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► 2010 (6)

▼ 2009 (39)

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Trains, planes and traffic in Hoi An, Vietnam

Vietmanese Street Vendor

Vietnam is a little different from the other countries on my trip because it is still a communist run country.

The government recently decided to block Facebook, so I had a few days of heavy withdrawal symptoms before I figured out how to use a proxy to access it. It got me thinking though - why is it so important to me to tell people what I am doing right now, and to check what others are up to? I didn't come up with a sensible answer, so I just decided it is.

I was sad that my man went back home, but met up with a girl I hosted (through Couchsurfing) in Oslo a few years back and her friends. Memo to self: Check travel time before going on Vietnamese trains. We traveled by train from Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) to Hoi An for 15 hours (but only 930 km), but it wasn't half bad, nice views of rice paddies, good company, spicy shrimp snacks and cold local beer made up for the hard beds.

Train snacks

Hoi An is a Unesco listed town, full of little lantern-lit shops and restaurants. The seafood is delicious, tailoring skills famous and tourist traps plentiful. We went for the full moon festival, which is not an all-you-can-drink by the bucketfulls-party like in Thailand, but a cultural event with traditional song and dance and little paper boats with candles on the river.

Vietnamese fishing boat

We took a day trip to the ruins of My Son, a very busy spot with some tranquil parts where you could only hear the jungle bugs and see beautiful temple parts covered in roots and leaves. Can't wait to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia! Hope it's not that crowded though ...

My Son ruins

The return by boat took us down (or up?) the river and we saw little fishing boats and of course visited a craft village with surprisingly reasonable prices (finally got one of those red round little lamps) and quiet village life. The traffic in Vietnam apparently claims over 13 000 victims a year, and there is only one rule: The bigger vehicle has the right of way.

Hoi An by the river

I also had an interesting hotel experience. The receptionist gave away my room by mistake, so I had to find another hotel. After 15 minutes of "sorry, full" with my backpack in the dark I took the first room I was offered, little more than a shed built on top of an air vent. I had to climb a 1 m high wall to get to it, the floor was made of old doors and I could not stand upright. By far the worst room I have ever slept in, but it did the job. For only 3 USD. The next night I shared a bed with my friend.

Tiny shed room

I got a fairly cheap flight back to Ho Chi Minh and plan on seeing the Mekong Delta before heading to Cambodia. Laos is so difficult and expensive to reach that I decided not to go this time.