The most interesting for me in Nha Trang are the galleries of two of Vietnam's most famous photographers, Do Dien Khanh and Long Thanh. I've been to both of them and was fascinated... and wished to have more time and more b&w-films... unfortunately reality tells me something different...
If anyone would like to see some photos accompanying my blog, try it here instead:
www.ddk-gallery.com
www.longthanhart.com
jueves, 10 de mayo de 2007
Vietnamese business
Nha Trang, seaside resort, but I want to get out of the city and explore the surrounding countryside. I ask the lady who runs the guest house where I'm staying, whether she also rents motorcycles. Yes, of course, 50000 Dong per day, that's about 3 US-$. Just five minutes, she says...
within a short time a woman on a scooter (these small motorcycles, that run around 40 or 50 kms/h) comes along. "Here's your motorcycle", and she hands me the key... she's the sister of the hotel lady, or her cousin, or some other relative, or a good friend... it's her scooter, which she readily is handing over for some hours or a day, in exchange for 3 $... that's how Vietnam works: every guest house, every restaurant is also a "tourist office" or a "travel agency", they sell you bus and train tickets, book a boat tour for you, rent bicycles or simply know someone to gives you his scooter for a while. Everyone knows the whole other rest of the world, at least so it seems... Where are you going next, they ask you... oh, city XY, listen, may I recommend this hotel or that guest house, they are relatives/friends/acquaintances, you really should go there... one simply can't escape from getting asked every other minute about this service or that, a taxi or rikscha driver, the girls from the restaurants, asking you to come in, or the hotel staff, trying to sell you a ticket or a tour... sometimes it's tiring, but that's Vietnam...
Nha Trang itself is - well - not bad, but I'm also not really excited. Living in Barcelona five minutes away from the beaches, the local main attraction is not that interesting for me. Yesterday I got on a boat cruise, we went to some islands, did some snorcheling at a rocky coast with a lot of corals(very nice), visited an aquarium on one of the islands, had lunch on the boat (really good) and enjoyed the "floating bar": you had to go into the water to get the drinks... all in all it was a fun trip with some accompanying visits, really not bad...
Today I drove around on the scooter, and I just have to confirm what I wrote in an earlier post: the most fascinating of Vietnam is its countryside, the cities are mainly noisy and not too interesting, one simply should get out of them as often as possible...
The weather is still not great, often cloudy or rainy, but when the sun is out, it really is shining: although I'm well tanned already, I got pretty burned on the boat tour and on the trip with the scooter... it's middle of May, and if I'm honest, I should stay out of the sun for the rest of the year... just have no idea how to accomplish this...
within a short time a woman on a scooter (these small motorcycles, that run around 40 or 50 kms/h) comes along. "Here's your motorcycle", and she hands me the key... she's the sister of the hotel lady, or her cousin, or some other relative, or a good friend... it's her scooter, which she readily is handing over for some hours or a day, in exchange for 3 $... that's how Vietnam works: every guest house, every restaurant is also a "tourist office" or a "travel agency", they sell you bus and train tickets, book a boat tour for you, rent bicycles or simply know someone to gives you his scooter for a while. Everyone knows the whole other rest of the world, at least so it seems... Where are you going next, they ask you... oh, city XY, listen, may I recommend this hotel or that guest house, they are relatives/friends/acquaintances, you really should go there... one simply can't escape from getting asked every other minute about this service or that, a taxi or rikscha driver, the girls from the restaurants, asking you to come in, or the hotel staff, trying to sell you a ticket or a tour... sometimes it's tiring, but that's Vietnam...
Nha Trang itself is - well - not bad, but I'm also not really excited. Living in Barcelona five minutes away from the beaches, the local main attraction is not that interesting for me. Yesterday I got on a boat cruise, we went to some islands, did some snorcheling at a rocky coast with a lot of corals(very nice), visited an aquarium on one of the islands, had lunch on the boat (really good) and enjoyed the "floating bar": you had to go into the water to get the drinks... all in all it was a fun trip with some accompanying visits, really not bad...
Today I drove around on the scooter, and I just have to confirm what I wrote in an earlier post: the most fascinating of Vietnam is its countryside, the cities are mainly noisy and not too interesting, one simply should get out of them as often as possible...
The weather is still not great, often cloudy or rainy, but when the sun is out, it really is shining: although I'm well tanned already, I got pretty burned on the boat tour and on the trip with the scooter... it's middle of May, and if I'm honest, I should stay out of the sun for the rest of the year... just have no idea how to accomplish this...
domingo, 6 de mayo de 2007
Hue
Not much news... I'm in Hue, the old Imperial City, but I hardly can do anything, because first it was grey and cloudy and now it's raining for more than a day...
Fortunately I again found a nice guesthouse in a small alleyway. It's only a few meters from the main street, but these alleyways are a world apart. I like to sit on the veranda in the first floor, overlooking the neighbourhood: groups of men chatting the day away, four young girls playing football, women strolling around with their babies, another kid playing with a bunch of little cats, street vendors passing through, and a steady coming and going of people on bicycles and scooters... it's as interesting, or even more, than running around from one pagoda to the next, from one royal tomb to another... when it's raining too hard, the alleyway is virtually empty, but the heavy drumming of the rain on tin roofs, trees and the asphalt creates its own atmosphere and nothing else can be heard...
Still it gets boring after a while, after too many hours of reading and watching, and then I'm glad about the fact, that in Vietnam even rooms in cheap guesthouses are equipped with a TV and that European football is available around the clock... this evening it'll be Arsenal vs. Chelsea... outside it's dark and wet and I'll lay on my bed with a bottle of beer and hope that Arsenal is going to win... welcome to Vietnam...
Fortunately I again found a nice guesthouse in a small alleyway. It's only a few meters from the main street, but these alleyways are a world apart. I like to sit on the veranda in the first floor, overlooking the neighbourhood: groups of men chatting the day away, four young girls playing football, women strolling around with their babies, another kid playing with a bunch of little cats, street vendors passing through, and a steady coming and going of people on bicycles and scooters... it's as interesting, or even more, than running around from one pagoda to the next, from one royal tomb to another... when it's raining too hard, the alleyway is virtually empty, but the heavy drumming of the rain on tin roofs, trees and the asphalt creates its own atmosphere and nothing else can be heard...
Still it gets boring after a while, after too many hours of reading and watching, and then I'm glad about the fact, that in Vietnam even rooms in cheap guesthouses are equipped with a TV and that European football is available around the clock... this evening it'll be Arsenal vs. Chelsea... outside it's dark and wet and I'll lay on my bed with a bottle of beer and hope that Arsenal is going to win... welcome to Vietnam...
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)