Mike:
Well, there is not too much to say about today. Both Ming and I were suffering from food poisoning we somehow picked up in Saigon (we blame the rancid oil in the tasty but airy fried noodles). This is oddly familiar as we were both laid up with food poisoning the last time we were back in 2001 (the infamous street vendor ice cream incident).
We spent pretty much most of the day sleeping, getting quality time in the washroom, and dining on comfort food with the folks in their room. Luckily the parents have a microwave and could make us the stomach soothing rice porridge. I think Mom liked being able to take care of us again. I certainly liked it!
Well, back to sleep we go... Zzzzz...
Feb 5th Beach time!
Mike:
Today after a simple breakfast of sticky rice, we test our fragile stomachs to a bit of tasty Vietnamese snack food and lounging on the beach. I'm not usually the beach type of person but after our ordeal the past couple days, it was great being lazy and restful.
We spend a few hours chatting, snacking and snoozing. This was a very welcome and a nice way to spend family time.
Both Ming and I took turns taking long walks on the beach, where we took in the scenery and nice ocean air. Nha Trang beach has grown up quite a bit over the last eight years and can be quite the nice hangout.
There was quite a bit of garbage piled up in certain areas, as this is Vietnam, where most don't care about littering. There is a clean up crew that comes fairly often though, so large stretches of beach were, thankfully, litter free. Still, it's a shame no one respects the environment. There also anti-begging bylaws in Vietnam too so I was not accosted by beggars, though a couple people did try and sell me island tours (it is Vietnam after all).
Another classically Vietnam sight is the weird eyesore paid for by somewhat crooked investors that no-one likes. This pink monstrosity is an exhibition hall that is not in use. It was originally supposed to be a prize-winning structure, but was aborted due to lack of funding. The Vinpearl corporation, that is responsible for the massive resort complex on a nearby island (as well as it's tacky Hollywood style sign) purchased the site and built the current, unused exhibition hall. When you have money here, you can do what you want. See?
We started the evening with a pleasant dinner at the very nice Truc Linh 1 (one of 5 connected restaurants of various price points) and completed it with a nice walk on the beach with the parents.
Ming:
Ugh, being sick when traveling. It takes the energy out of you when you most want it to be there. It took us 24 hours of mostly sleep interspersed with some light congee to feel like we were back in the land of the living. In my case, the energy came back while the proper density of gut flora took a little longer, putting a damper on our favourite travel activity: eating. Oh well, smaller yet still tasty meals are a good way of doing portion control.
Today we did not do too much, but we finally got to the beach that had beckoned so beautifully out the window of our hotel room, all day yesterday in between the all day naps. We rented some chairs in the shade of a large tree and hung out for hours eating snacks and reading. Mike and I took turns going for walks up and down the beach, getting our pants soaked by the waves despite trying to stay high enough up the beach to just get our legs wet. It was a lovely walk, with the temperature feeling not too hot like it did in Saigon.
It turns out that we were fortunate in the temperature department for our Lao adventures too, because it can get very hot there. Mom told me that there is something called a Lao wind, which is feared for bringing brutal heat from the interior of the continent.
We bought what amounted to being a giant shrimp chip from a wandering vendor. It is round, flat, about 15 inches in diameter, and very tasty. You can even see the tiny shrimp embedded in it. Only a little creepy when occasionally, the eyes are left on and it is staring at you just before you take a bite. The only problem is that as soon as you buy something from someone, everyone else seems to descend on you like a swarm of locusts that you have to ward off with repeated firmness. Saying no once is never enough, and saying that you already bought what they are selling only gets them telling you to buy more. They eventually left us in peace when they saw that we were done with buying.
All in all, this ended up being a very nice, quiet, family day. It was nice too, because we finally got to see Mom again. Tomorrow, we explore the islands!
Feb 6th Singin' with da Boyz, Happy hour on Tour Boat #4
Mike:
Okay, so today is our first island tour, booked through the ever popular Sinh Cafe, a local company famous for it's inexpensive tours and bus routes. They are quite a good company and a cheap way to check things out. The group today was just me, Ming, and Dad. Mom has already gone on these tours so didn't come. While I do understand, it's kind of a shame we couldn't all spend this time together.
Our boat tour started off a little funny as our tour leader seemed very grumpy and surly (probably didn't have his cafe sua da yet (Iced coffee with condensed milk. My favourite Vietnamese style of coffee). Well, he perked up quite a bit when we all got the boat and he was on the microphone. Probably just had to turn on the tour guide switch. It seems we were on number four boat tour, named after its owner, very roughly translated as Mr. Four.
The tour promised a lot, four island stops, aquarium time, happy hour, the floating bar, fish farms, and beautiful beaches. It did deliver, sort of...
Our first stop was at the aquarium island (names escape me at the moment) where a pretty strange, fairy tale-like ship structure housed the Nha Trang aquarium. The entrance to the aquarium was a massive fish sculpture with a pathway leading into its open jaws. It's a pretty hokey but cool structure, reminiscent of the crazy house in Dalat.
You'd think going to the fairly small aquarium would be kind of lame, but it actually was pretty cool seeing the tropical fish and stuff you see scuba diving, close up. It's pretty neat being able to photograph them with a digital SLR too! The tanks for the larger fish were definitely undersized (think fish jail cell) but the main tropical fish tank was large and colourful.
Ming:
Today’s tour was certainly interesting. I think it catered more to the young, Caucasian tourist out to have a good time and to get drunk. That contingent of our tour certainly seemed to enjoy the karaoke and dancing and wet bar and drinking games and loud music aspect of the tour.
For the rest of us, there was a very tacky looking aquarium tour that was surprisingly well populated with fish. There were absolutely HUGE fish in some of the tanks, and they had a much more varied population than what we can find in the Vancouver aquarium. How well they are taken care of… who knows. Maybe the size of the giant groupers attests to their longevity in captivity. On the other hand, seeing the little fish in the giant coral reef tank gobbling up their dead comrades kinda makes you wonder. That tank was especially colorful, with a large variety of very active, busy, neon colored fish swimming by.
Mike:
After our quick stop at the aquarium, we headed back to the boat for our snorkeling island stop. I unfortunately forgot my mask and snorkel at the hotel, but luckily the tour had some reasonably functional gear. Not the prettiest stuff though.
While I swam around, looking at fish and coral, Dad and Ming took off in a glass bottom boat to see the fish from the surface.
Okay, maybe not that particular glass-bottomed “boat”. No one wanted to ride on the discount boat... I'll let Ming fill in the details.
Snorkeling was entertaining though I think I picked up a minor sunburn. The water was pretty murky, but the coral, (what's left of it) was pretty nice. There were fish here and there. It wasn't as plentiful or colourful as say, Thailand or Malaysia, but it was okay. It seems the Vietnamese tour boats have a tendency to anchor on the coral, thus damaging their future livelihood. Then again, Vietnamese companies have never been very forward thinking.
Ming:
I also enjoyed the stop at the coral-watching island, where Mike snorkeled while Dad and I took a tour in a glass bottomed boat. There was also a guy there offering to sell rides in what I can only describe as a glass bottomed inner tube. It was round, had a glass porthole in the center of it, and looked very small to be risking one’s camera in. We opted for the bigger, less tippy looking boat. It was really neat, I had never seen wild coral before, just aquarium stuff. A whole reef is very impressive by its sheer size and variation. If we’d had more time at that island, I would have gone for a ride with the glass bottom inner tube, without the big, expensive camera. Poor guy. I don’t think he had any customers that day, despite rowing from tour boat to tour boat looking for customers.
Mike:
After our snorkelling, we headed off to our next island stop where we just parked the boat and had lunch. After a pretty nice meal full of Vietnamese specialities and some seafood, we had our “happy hour”. Now that they had us all captive, the boat crew all came out to form “Tour boat #4 boy band”.
It was pretty amusing watching them belt out cover songs of various types.. They also tried to include as may different cultures as possible, singing little tunes from Japan, China, France etc. It was pretty cheesy but engaging. They just need to turn down the volume a bit and stop screaming into the microphone.
After happy hour, we went on the top deck to hang out for a bit and Dad did his best Marlboro man impression in his goofy sun hat. Gotta love the ability to laugh at yourself, eh?
This is when they started the floating bar. You would join a floating circle with your life preserver while the bartender bobbed around in the centre, doling out free (!) wine and pineapple. It was pretty cool to see though I decided to pass on it. I'm not so sure the seawater soaked pineapple would have been that great anyways...
Our final stop was the “beautiful beach”. This little island had a minuscule sandy beach as well as a fairly large gravel shore, hardly an idyllic setting. There was even an entry charge for the island! Pretty lame, but somewhat typical.
Dad, Ming and I rented some beach chairs and just enjoyed some tasty coconut at this stop. I wonder what happened to the fish farm we were promised?
So after our tour, we headed back to town, got cleaned up and headed out for a new up and coming restaurant Mom raved about. Unfortunately, the chef changed recently so the food was bland and terrible. It was amusing to see how big an ice cube you get for your drink though!
Ming:
When they say something in another country, it might mean something different from what you think it means. “Would you like some ice with your drink?” Sounds quite familiar, until the waitress plopped an ice cube in my glass that was so huge that it didn’t even fit inside! The sight was so unexpected that Mike and I burst out laughing. I’m sure the waitress thought we were a little batty. That much ice is good though, it melts so quickly in the heat.
Mike:
The evening ended in the usual way, a nice little walk home via the beach. The parents take nice long walks every night after dinner. That's such a great way to cap off the evening; I'm just disappointed that the weather isn't nice enough to do this in Vancouver!
Feb 7th Embarrassing animal shows, Big Birds, Damn dirty apes!
Mike:
Well, today was our next island tour, this one run by Long Phu. It was definitely aimed at Vietnamese speaking people as the tour guide's five minute speeches would be reduced to 30 second excerpts when he switched to English. It didn't help that we was speaking into a megaphone (cranked up too high) that pretty much rendered him incomprehensible.
So anyway, we headed to the harbour where Dad celebrated the Year of the Ox.
This is probably appropriate, as we would be checking out a lot of wildlife today! Our first stop was frustrating because it was so abbreviated. We were to spend half an hour on the island feeding ostriches and deer! This got cut down to a rushed 15 minutes. The boat even left without a few people!
In any case, it was very cool getting so close to the awkward looking but fascinating ostriches. Man, those are big birds, and they peck at the food (looks like fern leaves?) pretty fiercely. I wonder what being pecked by an ostrich feels like?
We also got to feed some remarkably social deer. They were pretty beautiful and it would have been fun spending more time with them, but alas, the tour must go on.
Ming:
I think of today’s tour as animal islands. Our first stop was at an island where we got to feed ostriches and deer. That was fascinating. I could have spent a long time there, but we got hit with the “you get less than what we advertised” syndrome again. Still, the ostriches were cool – they are so HUGE, and so fast when they move. And so strong. They can really grab the branches of leaves out of your hand that you are holding to feed them with. The deer were pretty tame too, I got to pet Bambi! This island had deserted, beautiful, coconut bordered tropical sandy beaches. Quite an idyllic setting and not at all like the kiosk infested little anemic strip of sand billed as a beautiful beach from yesterday’s tour.
Mike:
Our next island stop was a bit more animated. Ming decided she needed to make some extra money carting goods around for local establishments, so she went to work immediately.
It was here we saw our first animal show, the Bear and elephant show. It was reasonably amusing though somewhat odd seeing majestic elephant reduced to doing tricks for the crowd. Would you want an elephant to body slam you?
After the elephant came the Asiatic black bears. These, amazingly agile creatures were fascinating to watch, as they ambled around on their hind legs. I didn't know bears could move like that. Still, what's with the goofy costumes?
While it was a bit of an embarrassing show, we were all pretty impressed by what the bears could do, I mean check it out, bears on bikes!
After the show, we decided to get in some adventure as Ming did some spirited ostrich riding! I would have liked to try it out too, but it seems these ostriches had a 60 KG limit (D'oh!). Still, it was quite the sight seeing the huge bird galloping around with Ming on it's back. Those things can move!
The guide was nice enough to fill us in about the ostriches and their habits, all the while being pecked incessantly, it was definitely funny. He said it didn't hurt, as long as they don't clamp down on you.
Ming:
The next island had more animals. There was a bear and elephant show, which made me feel a little funny, because though I didn’t see any overt beating of animals, I got the impression that it probably happens backstage. The acts are also especially demeaning when the animals are wearing dresses and tutus.
The more interesting part of the island was getting up close and personal with an ostrich. It’s amazing to realize that when you are looking at the back of an ostrich’s head, it can still see you because its eyes are on either side of its head! The ostrich wrangler also took the time to answer our questions. While he was talking to us, he had an ostrich pecking at him the whole time. It seems it is an affectionate thing that they do, peck at your clothes, when they feel comfortable with you. They are quite shy animals, mine shied away from me when I tried to touch it, even though it towered a couple of feet above me. I wish that I could have gotten closer to the elephant, but it was surrounded by handlers with a very businesslike attitude: pay your money, pose with the elephant, next please!
Mike:
After the ride, we took off for a reasonably good lunch and headed off to Monkey Island! I'd have to say this was a definite highlight for the tour. I've never been around such a huge group of socialized monkeys. They regularly approach tourists for food, and will even grab sunglasses or pens from you if you're not careful. Also keep in mind that monkey bites carry rabies, so don't try and get too cozy.
In any case, it was fascinating interacting with these clever and animated primates!
After the monkeys, we checked the simply awful dog and monkey show. It was like a watered down version of superdogs as the poorly trained pooches stumbled along, doing some limited tricks. The trainers would also beat the dogs to try and get them to perform. It was pretty sad, and would be quite an affront to dog lovers everywhere.
The monkey portion of the show was pretty amusing, as these nimble primates can really put on a show. I mean check it out, monkeys on bikes!
Nonetheless, I'd be perfectly happy seeing and photographing the monkeys in their environment instead of seeing them in this contrived show. I guess that's mass market tourism eh?
Let's change gears and get in some time in the depths...
Ming:
The last island had a thousand monkeys and a ghastly dog and monkey show that included the hitting of animals, too-loud scratchy circus music that skipped, and dresses on dogs and monkeys. It was a low point of the day. The wild monkeys were interesting to watch though. There are lots of social interactions there. The monkeys have gotten very clever at being able to tell what kind of bag in peoples’ arms might contain food. They will go after these and snatch them from people, rip the bags apart, and have a feast. We got lots of monkey photos.
Feb 8th Scuba time with Canucks, Ming takes a rest
Mike:
Well, today we all go our separate ways. The parents chill out together, Ming takes a day off, and I go scuba diving! Nha Trang is supposed to be the best scuba diving in Vietnam. That said, Vietnam is not known for its scuba diving...
I signed up with Sailing Club/Octopus diving. This is one of three western run operations in town (the other two being the famous Rainbow divers and I think Blue water?). In any case, there was a price war of sorts to weed out the crappy fly-by-night operators, so I got a two-dive day package for an astonishing $30 US! Wow.
This was a great operation, with fun divemasters, and reasonable gear. They also don't overload their dive boats so you have room to breathe and socialize.
It was interesting because this was the first time I had worn a full wet suit (5 mm) in many years. The water temperature was a brisk 24 degrees Celsius, so it was well warranted. In any case, it was great to get in the water again! I always make it a habit now to go diving whenever I'm anywhere tropical.
I have to admit, the visibility was a bit spotty, being a somewhat murky six meters or so. The coral was quite nice and reasonably colourful but the fish were, well, a bit disappointing. You did see various cool tropical fish: trigger fish, banner fish, anemone fish, etc, but you just don't see them in quantity or quality (no big fish).
I found Nemo! Well, not quite, but close.
In any case, I had a fabulous time. I had been informed by the staff as to what to expect, and I just wanted to meet some nice diving folks and check out the local waters. I met a nice guy from Germany, on a six-month trip between semesters. I wish I'd done something like this when I was in school!
Also, there was also a nice couple from London who had previously gone diving at Sipidan, Malaysia. We happily swapped stories of our previous dive adventures while relaxing in the sun.
I think the biggest surprise for me was my divemaster, Steve. It seems that he is originally from Calgary! He also did a ton of wreck diving and training in Vancouver. I was pretty amused when he told me that he was a red-neck cowboy too (he even threatened to wear his plaid shirt, but I think the local heat stopped that idea). He even had his brother here as divemaster in training.
The Canadian connection continued as I found out one of the other divemasters was from Toronto (Boo! Hiss!) though his Australian accent threw me off a bit. Ya gotta love any operation that hires good Canadian kids eh? We had fun debating hockey teams though I was not too forceful since the Canucks are so lousy at the moment...
This was a great way to spend the day in Nha Trang!
Feb 9th The sleeper bus to Saigon
Today was a transition/travel day for us. We did a little wandering around town, checking out some of the local sights. Maybe next time we'll take the deservedly popular cyclo: A nice, mellow way to check out town.
We missed out on That Dam stupa in Vientiane, so we couldn't miss out on the Dam market in Nha Trang!
Ming:
We may not have been able to make it to That Dam stupa in Ventiane, but we could not resist taking a peek at the Dam market of Nha Trang, which was just a couple of blocks away from where we had a lovely lunch. It was great to have our parents take us to yummy restaurant after yummy restaurant. They know all the good places, things you would not find in the Lonely Planet. Sorry, I don’t remember where any of them are. Mike’s much better at remembering these things.
The sleeper bus was great. You go to sleep, and before you know it, you are at your destination! I wish Greyhound Canada had these. One neat memory from that trip is going to sleep while watching fields of dragonfruit farms roll by. These consist of row upon row of plants that look like cacti, all lit up like it was Christmas with rows and rows of lights. Apparently, the night time yellow light from the tungsten bulbs stimulate flowering and without them, there would be very few dragonfruit grown on those plants.
Mike:
Always looking for local snacks, Ming couldn't leave town without grabbing some king sized shrimp chips!
Anyways, I'm thankful to say we got tickets on the sleeper bus this time. The parents seem pretty comfortable in their sleeper compartments.
I didn't fare so well, however, as the constricting enclosures felt somewhat coffin-like to me. I was suffering from claustrophobia so had a pretty restless night. Things got a bit better after I wedged my backpack into the leg compartment and pretty much slept on it instead of in it. Still, no food poisoning or breakdowns, so life is good...
Feb 10th Wandering Saigon, The Roach hotel
Mike:
We arrived in Saigon at a brutally early, at 6 AM. Luckily our hotel rooms were ready so we got some extra rest (hurray!).
Later that day, we wandered over to Ben Thanh market for some lunch. It was crowded but decidedly less packed than usual. It seems the tough economic times are hitting us all. Still, pretty crowded by North American standards.
Lunch was some fabulous fresh steamed rice rolls. It was pretty fascinating watching them being made, I mean you have to love market food. Just try not to walk through the raw meat section before you get to the food stalls. The stench and appearance of all sorts of animals parts, raw meat & guts kinda turns the stomach!
In any case check out the process of making the rolls.
And the the final product.
We spent the rest of the day doing a little bit of shopping for tasty treats and souvenirs. I must say, it's good to see my empire of optical stores is doing well.
I do like to diversify though, so I share some partner stores with Ming. :D
I'll let Ming describe our ordeal with giant roach in the tub. Gross!
Ming:
The giant cockroach incident: you know that you are in the tropics when you get visitations from giant cockroaches even in nice, fancy looking, non rock-bottom hotels. I desperately needed a shower and ventured to the tub, whose stopper was in. It was one of those chrome things with no visible means of extraction. I started poking around the tub fixtures, thinking that I might need to rotate the cover of the overflow drain hole (the top one, at the end of the tub) or something. I tried to twist it this way and that. 2 antennae popped out of the drain hole, and started feeling my fingers. The antennae were 2 inches long. I yelled and leaped out of the tub and leaped back into my clothes. The antennae were still waving around and a head the size of my little fingertip popped out. I ran to get something to tap on the drain cover with, to scare the cockroach (with antennae 2 inches long, it must have been 3 inches long itself) back down the drain. Didn’t work. I went to get Mike.
When he saw the cockroach, he yelled too. And he wasn’t going to be able to sleep with this thing still in the bathroom, so he started hosing it with water to scare it back down the drain. The antennae got kind of droopy, but the cockroach still didn’t retreat. Instead the head would try to come out again, I think we screamed every time it tried to do that. That bug was stuck in there. Next Mike tried to shove it back in the drain with one of the hotel’s complimentary toothbrushes. Didn’t work. After a lengthy battle with it, he ended up decapitating the cockroach and flushing its head down the bottom drain. The rest of it was still in the top drain hole cover and sticking its feet out from time to time as it continued to struggle.
At this point I started thinking duct tape. Nope, we didn’t have any. Something else to add to our travel kit. We did have first aid tape though, so we taped up the drain hole to keep any stray feet from poking out, and I taped up the top drain hole of the sink too, to keep relatives of the cockroach from coming after us in revenge while we slept. We didn’t know what to do about the drain hole in the bathroom floor, though. That one was huge. Oh well.
After this incident, we were very ready to come home to Canada, land of the blessedly midget cockroaches.
Feb 11th Homeward bound
Ming:
Aah, time to go home again. What an interesting, varied trip this was! I was very glad to be able to spend quality time with my family again, something that becomes harder to do as one’s life becomes busier in this frenetic world we live in.
I was so lucky to travel with my parents and with Mike, who together took care of travel arrangements and led me to good times and wonderful food wherever we found ourselves.
Mike:
Well, today, we just pack up and go home! It was an interesting and diverse trip and also a great way to spend time with the family! I've had fun, and learned a few things about myself, my culture, and my family.
I've also learned to appreciate the comforts of home! :D
Hope you enjoyed the ride folks, I certainly did. Till next time, happy travels.
