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Vietnam -- Ho Chi Minh Trail
The Modern Ho Chi Minh Trail starts in Hanoi, and takes in Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Dalat, Saigon, and all the little should sees in between.
The Reunification Express:
There are three trains linking Hanoi with Saigon daily, although the trip takes a couple of days.
To enjoy the country and arrive with some sanity, it is better to break up the journey.
From Hanoi, S1 is the fastest, and departs at 19:00; the S3 at 19:30; and the S5 at 10:00. (Check the times at the station, they might have changed).
Prices vary according to train and type of travel: hard-seat, soft-seat, hard-sleeper, and soft-sleeper.
S1 is the most expensive, and S5 the cheapest.
For those planning to stop off at Hue, a soft-seat on the morning train is pleasant enough.
The train from Hanoi leaves punctually and passes the morning activity of a long, long line of open-house, come shop-front commerciality.
Forty-five minutes later, and you are looking at banana plants, bamboo clusters, and an army of workers knee-deep in mud, diligently painting the landscape green, with fresh rice seedlings.
Appropriately enough, attendants arrive to distribute free, airline style meals.
Not quite; more like a large portion of rice (bring your own chili sauce for flavoring), some sort of fatty meat off-cuts, and a small amount of scraggy vegetable leaves, to which is added soup from a large, round tin on wheels. No thanks.
Dessert is a strawberry wafer; which tastefully neutralizes the chili sauce, earlier applied like ketchup.
Hue:
After resisting numerous foreign invasions, Vietnam is finally loosing its identity to the tourist dollar.
Coke and Kodak are everywhere, but thankfully, not yet the Big Mac.
Call me a romantic, but the Forbidden City in Hue has a more contemplative feel to it than its larger scale Beijing cousin.
The refined simplicity in the humid, yet cool, tropical gardens of the Forbidden Purple City, gave the former Emperor a truer place to meditate.
For a $5 entrance fee, you will find less tourists, a slower pace, and an interesting display of knick-knacks in the restored pavilions.
Tours can be had from Hue to the DMZ for $15 (6am depart), and to Hoi An for $3 (8am).
You can try your luck with local transport, but you will pay more than the Vietnamese, and probably more than the tourist minibuses.
It's all about your bargaining skills.
First to Danang:
(Anything from 10,000 to 40,000 Dong per person; we finalized at 50,000 for two). I'm not a Lonely Planet guide...... remember that prices change fast in these countries.
In Transit:
With gas bottles under your feet, your bag between your legs, your knees up to your chin, and your head rubbing on the roof of the minibus, you will be lucky to stretch your neck out of the widow
When you can, the views going over the 'Col des Nuages' are stunning.
Before leaving Hue for Danang, your driver will probably be stopped by the police for a leaky radiator, he will then have to stop again to take on more water.
The old ladies beside you will indicate that you paid too much for the biscuits, but happily eat them with you, and help to smoke your cigarettes; stained-teeth smiles all round.
The little trucks from Danang to Hoi An are a short walk away from the bus station, outside to the right.
You'll probably have to sit and wait, and then bargain again fiercely when the driver decides to go. The money-grabbing youth who swings around the outside of the moving vehicle like a monkey frowns like one too, when you refuse to pay his three dollar asking price.
Come on boys... it's three bucks on the tourist minibus from Hue to Hoi An.
While the Vietnamese price is 3-5,000 dong, depending on the amount of boxes and bundles they have, the monkey will make a big deal of collecting ten-thousand from each, and showing you their money.
The only way to stop the charade was to pull our bags off, and walk away.
"Okay, Okay."
Hoi An:
The Price Hikes Continue.
Saturated with day tourists and mid-range travellers, the very basic rooms, in this quaint old village near the mouth of the river, have ridiculous sliding scales right up to, and above, $40.
For a really depressing stay, the drab Hoi An Hotel can offer you anything from Five Class (lowest), to Luxury (priced through the ceiling).
A traveller on a budget can forget the bargain room in a sophisticated hotel scenario, while dollar throwing Americans on a guilt trip will surely feel ripped off by this one. The restaurant is so inviting, you will be tempted to go a diet.
The restaurants by the river, on the other hand, are under-priced in comparison.
Kontum:
From Hoi An at dawn, we straddled two motorbikes to Highway one, for quinze mille; the toothless Viel Homme, preferred to speak French.
He stayed with us to stop the bus, and negotiate the price.
He wanted us to pay 40,000 dong, the caller wanted 100,000 each. We played disgusted, shocked, and disbelieving. The Vietnamese on the bus peered through the door with interest, and amusement.
The day was still young, another year had begun. We had time, the driver didn't. With other transport sure to pass, bargaining was in our favour.
It's hard to read anything in their eyes, but we were adamant. We would pay 50,000, or no go.
"HAPPY NEW YEAR", rang the chorus from the girls at the front, as we squeezed ourselves to the rear -- between the wooden crates and the Indonesian-made truck-tyres, complete with inflated inner tubes.
The foreigner on the road gets a lot of attention from the locals. We passed a western cyclist, and everyone was waving at him.
His friend was at least a mile or two behind, but they wouldn't get lost as there was only one road South.
I don't know how many people actually make it to Kontum, as it's not really on the modern Ho Chi Minh Trail.
It's not the journey that's arduous, only the haggling.
After the turn off at Qui Nhon, the rice paddies, banana plants, and coconut groves become a thing of the past, as the overloaded bus twists slowly up into the Central Highlands.
The callers are tired, so they sprawl themselves out on the crates and tyres. How they can sleep with the ducks carrying on as they do, is beyond me. Then one of the callers slapped the wire basket; and shocked someone's future Canard a l'Orange into silence for a while.
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon):
Much faster paced than Hanoi, or anywhere else in the country, Saigon can get far too noisy, and sweaty.
If this affects you, then catch the jet-foil to Vung Tau. There are a variety of beaches around the peninsular, and even a Rio-like statue of Christ the Redeemer, and a small open-air church for the tourist inclined.
The Market Economy has been taken literally in Vietnam.
It's not so much that fresh produce in the market is bargained for daily any more than it has been before, more that the downtown streets in Hanoi offer all kinds of merchandise, right out of the front rooms of narrow houses.
While granny is sleeping, or someone else is eating, neighbours compete with each other for passing custom.
You will often find whole rows of houses selling the same things.
If Ho Chi Minh could see this, he'd probably be turning in his grave.
Footnote:
If you want to know why I don't give hotel and restaurant recommendations, see my Travel Guides opinion (Which Guide Is Best).
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