The Last Hoorah

Saturday night, after we got back from Halong Bay, was Lee's and my last official night with the Intrepid crew so we organised a group dinner to say goodbye. I say organised, but what I really mean is that a group of 16 people decided we'd go out to dinner without a booking on a Saturday night.. Needless to say, we were walking around for about half an hour trying to find a restaurant with space enough for us.. We got there in the end! And it was a nice dinner too. Tom stood up and made a short speech and toast to us, that was lovely.
The next day, Easter Sunday, was, as Lee has said in her blog, one of the most active I've had in my life. Carmel, Shirley, Tom, Sandy, Anders, Lee and I took another crazy bus (I tried to get some good footage of this guy in action but missed out) to Co Loa citadel, the country's ancient capital for 5 years between 939 and 944 AD. We took a short walk through a couple of the pagodas there - absolutely packed full with tourists - and learnt a lot about the history and legends of the area. The best part was yet to come.. We borrowed bicycles from a nearby shop and rode through the rice fields and small towns amongst the amazing mountainous scenery. Shirley and I were constantly being left behind as we were taking so many photos.. We couldn't help it, the place is just so beautiful everywhere you look.
We stopped for lunch at an all-you-can-eat-style Vietnamese restaurant and it was amazing.. I was disappointed when we had to move on to the next part of the tour :) The final part was great except for the persistence of the people trying to sell you stuff. We took a boat trip (2 per boat) on a river through some grottos and rice fields which was lovely. However, half-way through a lady from another boat jumped into ours and tried to sell us tablecloths (what a random thing to sell on a canoe). Then when we got to the end of the line, there were people waiting to sell us food and drinks which is fine but they just wouldn't let up even when we told them we had no money.. Kind of ruins the experience a bit..
On the way back to Hanoi on the bus is where we saw a lot of those accidents I mentioned in my last post, including the guy laying on the road. Not nice. That night we had to move out of our hotel into a cheaper one of our own choice. We chose the cheapest option of around A$10/night. And it was pretty dodgy.. The powerpoints were stuffed, you couldn't change channels on the TV properly, and there was mould on the walls, not to mention the holes in the roof.. Meh, it did the job though. For dinner we had a dish called the "chucker", which is basically fish in a stew hotpot-style and it was delicious! The rest of the Intrepid crew came to the same restaurant for dinner with their new guide and so we said a short hello/goodbye before retiring to bed.
Monday was spent, in its entirety, in an internet cafe updating our blogs (of which I only got through about half before the day was out) and just general internet stuff. And I mean in its entirety.. From about 0900hr to 2200hr. The whole day.. It was nice sitting out of the hustle and bustle of the city for a bit though. During this time, Michael, the German we met in Hoi An, just happened to pop in to the same internet cafe for a brief period which was wierd as there are literally hundreds of them around the city.
Tuesday, our last day in Hanoi and Viet Nam, consisted of visiting Ho Chi Minh himself. Against his wishes of being cremated when he died, the powers that be decided instead to have him embalmed and put on public display in a glass coffin. We found the start of the lineup to visit him and so we started walking to the end of the line.. and we walked and walked and walked and walked.. The line was around about 1km long I would say. It was ridiculously long! Eventually we found the end of the line (made up of about 80% school children) and it only took about 30 minutes to get to the building that housed Minh's body. It was really strange. You're not allowed to wear hats, sunglasses, shorts, etc. You can't talk - especially not sniggering - you can't put your hands in your pockets.. Simply follow the orderly line as it circles the coffin. The room is dark and basically the only lights are focussed on Minh who is dressed in a dark outfit so as to accentuate his face. Strange looking at a dead man as if some sort of circus attraction. Yet the Vietnamese have so much respect for him that they flock from all over the country to see him, especially during this month - the month of Pilgrimage.
After a little more walking around, we decided on an early dinner as we needed to catch a shuttle to the airport for our flight out at 1930hr. We organised with Michael and Sonja to meet up for our last dinner in Vietnam in a quaint restaurant for spring rolls (one of our favourite dishes here) and banana shakes (OMG they're good - I could live off those things), then off to another place for lemon juice and banana pancakes. So good. The time came to be around 1905hr by the time we'd left the guys and were heading back to the hotel to pick up our gear, so we were stressing a little as the walk to the bus terminal is around 15 minutes. Having street names like Thanh Duc, Thanh Quang and Tran Thanh it can be a little confusing and in our haste we got slightly lost and so decided to catch a cab. The driver tried to rip us off by saying he had no small change when I gave him a big note and took his sweet time doing so when he knew were in a huge hurry. Eventually we sorted the whole business out, but not before we had become extremely aggravated.
I felt this was quite a fitting end to our time in Vietnam.. Like I said a while back, it's all business and you just have to have your wits about you, but I think we both felt we'd had enough for the moment and it was time to move on. Vietnam is a wonderful country and I am planning on coming back again sometime in the future, but it's definitely not a country that you can just sit back and relax in, that's for sure! And why would you want to???


Photos:
1. Working the rice fields
2. Lee bargaining with a street vendor for a banana snack
3. On the bike ride
4. Always working
5. A small open temple in the old capital
6. The last night with everyone
7. Always behind
8. in the boat
9. Mmm.. Not a translation mistake..
10. Amazing scenery
11. Shirley and Lee buying bananas
12. Our lovely cheap hotel
13. A Champa offering.. Vodka and wafers