Vietnam trip 21-28 Jul

Here's a review of the Vietnam Trip. Overall, it was a very pleasant trip and I won't mind heading back again.

1. Places visited.
Danang, Hue, Hoi An and day trips to My Son, Cua Dai beach and Marble Mountains from Hoi An.

2. Expenses.
Air fares on Silk Air $360. Travel insurance $33. Total Hotel USD$20 for whole trip. Transport about US$20. Food, admission fees, shopping: about US$100. The whole trip cost about SGD$650.

So far, of all the countries I visited, Vietnam has the best deal in terms of accomodations. Our accomodations costs were : Danang US$22 for 2 rooms. Hue US$9 for tripple share. Hoi An US$12 for tripple share. At about US$3 a person, I am getting attached baths with hot showers, aircon, TV and mini fridge! The day before we left, we popped into a nice hotel in Hoi An, they quoted us US$20 for 3 people, with much nicer rooms and free buffet breakfast and use of their small swimming pool!

For the record, the cheapest accommodation I've stayed in so far was about US$1 at Vieng Vang in Laos! It was US$10 for 3 rooms shared by 9 people.

3. Interesting experience

I got to row the bowl shape bamboo craft used by the local fishermen! (no photo evidence because I did not bring my camera the day I went to beach.)

The owner of the Karma Waters Cafe at the Cua Dai beach was kind enough to let me try it when I asked him about it. You move the craft using a sculling draw (figure of 8 draw) with a paddle, similar to the sculling draw used when kayaking.


The local markets also offered interesting experience. We had interesting time bargaining and buying slippers, fruits, chilli, tee shirts, coffee powder and snacks in the local markets.

4. Food
Vegetarian food turned out to be pretty easy to find. And food is really cheap. A bowl of pho at a local stall cost only about 60 cents. A lot of Vietnamese observe vegetarian food on the 1st, 14th, 15th and last day of the lunar calendar. On these days, many of the road side stalls changes to selling vegetarian food. All I need was to look for the tell tale word "Chay" which means vegetarian. (Same pronunciation as the Chinese word 斋)



It turns out that it was not easy to find good vegetarian pho. A couple of places used dried pho instead of fresh one. I ended up liking the Bun noodles and Mi Quang more. It was also difficult to get fresh spring rolls. most of the time, what I ordered turned up to be fried.

In Hoi An, we found a restaurant called Riverside which we liked very much and ended up eating there most of the time.

The coffee was also very good. Very strong and potent, with a nice aroma. We bought many packs of the coffee powder back.

5. Things missed

It might have been nice to cycle to the tombs in Hue, and in the Cham Kim island.

I found out about the excursion trip to Lonely Island and Cham Island a little late. Would have been nice to do that.

We went to Marble mountains en route back to Danang Airport. It turns out to be quite a pleasant place. We were only stopping 1 hour and there was not enough time to visit the whole place. Should have spent more time there.

If I ever go back to Hoi An, I will make sure I look up the catalogs and bring them there! You can get clothes and shoes tailor made very cheaply.

And I want more good pho and fresh spring rolls!

Hoi An

When we arrived in Hoi An, the bus made off with our luggage while we were checking out the rooms. We had to take a taxi to the bus station to get our bags back. Certainly not a good way to start.

We ended up back at the guest house where the bus dumped us and got a room for US$12 a night for 3 people.

Hoi An is a pretty nice and laid back place, with lots of old houses. A bit like Luang Prabang. Except the whole area seems to cater to tourists, with rows of shops selling the same thing. Even though the roads are filled with tourists, I still don't know how the shops survive. Every where you walk, there are people asking you to buy something from them.

This morning we took a day trip to the My Son ruins. There was not very much to see. It's sad that most of it had been destroyed by the Americans during the war.

In any case, this is turning out to be a trip of eat, relax and shop. There are shops that make shoes for as low as US$20. Food is good, and cheap by Singapore standards.

Tomorrow, we will just head out to the beach and laze around.

Day at Hue

Today was a lazy but pretty enjoyable day at Hue.

We got up early in the morning -- daylight starts at 5am and I didn't sleep that well (suffering from not-my-bed-syndrome).

We had a crappy breakfast at one of the guesthouse's cafe. The pho was not fresh (cooked from dried pho) and the soup taste like cooked with msg.

We had an early morning and headed straight to the Dong Ha market to look around. It's a pretty big local market and there are lots of interesting stuff here. Vegetables, grains, fruits, grocery, clothes... We ended up shopping a lot more than we expected. Bought T-shirts (S$2.5 each). Bought slippers (S$2 each). Bought Vietnamese coffee (bargained from S$5 to S$2.7 per pack). Bought water melons, snacks.... CK's did all the bargaining and he's really good.

In the end, instead of heading to the Imperial Palace, we decided to take a cab back to the guest house and dropped our stuff first. Taxi fare's cheap anyway. (like S$2 for a short trip).

We had our most sumptuous and expensive lunch so far (S$18). But the food was good and we enjoyed it. I'm really enjoying the food. Still haven't had enough of pho yet. And yet to try the fresh rice paper rolls.

We headed to the Citadel in the afternoon. There isn't much left of the imperial palace, most of it being destroyed in the war. It would have been more enjoyable if the sun was not so hot. But still it was nice sitting around, hiding from the hot sun while the afternoon drifts away.

CK was clearly unimpressed, having been to grander stuff in Beijing. He did not think he'll come back. But I won't mind coming back again. Hue has its own charm.

As we sit in the short stools by the river side, drinking juices and coffee, I thought it would be nice if I have a partner who enjoy such trips with me.

Tomorrow, we'll be heading to Hoi An.

Good morning Vietnam!

I am now blogging from the lobby of the hotel in Hue. I am paying only US$3 for this stay, with aircon and attached bath with hot water. Quite a bargain huh!

We arrived at Danang yesterday and checked into a budget place by the river. Compare to what we are paying for at Hue ($9 for 3 people), it's kind of expensive ($22 for 3 people). But the location was nice and it has a balcony view to the river.

This morning we went to the Cham museum. It turned out to be a bit of disappointment. Danang is kind of quiet place, without much tourist. But I think that's also the charm of it. Things are cheap. People are pleasant.

When we arrive in Hue today, we stopped right in the middle of a tourist trap and were mopped by touts from all over. There are lots of shops catering to tourists and prices are not as cheap compared with Danang.

It turns out that vegetarian food is quite easy to find in Vietnam so far. This afternoon, I had my first bowl of vietnamese Pho at the veg join in a temple in Danang. And it cost only about 60 cents! Tonight in Hue, we went to a more high class restaurant. The food was pretty. There was a vegetarian venison, which CK claimed was good enough to satisfy his craving for meat.

So far, it's been quite pleasant. Food is cheap. Transport is cheap too. And the coffee here is quite nice, though very strong.

Will be heading to the imperial palace tomorrow. Hope it's won't be as hot as today!

Hue. 11:20pm

Canon in D Major

I don't know much about music and is not a fan of classical music either. But I like Canon in D Major a lot.

I first come across this from the soundtrack of the Korean movie The Classic.

I did some search on the internet and found that it had a simple chord progression, played by 3 violins 2 bar apart. It's just simply melodies overlaid on top of each other till it became a very rich composition.

In the 2006 animated version of the anime series Kanon.

Canon in D is played in the café Yuuichi and his friends visit. In a later episode, Sayuri mentions the piece, "When the same melody plays repeatedly, little by little it'd turn into a rich and beautiful music. Just like this, even if a person lives a seemingly unchanging life, little by little things will change."

So, little things in life may be mundane. But overlay them together, little by little we can build a rich and beautiful life.

And this guitar rendition of the piece is pretty awesome!

Who did I leave behind?

Watched Asian Boys III last night.

It was quite good, though I thought the script of the 2nd part was a bit too rough, a bit like stuffing it down your throat. Personally, I think the play write over-did the part on bring his fiasco with MOE into the play.

Ben Xiao was cute as ever, though he seemed to be less bulky then before. But I think he looks better now.

But what got me thinking was the part when Nicholas faced the Nicole he had left behind in London.

Who did I leave behind in my personal journey? Which part of me had I abandoned?

过客与桨手

在短暂的生命里，我不过是个过客，
负着前世的业力来，承着今生的修行去。

在轮回的娑婆阎海中，我不过是个桨手，
在惊涛骇浪中浮沉，在浩瀚汪洋中摆渡。