Vietnam - Hoi An

After Nha Trang we had two days of long bus rides (stopping for the night in Quy Nhon) to get to Hoi An. Hoi An is known for its old town and its many tailors.



Japanese covered bridge

Lanterns



Hoi An



Boat

I was a bit travelled-out when we got to Hoi An. I had had enough of tourist hot spots, markets and people constantly yelling out "Lady, you buy?" and so I didn't explore much of the old town. Instead, I rented a bicycle and went to a pottery village (Thanh Ha). There was a terracotta exhibition that I wasn't sure was actually open or still being constructed but no one stopped me from entering. It had all sorts of terracotta pottery (statues, bowls, vases, roof tiles) and outside had terracotta miniature models of world landmarks (Stonehenge, Sydney Opera House, Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, etc.). I biked around the village, got invited in to watch a woman create vases on a wheel (and then try it myself) and then got into the "please, you buy?" part of the village so I left.



Buddha



Terracotta miniatures



Inside this tree....

... is a small elephant shrine



My new clay chicken whistle













I also biked to a vegetable/herb village, where they grow vegetables and herbs (you'd never had guessed...). I liked this village because everyone left me alone and I could bike around in peace before heading back to Hoi An.



Herbs

I wasn't planning on getting tailor-made clothes but the nice-looking wool jackets won me over and I had one made (a winter coat being the logical choice in 30 degree weather...). Our tour guide recommended one of the stores so off I went to pick my colour and style and get measured. They had me come back for a fitting later that day and I was quite worried because it was pretty small (I've got wide shoulders and couldn't really move my arms). I can't understand Vietnamese but I swear the girl who took my measurements turned to the seamstress and said "See?! I told you the measurements were right!". I went back to pick it up the next day and it fit a lot better. I was impressed with the tailors because after I had tried it on the second time and said it was fine, they checked over all the seams, pulling at them to make sure they were secure, and giving them a good visual inspection. They even re-stitched one of the seams on the hood because it was sub-par. It would have been so easy for them to have just thrown it in a bag for me to take away instead of giving it a final inspection. So if you're ever in Hoi An looking for a tailor, I would recommend Sun Tailors.



Let's all just focus on the coat and not the rest
of my "I've been biking in the rain all day" look.

Vietnam - Nha Trang

After our nice cool stay in Dalat, we went to the city of Nha Trang, which is hot and beachy and a favorite vacation spot for Russian tourists.



Beach in Nha Trang

Fishing Boats

In Nha Trang we visited the Po Nagar Cham Towers and a mud bath/hot springs spa. The mud baths were a new experience for me and I didn't like them as much as much as I thought I would - maybe because  I was picturing thick cakey mud but it was more like really dirty water.



Po Nagar Cham Towers

I think it's raining over there



My favourite part of Nha Trang was the boat trip we took, solely because I got to spend as much time as I wanted to jumping off the boat into the ocean. Fun times!

 

Sun Rise over the ocean

Sun rise

Vietnam - War

Before coming to Vietnam, I had a very basic awareness of the Vietnam War. Since being here, I've visited three sites with Vietnam War significance:

1. Cu Chi Tunnels just outside Ho Chi Minh City. The area has over 200km of interconnected underground tunnels dug by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. The tunnels were used to hide from the enemy, shelter from air attacks, transport troops/weapons, and sometimes to live in. The tunnels are tiny and dark and I'm impressed by how much they were used and the extent of the system. There was an exhibit at the tunnels showing the different traps for enemy soldiers and they were really brutal and not just built to kill but also to maim. I wasn't expecting it.

Staff demonstrating how to enter a tunnel

Exhibition on enemy traps

Out of bomb craters grows bamboo

2. The War Remnants museum in Ho Chi Minh City. This was a mainly photo exhibition of atrocities committed during the Vietnam War, the protests across the globe and the aftereffects of Agent Orange. I had been warned about the horribleness of some of the content but I think the worst part was a series of photographs taken by an American photographer at the My Lai Massacre. The photographer photographed people just before or after they were killed by soldiers. I have really mixed feelings about the photographer. I'm really hoping he did it so that he could show the world what was actually going on, but he waited a year and then sold the photos to the press so I don't know. I know that he has to make a living, which could explain selling the photos (still, to me, it just seems so despicable to profit from photos like that), but if he really wanted to show the world what was going on, why wait?

3. My Lai Memorial Museum. This was a museum documenting the massacre of an entire village of innocent civilians (men, women and children) by American troops. The museum had the photos that were also shown at the War Remnants museum and had a bit of other information.

Statue at My Lai Museum

I now know a lot more about the war than before I came here and have decided that war is horrible for everyone involved except, perhaps, for the people calling the shots from cushy offices.

Vietnam - Dalat

After leaving Ho Chi Minh City we travelled to Dalat. It was a long bus ride but we stopped a few times to eat, sample coffee (not me), see tree and coffee plantations and check out a rural village. Dalat is in the central highlands with an elevation of about 1500m, so the temperature is about 10 degrees cooler than Ho Chi Minh City. It was really nice! I wore long trousers and a long sleeved shirt to dinner and didn't even break a sweat!

Harvesting tea

Statue of chicken in rural village

Dalat

Dalat

In Dalat, we went to see the Royal summer palace (meh), the Crazy House (I really liked it! I want to stay there! See http://www.crazyhouse.vn/index.php?lang=en for more info) and took a cable car to the Truc Lam monastery.



Summer Palace



Truc Lam Monastery



Truc Lam Monastery

Crazy House Stairs

The Gourd Room - Crazy House



Crazy House

I got caught in a huge slow-moving storm while wandering around Dalat's flower garden (I could have sworn the clouds were moving away from town). At first it was kind of fun - I sheltered under a little mushroom pavilion and watched it bucket down. It became less fun when the wind picked up and I started getting wet and cold. It was even less fun when it started lightening and I realized I was sheltering under a metal pavilion. It got to its least fun when it started hailing in the wind - not just little hail but 1-2cm hail, falling horizontally.


Rain



Aftermath of storm



Weeks worth of dust built up on
sandals + rain water = dirty feet

Dalat is known for it's flower production in Vietnam. Here are some pictures of flowers and greenhouses in Dalat (I'd figure out the names of the flowers but I just can't be bothered):

Flowers

Flower

Flowers

The happiest flowers I've ever seen

Weird flowers



Green houses

More greenhouses - they were
everywhere!

 

Vietnam - Mekong Delta

We did an overnight stay in the Mekong Delta to break up our time in Ho Chi Minh City. Having had been in the city for a few days, I was looking forward to getting out into a rural area.

 

Mekong Delta Homestay



Boatful of fruit headed for market








 



Nothing says rural like chickens
in a kitchen

It was alright. We visited a bunch of the small industries in the area (candy factories, rice paper factories, a tree nursery, and a pottery/brick factory. The pottery/brick factory was neat because you could see how not much goes to waste in the area. The factory buys the clay from farmers who dredge it from their rice fields and buys rice husks from rice processing plants/farmers to heat the kilns. Then the farmers buy back the residual ash from the burned rice husks to use as fertilizer. It's like the circle of life ... sort of.



Making fried rice paper



Making steamed rice paper







Pottery/Brick Factory

Clay rabbits

Clay chickens



Rice husks transported down the river