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...
viernes, 4 de mayo de 2007
La Niña
My Spanish speaking readers will jump on this one... I guess they might be disappointed, as I'm going to talk about the weather...
La Niña is a meteorological phenomenon, something similar to the better known El Niño. La Niña is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, as compared to El Niño, which is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. This phenomenon appears with a certain regularity, every four to eight years, and it might last for up to two years. Its consequences are widespread, but especially for Indochina and here Vietnam it means higher precipitation and temperatures. It can be noticed already, because the monsoon season hasn't really started yet, but it's raining almost every day. Concerning the temperatures: you can't change the shirts as fast as they are wet from sweat... fortunately rain and sometimes the wind from distant storms bring down the temperature a bit.
But before publishing this post, I might as well write a few words about Las Niñas...
Vietnamese girls must be the prettiest and most natural in the whole universe... no need for more words... if you don't believe it, come and see (and admire) yourselves...
La Niña is a meteorological phenomenon, something similar to the better known El Niño. La Niña is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, as compared to El Niño, which is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. This phenomenon appears with a certain regularity, every four to eight years, and it might last for up to two years. Its consequences are widespread, but especially for Indochina and here Vietnam it means higher precipitation and temperatures. It can be noticed already, because the monsoon season hasn't really started yet, but it's raining almost every day. Concerning the temperatures: you can't change the shirts as fast as they are wet from sweat... fortunately rain and sometimes the wind from distant storms bring down the temperature a bit.
But before publishing this post, I might as well write a few words about Las Niñas...
Vietnamese girls must be the prettiest and most natural in the whole universe... no need for more words... if you don't believe it, come and see (and admire) yourselves...
jueves, 3 de mayo de 2007
Back and forth
From Vinh I had taken the train to Quang Ngai, farther south. Close to this city is a place that will always be remembered together with the Vietnam War: My Lai.
During the war American soldiers committed a massacre in this village, killing 504 people, women, children, older men, almost all of them farmers. On the internet I had come across the "My Lai Peace Park", a Vietnamese-American project, and thought about trying to write an article about that. To say it in few words, this did not work out, too long to explain, why...
In any case, I managed to visit the My Lai Memorial and - although it sounds strange to mention this in the same moment - was able to make a motorcycle trip through beautiful country outside of Quang Ngai. The city itself was a bit better than Vinh, but not much... at least it didn't rain that heavily. Yet I got away as fast as possible, taking a bus north to Hoi An.
Hoi An has a long history as a trading port, it contains Vietnamese, Chinese and European influences... and was declared by UNESCO a "world heritage site". Needless to mention, Hoi An is full of touists, yet I like the atmosphere... its narrow streets, small houses, the countless boats on the river that have become a synonyme of Vietnam. I pay a bit more for my hotel than I should afford, 10 US-$... but Hoi An is fairly expensive, and I enjoy breakfast on a veranda right above the river.
Incidentally I arrived on a perfect date: in the middle of each lunar month - that means at full moon - Hoi An celebrates a Historical Night, with music, theater and more. From noon an the streets in the center were even closed for motorcycles and scooters, only bycicles were allowed to pass... a perfect measure, which resulted in a very delightful atmosphere... and made me forget the dreary experiences of the last days...
During the war American soldiers committed a massacre in this village, killing 504 people, women, children, older men, almost all of them farmers. On the internet I had come across the "My Lai Peace Park", a Vietnamese-American project, and thought about trying to write an article about that. To say it in few words, this did not work out, too long to explain, why...
In any case, I managed to visit the My Lai Memorial and - although it sounds strange to mention this in the same moment - was able to make a motorcycle trip through beautiful country outside of Quang Ngai. The city itself was a bit better than Vinh, but not much... at least it didn't rain that heavily. Yet I got away as fast as possible, taking a bus north to Hoi An.
Hoi An has a long history as a trading port, it contains Vietnamese, Chinese and European influences... and was declared by UNESCO a "world heritage site". Needless to mention, Hoi An is full of touists, yet I like the atmosphere... its narrow streets, small houses, the countless boats on the river that have become a synonyme of Vietnam. I pay a bit more for my hotel than I should afford, 10 US-$... but Hoi An is fairly expensive, and I enjoy breakfast on a veranda right above the river.
Incidentally I arrived on a perfect date: in the middle of each lunar month - that means at full moon - Hoi An celebrates a Historical Night, with music, theater and more. From noon an the streets in the center were even closed for motorcycles and scooters, only bycicles were allowed to pass... a perfect measure, which resulted in a very delightful atmosphere... and made me forget the dreary experiences of the last days...
Vietnam
I haven't spend more than five days in Vietnam and really not seen a lot, yet I'm sure about one point: it's the most beautiful country in the world. Leave behind many of its cities and the crazy traffic... beyond that Vietnam means breathtaking landscape, almost unreal colors, pure and good-natured energy of its people... I can't explain it any better...
I actually don't really know where to continue. I arrived more or less in the middle of this long-stretched country, and there's simply way too much to see and to experience for three or four weeks. I have to concentrate either on the south and its beaches, the Mekong delta with the lush green of the rice paddies and palm trees... or the mountainous north, Halong Bay and Hanoi with the old "French" quarter...
The statement above might seem a bit strange after my experiences in the first days, in the first cities... well, I don't mind having hit some bad moments first: after that you can even better enjoy the vast rest of a country that's overwhelming in every aspect...
I actually don't really know where to continue. I arrived more or less in the middle of this long-stretched country, and there's simply way too much to see and to experience for three or four weeks. I have to concentrate either on the south and its beaches, the Mekong delta with the lush green of the rice paddies and palm trees... or the mountainous north, Halong Bay and Hanoi with the old "French" quarter...
The statement above might seem a bit strange after my experiences in the first days, in the first cities... well, I don't mind having hit some bad moments first: after that you can even better enjoy the vast rest of a country that's overwhelming in every aspect...
miércoles, 2 de mayo de 2007
The most terrible place in the world
In Vinh I left the hotel very early in the morning, to look around a bit. It was Sunday morning seven o'clock and I thought, I could enjoy some kind of silence.This illusion lasted only a few seconds, until I had reached the street... it seemed that the whole city was on its way to somewhere, the traffic and the corresponding noise were incredible. The most important part of Vietnamese scooters, motorcycles and cars is the horn. Without a loud or even louder horn you are nothing and practically lost... I always thought that traffic in Barcelona was terrible, but I think I might "enjoy" it when I'm back...
Anyway, I walked around for an hour or two, drank a coffee, ate Pho, the traditional vietnamese soup, and decided to get out of this city as soon as possible. Vinh had absolutely nothing to it which might make it worth staying one day. The grey weather made everything even worse... I met the French women and they had the same idea... When we walked to the train station, the counters were closed and would be open again at 14.00... sounded somehow familiar. So we went back to the hotel, checked out, and slowly but steady made our way back to the train station. We should have hurried up a bit... the whole morning it was cloudy, drizzling now and then, but after walking a few minutes, a downpoor started, which was heavier than everything I can remember... in spite of raingear and umbrellas we arrived soaked at the station.The rainfall continued for the rest of the afternoon, the temperature went down, and yet I was lucky: I probably got the last ticket for the route I was asking for, south to Quang Ngai... the French women took an earlier afternoon train. I had booked a sleeper, which was due to leave at 18.30... until then the hours seemed to drag endlessly. Finally the train arrived... it's hard to describe how happy I was to finally sit down in my compartment and leave Vinh...
Anyway, I walked around for an hour or two, drank a coffee, ate Pho, the traditional vietnamese soup, and decided to get out of this city as soon as possible. Vinh had absolutely nothing to it which might make it worth staying one day. The grey weather made everything even worse... I met the French women and they had the same idea... When we walked to the train station, the counters were closed and would be open again at 14.00... sounded somehow familiar. So we went back to the hotel, checked out, and slowly but steady made our way back to the train station. We should have hurried up a bit... the whole morning it was cloudy, drizzling now and then, but after walking a few minutes, a downpoor started, which was heavier than everything I can remember... in spite of raingear and umbrellas we arrived soaked at the station.The rainfall continued for the rest of the afternoon, the temperature went down, and yet I was lucky: I probably got the last ticket for the route I was asking for, south to Quang Ngai... the French women took an earlier afternoon train. I had booked a sleeper, which was due to leave at 18.30... until then the hours seemed to drag endlessly. Finally the train arrived... it's hard to describe how happy I was to finally sit down in my compartment and leave Vinh...
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