on red to a mix of it and the communist Flag. 
The buildings also seemed to start to display more and more communist pride and markings.

The palace seemed to come out of no where, with the large iron gates and a fountain in the front. I had seen it on a documentary (Danish Royal Family) once before so instantly recognized it.

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum was just next door and a giant flag pole with the Vietnamese flag was in front of this. The guards were in more official uniforms protecting the mausoleum than they were in the palace.

I headed in and did a walk around the palace grounds that was open, there were a few old houses that were open as exhibits for how the people use to live and war time items. There was also some old soviet cars on display which were very rare. They were used by Ho Chi Minh post and pre war times.

Following the palace I proceeded to a old fort/flag building it was built by the French long time ago as a observation tower, but now is a flag pole and a old military museum.

The museum had tanks and planes and helicopters all from the Vietnam war.

One tank was of particular significance, it was the tank that raided the palace and smashed down the gates during the take over of Hanoi.

That evening I headed back to “the beer corner”, and relaxed. It was Halloween weekend so everyone young and old were dressing up in costumes. great night to be sitting on the corner with other backpackers having a yarn.

The next day I decided to organize my trip to Sapa and Ha Long bay. The city was full of tour offices, and I had talked to a few people the last 2 nights of how best to see the places. 99% of people insisted on taking a tour, as you got to see much more, and people kept raving about this particular group where you got to do home stays and travel on the back paths away from all the other tourists… so I headed to the tourist office of “Ethnic Travels” and booked in, I was to leave that evening for 8 days (4 days in Sapa and 4 days in ha long).

The rest of the day I just walked around the city and checked out random shops, nothing overly special. 

That evening with my bags packed I headed to Sapa not sure what the "tour" would offer but had to give it a go.

Till next time, HAVE FUN!   

Steffen

Night and Day, China and Taiwan.

Not taken at the Airport
but shows flag ;)

I’ve now moved from China to the small Island of Taiwan, also referred to as the Republic of China (ROC). I had no idea what to expect when I was planning coming to Taiwan, I had not really heard a lot about Taiwan and the lonely planet forums were really undecided to it being interesting. But I had penciled it in as a “option” if I had time, and I have loads of that.

I arrived in Taipei the capital of Taiwan and immediately it was obvious Taiwan was not considering itself part of mainland china (contrary to what many people in china I talked to said).  The airport was covered in Taiwanese flags in every direction. It was clear to see the people were very proud of there flag.

The first night I checked into the hostel and met a few of the people there, they were all heading out on the town as it was one of the guys birthday and it was time to party! We headed to a Spanish salsa bar, which had all you could drink as it was closing down (great idea to increase profits), so we drank and enjoyed ourselves till the early hours of the morning.

For some reason I hadn’t been sleeping since shanghai, only getting 2-3 hours of sleep. So having gone to bed at 5am I was up at 7:30 again and out the door… I walked and walked. From the hostel to the other side of Taipei to the Taipei 101 tower.  The 101 tower is the worlds 2^nd tallest building and boasts the worlds fastest elevator. Climbing 101 stories in 45 seconds, at a top speed of 1010 meters a minute.

From the top of the tower you can see 360 degrees around Taipei and its said that on clear days you can see mainland china, but I find that hard to believe due to the distance.

Finishing up at the 101 building I walked back to the hostel extremely tired.  I walked through a few of Taipei’s famous night markets just as they were opening up and had some nice beef noodles to eat.

That night again I went out, I had a kip (nap) earlier so was not tired at all. Others in the hostel were not interested but I went anyways, arriving back at 4am again after a great night out on the town and I met a lot of people. When I arrived back a number of the guys from the hostel were still up, it was there last night in Taipei and they were doing a all night run.

I was not in a happy place the next day, having done all nighters for 4 days straight and averaging 3-4 hours sleep a night I was drained, I hung around the hostel that day doing my washing and watching movies.

That night we talked and organized the following day, tomorrow was Taiwan’s National day of independence. My luck I had landed on the 1 day they celebrate independence but also there centenary (100 years). Sara (Sarah) a member of the hostel staff was talking about a flag raising ceremony at dawn (6am) and other celebrations later the day.  But it was far to early for some people to get up, but I was keen… hell I had been getting up at that time the last week so might as well make the most of it.

5am the next morning I had organized to meet Sara at the hostel and was texting her to make sure she was still keen when I heard “Steffen you awake” and she was up and ready lol… She also managed to wake up Sterny another guest at the hostel and convince (force) him to come along. Nice work Sara J

The flag raising was to take place at presidents hall but getting there seemed impossible, the police and army had cornered off every direction within 3km of the building. We ended up finding a gate where the crowds had gathered, but we were not getting in under any conditions. 6am came and the crowd erupted the flag was being raised and it was literally 7km away so tiny. People began to sing the national anthem. A few people with the national flag for up higher above the crowds and waved it to give people something to sing and cheer for. I don’t think anyone predicted they would not be aloud to get close the hall.

Following the flag raising we hopped in a cab and went to get some traditional Taiwanese breakfast. It was a mixture of Chicken, Duck and Pork things with a rice porridge. All very nice.

We headed back to the festivities, apparently there would be paratroopers and planes flying past at 9:30 or something.  It was 8:30 so we had lots of time to walk there.

9:30 came and went, we watched the performers practice for the main event later that day, soldiers and martial arts performances.  Was very cool to see.

10:30 we had moved to another place in the memorial park to relax and then suddenly everyone pointed and cheered, 1000’s of people erupted at the same time. Helicopters in formation had appeared on the horizon and not just a few, row after row of helicopters then Chinooks (double propeller helicopters), then medical planes, and transport planes. 


Followed by loads of fighter jets of various types, MIGs, F16’s and others. Finally a group of 5 in formation with Red, White and Blue smoke the colors of Taiwan’s national flag.  Very very cool!!

As we left 100’s of police rode in on motorbikes we thought maybe it was the president or someone importance but it was just police, they would later let people close to the bike and take photo’s with them.

Shortly there after paratroopers finally fell from the sky, smoke cashing them.

Following this several convoys of tanks passed through the city.

We headed back to the hostel and had some lunch, the festivities would be paused till 3pm when the demonstrations would be for real. On the way we passed a pack of dogs standing outside a meet shop sniffing the air. They didn’t take a single step inside the shop, they seemed to have been trained to just stand and wait. Quite funny.

We headed back to the grounds at 3pm only to find it was packed, the crowds had swelled to unimaginably big size and getting a place to see the demonstrations was challenging.

Once it was over we headed back to the hostel and had a waffle party.

The following day I had slept in, the previous days had finally caught up to me and it felt so nice to have gotten a decent sleep. I headed out late and went to Longshan Temple, it was a active temple and was full of incense burning and people layout out fruit for prayers.

From there I walked around town eventually getting tired and found a cinema so I poped in to watch a movie. Relaxing day indeed! J It seemed I wasn’t the only one, everyone in the hostel that night spent there time on there laptops relaxing.

My final day in Taipei till I come back to fly out I spend at Maokong, a large cable car that flies over the Taipei Zoo. 


It took me to the top of a mountain and I hiked down it, I couldn’t believe the number of spiders along the way, they were massive as well. 


I must have been taller than anyone else that walked before me that day as I was cleaning up… my umbrella was littered with spider webs(After 20 min of walking into them I used my umbrella as a Machete to cut my way though the webs).

The paths were beautiful and packed in with bamboo, it would take me around the tea plantations and banana trees to a temple. Eventually I Made my way down via the cable car again as it started to bucket down.

My last night, I’m still not sure that to do, Sara has kindly offered some concert tickets to traditional Chinese music but I wouldn’t mind hitting up the clubs before I leave the big smoke again. So many choices. Either way should be fun.

Tomorrow I’m heading to Toroko National Park, Hualien. Going to spend a week hiking around the mountains. So looking forward to that.

Till next time. See ya! Steffen.

   

Slow boat too... umm I'm in China? So Yichang?

Man fishing in river with faint
skyscrapers in background

Chongqing is the fastest growing city in the world,  its population and tourism boom in the last 10 years is largely due to the construction of the 3 gorges dam and the displacement of many towns and cities by the rising water.

The city towers and apartment blocks started some 30 min out of the city and just continued all the way in. Millions of people now live in this over night super city.

I had been travelling with Tom a guy from the UK since the train incident in Xi’an a week ago and we were both heading the same way to at least Yichang.  Its always a much more enjoyable trip when you have someone to talk.

We arrived in the city and headed to the docks, we were trying to find the ferry to Yichang before the evening so we didn’t have to stay in the city. Every 2 meters there was someone selling a tour on the river. It was like a pack of flies buzzing around you, “tour tour tour, englishy tour” *Zap* my imaginary fly zapper goes…

Police bikes in China

We found the ferry terminal and the price was double if not more than what we had read and expected. So we took our chances and headed to the hostel and checked in. The hostel was most helpful with booking things, mainly because they get a large cut of it as well but its understandable. The hostel didn’t have access to the ferry but could sell us a tour for 50 Yuan more than the ferry would cost us, and then we could get off and see some sights and the ferry is for workers not very nice.. ok we go the Chinese tour boat then. Ooops the 2 night one is sold out, we must go the 3 night one, add 100 more and we have to pay extra for the sights, so we bought a package. Before we knew what had hit us the fly zapper slapped me in the face, we had gone 4 times over the original price we thought we would spend on the river, and we were on a tour. OUCH!

Oh well it will be more interesting than sitting on a boat for 2 days we thought. I also booked my train, accommodation for the rest of china, Zhangjiajie and shanghai as the week coming up was a national holiday in China and getting it booked later would be difficult so the hostel was very helpful with this too.

That night we were on the way back from dinner when we were walking through a dark ally and passed a small shop. We were thinking of buying something to shot on the boat to pass time at night. The small shop had traditional Chinese drinks up on the shelf. I pointed at one bottle which looked like vodka in a small bottle. The alch was 60% wow!. We asked how much and the owner put up 7 fingers. 7? No that can not be correct, again we asked and again 7… ok it must be per shot.. lets try 1 and see what its like and we can buy a bottle later we thought. 2 please… out comes 2 bottles. So we bought both and headed off happy with out pickings. 7 Yuan is $1 Aus for a 300ml bottle of 60% moonshine.

Shopping Day

A round of cards with a few Germans and us 2 and a bottle was gone that night, it was extremely strong stuff that I would be happy to never see again.

Shopping Day Supplies

The next day we went shopping for supplies, the hostel had warned us that there was nothing on board and we should bring our own food. So what we need… 4 days worth, 10 cups of noodles each, some chips, bottle of whisky (we both agreed the Baijiu should be a last resort), some cookies, 12 Litters of drinking water, and 6 Banana’s  (must have “some” healthy food). We were set. 3 Super large bags of 2 minute noodles sat in prized spot in the hostel and the hostel owner just shook her head when she seen it. We had no idea…. J

That night we were off and racing the boat was a rust bucket, and we were the only 2 white people on the boat, and only ones speaking English. The boat left Chongqing after dark and the lights over the city was a nice way to say farewell and hello to a new section of the trip. It took about 20 min and we were into our first cup of 2 min noodles (9 more to go each).

The karaoke had started on the boat as well. Well one due started, and everyone left hahaha….

The accommodation on the boat was very very basic, and it looked like the bed had not been cleaned ever. The noodles down the side gave it away. First time the entire trip I was thankful I had my sleeping bag with me. Warm, clean sleeping bag ahhh…

The next day we were up at the crack of dawn to see the temple of the dead. Downed a cup of noodles (2/10). Headed off the boat to a Temple.

The temple was nice and had a few small buildings but when you looked close it was very new, all reinforced concrete and ply board. There was a section that looked very original and the small models of people getting cut up and dissected and  boiled was totally gross.

We spent about 2 hours walking around this park, on the way back to the boat we passed a Ute with a bunch of pigs in it.. the shop next to the Ute was selling pork. Nice to know it was fresh, the pigs didn’t look to happy about it though.

We spent that afternoon chilling and doing nothing on the boat, mainly because there was nothing to do. You can only play “shithead” (a card game) so many times before it gets boring. The Chinese on the boat on the other hand used the time to create the perfect picture… standing in front of a green screen and having there photo taken in various poses. It was pure comedy. The photo’s they were going to be super imposed on didn’t even look that good and the scale to the person to the background made it look so fake! Lunch time again cup of noodles (4/10 now, had a snack earlier) They all started to taste the same and the stomach didn’t like it very much.

That night we stopped at another temple. It was to a local hero. As we were on a Chinese tour we missed most of the explanation and it really wasn’t that “amazing” I’ve seen better temples in Korea. The only authentic part of the day truly was the meal after the temple at night, each place seemed to have 100’s of stops leading up to the “attraction”. I picked one that looked nice and ordered food, at the time I didn’t care what it cost I didn’t want noodles, but when the bill came I wished I had asked. It was more expensive than a nice restaurant in the city. It tasted “nice” though.

Salute

We spent the rest of the drinking the local beer on the boat till we got ticked off the top deck at midnight, then continued at the back of the boat with the Chinese flag as our companion.

The next day we woke up to the first of the 3 gorges, it was a nice site to see. The cliffs were super high and straight down.

The rain had started to come in as well which closed off much of our freedom to get away from the loud karaoke that seemed to go 24 hours on the boat.

Im going to skip over the noodles now, it was making us both sick and we still had 2 days supplies of the little cups. Backpacking on a budget never tasted so bad. (5/10)

At lunchtime we arrived at the little 3 gorges, the last of our prepaid attractions, the first 2 were bitter disappointments but hopeful as this was nature it couldn’t be refurbished into something it wasn’t, or at least we thought.

Lol! its upside down.

We got shuttled onto a smaller boat and practically ordered to sit. Every time we stood up someone would come and tell us to sit, it wasn’t until they had finished selling the roof top tickets and “professional” photos that we were permitted to move.  The little gorges were quite amazing and it was a real shame it was raining.

After about 2 hours we arrived at this pontoon and transferred to a smaller craft again, these looked like traditional boats you would see in movies. The ride was actually fun the host on the boat started of a song and everyone on the boat chanted in time. Everyone except Tom and I had life jackets on, it was a follow the leader moment. One person did so everyone follows. There was no reason and we were not asked to. One of the Chinese guys had his upside down, it wasn’t till he stood up to have a picture taken and seen me on the floor laughing at him that he realized and took it off. Sorry dude! But it was too funny.

Once the chant finished the host pulled out the key chains, to sell as souvenirs. Can not have 1 ride without someone wanting to make a extra buck.

The ride was short but nice.

Again we transferred into the previous boat and onwards again. This time we arrived at a small town with lots of apartment blocks. It was very strange when we got shuttled into these golf buggies to take a trip around the town, up to a small shrine (2 min walk) then back down. It was more like they were showing off the town then the shrine. I later found out that’s exactly what was happening. The city was built for the displaced people and it was being shown off. So sad.

We missed the 2^nd and 3^rd gorges as it was night. The tour guides still gathered everyone up on the top deck and talked for 2 hours in pitch black, and everyone still took pictures of the black abyss.

The next morning we arrived at the docks of Yichang and not fast enough! The boat although was a “experience” really wasn’t fun and was a waste of valuable time in china.

Yichang I said farewell to Tom, he was taking a bus towards Hong Kong and skipping Zhangjiajie, and I was taking a mild 5 hours ride to Zhangjiajie by train. It worked out that both our transportation left 1 hour after docking and we both just made the connections.

See how Zhangjiajie also known as the Avatar mountains is.