"He's a cheat"

When we got to the border town of Piaxing, we quickly realized we wouldn't be able to change anything to Vietnamese currency -- even at the Bank of China. Ahhh, the Bank of China. Also, the touts were getting more aggressive. Each had written down in English, "He's a cheat" to discourage business with the competition. Others we talked to later said all of the touts had it written in their books. One even gave us the 'I'm watching you' hand-signal as we left with his competition. So we're in our motorized rickshaw (or tuk-tuk) for the last 20km to the border, leave the Chinese side without a hitch, well before our Visa expired, and enter the Vietnamese side (Dong Dang) at the "Freindship Border." Again, they looked two or three or five times at Andy's distressed passport (and picture beneath the laminate), but finally stamped us through with no 'fees' except for a 30 cent each medical clearance where we weren't even sure the 'doctor' looked at us as he took it.

Little choices for transport awaited us on the other side. We found a cab to what we thought was Long Sang, however it was just a gas station and our Vietnamese driver insisted it was the 'bus station' in Long Sang. Conveniently, there was a minibus with "Hanoi" written on the front. We were pretty tired and Sarah had not had any food (again a reminder to avoid travel on an empty stomach), so we decided to go with it. We negotiated a deal with him, then realized as he took off on his motorbike that this was a just a random, private minibus that would make a million stops to pick up everything on the way to Hanoi. We of course then saw the real Long Sang bus pass by our window.

We did make it to Hanoi, but 2 hours later than promised, found out we had not only been lied to about the bus station but also that they lied about taking us to our hotel. We had had tough negotiators in China before but no one there had ever LIED to us before. They dropped us outside a random hotel they are getting commission from and refuse to go any further because of 'city regulations.' Changing coutries and languages, etc. is never a cake walk but to top off this harrowing entry, as we're walking on the street, we are constantly accosted by a new form of parasite: violence-threatening touts, Andy finally said "Enough" to one of them and he starts yelling back at Andy and saying that HE's the rude one and that this isn't China or America or anything else and they were about to come to blows right there on the street! Cooler heads prevailed, but Andy saw him later and said, 'Oh good, I'm glad you're here. Now you listen to me, I don't care where in the world you are: China, America, or Vietnam, you don't accost people you want to do business with, say, F--- you, etc.' The guy said he was sorry and didn't remember if he said that and Andy said, "I'm reminding you then, and after we check into this hotel, I'm going over to your hotel and tell whoever's behind the desk, your boss or whatever to fire you because you're costing him business. You remember it now?" That was kind of the end of it and we collapsed in our hotel room. In the end, settled into Vietnam nicely and really enjoyed our time there, but our first impression was anything but a paradise.

We were also excited because Sarah's parents, Anne and Steve, were going to fly to Hanoi and travel the country with us for the next three weeks. They came in on schedule and it was great being with family once again. We were looking forward to sharing a bit of 'overland adventure' together. And we did.

Over the next few days, we discovered a lot of Hanoi through sheer walking, saw the embalmed corpse (Sarah and Andy's 3rd) of Communist leader, Ho Chi Minh in his masoleum, the Military History Museum, checked out a water puppet preformance, and had lots 'Bia Hoi.'

Our first leg south and east was an ill-conceived plan by Andy to forgo the tour bus and have a taste of 'adventure,' but didn't turn out to be the painless experience the guidebook promised. We first went to the wrong bus station then took a little rattletrap with the Vietnamese version of Burns and Gracie blaring on over the speakers. Thinking the guide book was right in saying you could organize once you got there, we arrived to find not only that the entire harbor had moved, but that we were being told everything had left for the day at 12pm. Plus, in Vietnam, you can never get a straight answer from anyone because anyone you talk to has some kind of stake in either a car, boat, moto, hotel or restaurant and will always try to steer you to their operation rather than give you any objective answer. -- We would only find out where the real harbor was by boarding our pre-paid boat the next morning.

That said, Halong Bay turned out to be magical. Amid surreal limestone peaks jutting up from the water as far as you can see, we had lunch, visited the giant cave and even swam next to a fishing village. We ended up overnighting on Cat Ba island, which had a beautiful secluded little beach we went to, then took another bus-ferry-bus combination to Haiphong the next day.



Haiphong, Vietnam's third largest city, was simply kinda strange. It was somewhat of an industrial wasteland on the outskirts combined with our first friendly reception in Vietnam, where kids and young people are used to shouting out 'hello!' to tourists, but we never saw any other Westerners there! It was also our first sighting of dog meat, which none of us tried.

That night, we needed transportation to the ATM, but upon realizing it was an all-motobike town with no cabs, Andy actually asked a city bus if they were going there. They said yes, negotiated a price and then surprisingly, everyone got off the bus as it turned out this was their last stop and they agreed to it for maybe a dollar. So the four of us are now the only ones on this huge city bus. We then pull in to get gas! 15 minutes later, we're dropped off at the ATM. It wasn't the fastest cab we took but it certainly was the roomiest.

The next day we boarded a local bus to Ninh Binh, complete with a rag-tag collection of riders and driver sporting huge, retro-gold shades, scary long fingernail on his right pinkie and a bad-ass attitude. Everyone seemed to smoke. The attraction of Ninh Binh wasn't so much the city itself, but rather the outskirts including Tam Coc (famous caves and river) and the ancient capital of Hoa Lou. We ended up taking bikes through it all with magnificent scenery of limestone karsts rising above electric green rice patties the whole way. Nevermind that Andy got confusing local direction, quickly adding 15K to an already tiring run --- but everyone made it in fine fashion and we celebrated on the hotel's beautiful roof terrace.



We also took a long boat to the floating village (a somewhat dubious description) of Ken Ga. There was an interesting cave there, but perhaps most fascinating was stumbling on another small town where the Catholic church service was in full swing. This church contained neatly and brightly-clad women on the left and men on the right, both chanting peaceful, low key, rythmic religious exhortations. Anne and Sarah were pleasantly surprised to be invited inside by the other ladies to sit which they did, while Steve and Andy seemed to draw quite a stir outside with the men, young and old, examining their cameras. The Jesus at the front of the altar was bathed in the light of a neon cross, as many Catholic churches across the country incorporate neon into their statues of the Virgin Mary, Angels, baby Jesus, etc.

The next evening, we would begin the second leg of our journey through North and Central Vietnam to Hue and Hoi An. So far it had been sensory overload for Anne and Steve and for us as well, with a heady concoction of shifting cultures (and values!), vibrant new colors, Nuoc Mam (fish sauce), coffee and bia hoi. Now throw an overnight train into the mix and you've really got something.