Saturday 28 July 2007

To Dong Ha



Leaving Hanoi involved being at the Hostel in the late afternoon. So, we spent the day wandering and then returned for showers shortly before leaving.

The first leg was provided by a mini-van that picked us up at the hostel, along with several others. From there we went across town to a highway bus that provides "hop on, hop off" service. This is a service where tourists get off in various towns and then return to their travels later. In our case we were only going to Dong Ha.

The ride in the highway bus was interesting but uncomfortable. It was a relatively modern bus with air-conditioning; however, we had trouble reclining our seats. This made sleeping difficult. At some point, Debra, seeing the relief driver sleeping in the isle, decided to do the same. In several hours the isle was filled with sleepers.

The next morning the bus arrived in Hué. This surprised both Debra and me because this meant that the bus had passed through Dong Ha without our being notified. The drop off at the hotel in Hué bothered me in another way. It is a common practice but it always irritates me. The drop off was at a hotel that the bus company had an arrangement with. They exclusively drop there and as a result, they get a cut of the fees. The hotel people were even permitted to come on o the bus and tout their hotel and tour packages.

Well, we got off and started walking. We were planning to walk to the bus station, thinking that it was only 2 Km distant, but, on reexamination of the map, discovered that it was significantly further (at this point we had already walked about 4 Km... in the wrong direction [not opposite, just wrong]).

At that point I started negotiation with about three cabbies who showed up out of the ether. We then got a ride to the bus station that sent buses to Dong Ha. At this point the cabbie drove to a bus and started negotiating. Watch for this game, the cabdriver will steer you somewhere, in this case a bus, for you it can be a hotel, and then start negotiations for what he thinks you will be willing to pay (remember, he has just seen in your wallet when you paid him). This price will be more that customary because he plans to get a cut.


The negotiated price came to 100,000 Dong (and please do not be like the rude tourist I heard say to a clerk at the hostel, "dong, dung, whatever you people call money here...,"no, she was not American; yes, she was just plain rude). I responded by walking off. At that point the cabbie lost his cut and the price immediately dropped to 60,000 Dong. I still wasn't going for it and continued into the ticket office. The posted price (thank God they post everything in both Vietnamese and French)was 27,000 Dong; however, the ticket clerk refused to sell us a ticket. She said that we had to negotiate with the drivers (keep in mind that my French is just plan bad). We ended up at a price of 30,000 Dong. It was still more than what was posted but a lot less than where we started. I felt I was being cheated but not fleeced.

Dong Ha from the Hotel window

That ride was another mini-bus with people hopping on and off through the ride. It ended in another dusty dirt-lot bus station. From there we walked the short distance to the, "DMZ café." When we arrived we were told by the owner that he had no room; but, he took us to another, nearby, hotel. This hotel was normally more expensive but he negotiated that they would charge us the same as he would have.

From there we returned to his office and discussed our plans for the next day with him. Dinner was a small Vietnamese street café.

An evening visitor

Wednesday 25 July 2007

Hanoi


We returned to Sa Pa with plenty of time to spare, even more because the bus was late. The plan was to take a bus, arranged by the hotel, to Lao Cai and meet the train there.

As stated, the bus was late. This was no surprise and the schedule had plenty of flex worked into it. It finally worked out that there were two buses heaving the hotel for Lao Cai and, for a moment, it looked like Debra and I were going to be placed on separate ones. People traveling as a group need to try to stay as a group because if there are no clear meeting plans it is entirely possible that the group members will never find each other again (our, worst case, plan was to meet at my flat in China).

When we arrived in Lao Cai we were dropped, not at all surprisingly, at a café instead of the train station. A lot of drivers will do this because they have made deals with the café and hotel owners for a commission for the business that they steer to them. I know the game but I will not play it. I seldom purchase anything at these cafes that I am steered to. I paid to go to a train station and I damn well want to be taken to a train station (that is the sound of the inner grumpy old man beating down the inner child with a stick).

About a half hour from when the train was scheduled to leave we walked over to the station. The Vietnamese train stations make the Chinese train stations look like marvels of efficiency. They only open for loading one train at a time. So, they just open the main doors and let chaos ensue.

We did make a mistake. In China the soft sleeper tickets are in very short supply. This results in journeys being delayed if a person insists on them. They are also significantly more expensive. As a result we followed our regular practice of requesting hard sleeper.

We later discovered that there is a very small price difference between the hard and soft sleeper in Viet Nam. The hard sleepers were also significantly less comfortable that we were used to. We noted that, for future reference, we would use soft sleepers in Viet Nam; however, as it turned out, that was our last train journey until we returned to China.

We arrived in Hanoi at about five a.m. and were surprised by the presence of cab drivers inside of the train station. We are used to them being required to at least wait until we exit the station before approaching people.

We did employ a cab to take us to our hostel, the Hanoi backpackers hostel. We arrived well before the start of business; however, there was a bell and the attendant let us in.

O that day we did not do much. We walked around a bit and attended a bar-b-q at the hostel. We also purchased some books. There are a lot of counterfeit books available in Viet Nam. Copies of the "rough guide" series are available for a lot less that they sell for in China. In addition, I picked up a copy of "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" It is one of those book that I had often intended to read and just never did; and no, it is not about motorcycle maintenance.

The next day Debra had tried to attend Mass but found that she was too late. At least we were only a couple of blocks from Saint Josephs Cathedral; so, it was no great inconvenience for her to go and find that she was late.

Later we went and looked for some replacement backpacks. I was getting a small tear where the shoulder straps attach and was getting concerned. I had also bent the frame in one of my trips; and finally, I was running out of space in my pack.


We went and looked at several and identified a style I like. Then it was just a matter of choosing the label. This surprised Debra when I pointed it out. It was the exact same pack with both the "North Face" branding and the "Lowe alpine" branding. Even an odd pattern on one of the straps was the same. It turned out that the person selling the pack as "Lowe Alpine" was selling it for $25USD and the "North Face" guy wanted $30USD; so, I got a "Lowe Alpine, Frontier APS 100+20." This new pack is capable of being loaded down with more that I want to carry (remember, I cracked my knee [the one that always gives problems anyway] pretty hard in Kunming).



Really, it was a slow day with a lot of walking around the French quarter. We also walked around Hoan Kiem Lake (a lake and park in the center of Hanoi. We also visited the Ngoc Son Temple, which is located on a small island in the lake. We also visited several English bookstores. Even with the presence of counterfeit books, there are many English language bookstores. We never saw this large of a selection of English language books in any shop in China. There was even a used bookstore that featured English language books. It really makes sense that the two can coexist. As, the now deceased, Jim Baen explained, as he made many of his publishing houses books available, for free, online. People, who don't read, don't buy books. If people are in the habit of reading, they will buy books. It was interesting to see his theory in practice.


The next day we visited several museums. The first we went to was the Hao Lo Prison, known by many as the Hanoi Hilton. This is where many captured American pilots were held during the Viet Nam war. This prison was first opened in 1896 by the French and was finally closed, with the demolition of two of the guard towers, in 1993 in order to make way for The Somerset Grand Hanoi, an apartment and office complex.

Only the Southeastern corner of the prison has been preserved as a, "Historic Vestige and a memorial to the revolutionaries incarcerated here who gave their lives for their country." This, of course, refers to the Vietnamese who were incarcerated here when it was a French prison, primarily devoted to political prisoners.

While waiting for the next museums to open we went to lunch at a truly Vietnamese place. It was a big restaurant that opened to the street. The food was okay and definitely cost less than the places that cater to tourists. We then sat in a small park and read while we waited for three p.m., when the museums opened. It was kind of funny, the first bench we rejected because it was entirely in the sun. As we were sitting in the second we heard a huge crash and looked over at the first bench. It had been buried under several, heavy, palm branches.

From there we went to the Viet Nam History Museum. It was clear that there was little interest in maintaining this museum. Through our visit the staff sat on the floor and played cards. As a museum aficionado, I have to say that there was nothing special here. It was clear that no one cared.

We then went to the Revolution Museum, which was, nearly, just across the street. This museum they were proud of. It was divided into three sections, 1858-1945, 1945-1975, and the present. Little things made it clear that they cared about this museum, an alert and attentive staff, generally well kept displays, and the presence of air-conditioning and drinking water.

It is interesting that with all of the relics of the French occupation, the strong positive feelings for French culture. Almost all of the buildings attempt to capture some element of French style, cheeses, which are almost unheard of in China, are common in Viet Nam, and many other small touched that show a desire to maintain a link to French culture. Students continue to study French, along with English, in school, a project partially funded by France. Further, when talking to the Vietnamese, they identify themselves with, and state, very directly, that they like French culture.

The next day we prepared to continue south, to Dong Ha.

Monday 23 July 2007

Sa Pa

Crossing the border from China we entered the city of Lao Cai. There were a number of things that we noticed right off. The first was that the men were wearing hats; men's hats are very unpopular in China. We also noticed the lack of private cars. There were some but not nearly as many as we had become accustomed to in China. There seemed to be a lot greater adherence to traffic signals than there was in China. And it was raining…

The driver from the hostel, the "cat-cat," met us at the border station in Lao Cai and we loaded into the van. Then he went all over town trying to insure that his van was full before continuing to Sa Pa. This waiting in the van at various locations in town for over an hour and a half wore very thin.

We finally had a full van and continued over the pass to Sa Pa. The Hotel had very nice views and Debra and I shared a nice room; however, the hotel is located on the side of a mountain so the stairs are killers.


The room


Killer stairs, great view

That first day I took a nap while Debra went for a walk and after we returned we went for a dinner in town. I have to say that the first dinner in Viet Nam was very disappointing. Neither of us liked it and it seemed to be very overpriced. We later determined that most of the restaurants in Sa Pa were over priced.


The park and the church (church under repair)

Being as we did not like the food at the first place we wound up having a second dinner at the Hotel. We had then planned to watch a movie but Debra fell asleep as soon as we returned to the room so I watched the DVD that she had purchased in Kunming (Stargate) by myself, then I also went to sleep.

The next morning we were both much more ready to be active so we went and rented a motorcycle. The first place we went… well, the first place we went was to get petrol; and in a town with one station and an inability to say, "petrol," in the local language turned into its own adventure.

From there we started out of town and quickly decided that we were going the wrong way, it was the same way we had come to town and we had already seen it. We then took to another road; I noticed tour buses and decided that we must be the route to something interesting, so we continued on that road.

The road quickly turned to mud, and rather deep mud at that. We stayed with the road and were rewarded by a large waterfall; the place the tour buses were going, the name was similar to, "Silver Falls."


We left there and, seeing as we were going at our own pace; not that of a tour group, stopped at some viewpoints and smaller water falls on the way back to town. We returned to town early enough that there was still time to do more before meeting with our bus back to Lao Cai.


We had lunch at a place that we liked a lot more than the place we had eaten previously. It was funny, the owner apologized to us for the fact that they were not fully prepared for tourists, in fact it was much better than the places that were.

We then took a road into the valley in order to see some of the villages. One thing that Debra commented on was the water runoff plan for the road, there were no culverts, the plan was for the water to run over the road.

We stopped in a small town in order to top off the tank on the motorbike and the gas pump was an old gravity pump. It had a large glass tank on top of the dispenser (I hesitate to even call it a pump) which was then filled and then a graduated amount was drained from that with a hose and billing was based on lines drawn on the side of the glass tank. The whole affair looked like something from a picture in the thirties.

At that point we, again, turned off of the paved road and continued toward the village. This road made what we had bogged through in the morning look good by comparison. We reached one road stop, consisting of a café and bar, where other westerners had decided to go no further; however, throwing discretion, and good sense, to the wind, we forged on.

The road got considerably worse; it was here that Debra got a sunburn that plagued her for the rest of the visit to Viet Nam. At the end we were rewarded by a visit to a small, pleasant village whose first observed signs of live were a pair of small pigs playing in the road, followed shortly by a young boy riding on the back of a water buffalo.


We then returned to Sa Pa and delivered to the rental what was, without question, the muddiest motor bike on their lot.

Sunday 22 July 2007

Entering Viet Nam


Debra and I took a sleeper bus for the twelve hour ride from Kunming to Hekou. Hekou is the town in China that we were to cross the border at. The bus is the only means of transport into this town as the railroad tracks were destroyed in a mudslide several years ago and have never been repaired.

The sleeper bus is just that. It is a bus that has no seats. Instead it has rows of narrow bunks. They are double stack and there is a row along each side and a row down the center.

I did not sleep well on it. First, the, mentioned, encounter was unpleasant. Second, it just wasn't a place that I was ready to sleep well. However, the first part of the ride was uneventful. It was raining and the roads were slick but the roads were pretty empty. Then, about four a.m. the bus left the highway and continued down a dirt road for the rest of the journey. At about five we crossed to within fifty kilometers of the ChinaViet Nam border and a soldier entered the bus and took all of our passports and logged our entry into a border area. The bus then continued, on the wet dirt roads, the rest of the way.

When we arrived in Hekou we saw that there really was nothing to mention in this town. From the bus station (which is a muddy field, with a couple of offices, encircled by a brick wall) we walked to the border station. It was about two or three blocks and there was very little traffic at the border station other than heavy carts filled with goods being pushed through the 300m zone between the stations on each side.

The goods were offloaded from a truck on one side and placed on very large carts, about 2m x 5m and then pushed and pulled by large groups of up to twenty workers, depending what was on the cart, to trucks on the other side and then reloaded. This allowed the transfer of goods between the two sides with no travel of motor vehicles between the two countries.

Debra and I entered on the Chinese side and completed our paperwork, there were only two forms and they were quite simple, examples were on the wall for those who were unable to read the Chinese and most of the questions were in both Chinese and English.

Our bags were x-rayed and we walked through the open space between the two stations. On the Viet Namese side the process was similar to what we had just done. I would estimate that the entire process took only about a half hour.

Saturday 21 July 2007

WWAOD (What would an Orc Do?)

As I have written in the past, certain types of crime are virtually unheard of here in China. I would class these as Burglary, strong arm robbery and violent crimes against persons. Other types of crime are simply an ingrained part of the culture and are seen not only as normal, but in positive terms. These would be embezzlement, fraud, and "plain old cheating." The general feeling is that if Joe is able to cheat Jeff, then it shows that Joe is smarter and more deserving than Jeff.

I had several of these WWAOD moments while visiting Kunming. The first one happened just as I arrived in Kunming. I was waiting at the bus stop to go to the hostel and there were several people there also. They were boarding the buses that came before mine. It seems that the bus to the Hostel that I stayed at was a rather infrequent bus.

In the larger cities here in China, a lot of people use pre-paid bus passes that, when they enter the bus, they place in front of a reader and have an amount subtracted from their account. I was watching people use these passes to enter the bus and saw a woman get hers caught in the door as the door closed. Her pass was pulled out of her hand and wound up on the pavement outside the bus. I was able to hear her screaming to the driver; but, he had already closed the door and was leaving. I headed over to the pass, which was lying on the ground, in order to throw it in one of the open windows on the bus with hopes that it would be passed back to her.

However, I was under a full pack so I was not moving all too quickly. Another person got to the pass before me and I was first expecting him to do what I had intended. However, instead he put it in his pocket after showing it to some of his fellow Orcs', who laughed. This was no punk kid, it was an adult. I found the "good luck for you" attitude disturbing. To make it clear that he had no intention of returning it, he proceeded to use that pass as he entered his bus.

My next WWAOD moment came when Debra and I went to get some passport photos. I will discuss the reasoning for the need in another letter, this one is about Orcs'.

We went to a Kodak shop, the one between the Viet Namese Embassy and the main Kunming Train Station, to have the photos taken. We were told it would be 30RMB by one woman, who we paid. We then stayed in the shop and waited for our pictures. When the pictures were ready a second woman told us that it would be 30RMB, the first woman was standing right next to her and didn't say a word. I insisted that we had already paid. This situation devolved pretty fast. They knew that we needed the pictures and pointed out that we would not be able to get to anther shop and get other pictures before the time that we needed the pictures; and besides, we would have to pay there too. After plenty of grunting and shouting (applying WWAOD) I told them that we would pay; however, as Kodak share holders we would then be contacting Kodak and telling them that we had been stolen from. At that point the manager (who had been watching) told the first person to check her pockets. Of course, she had the 30RMB. We were then apologized to and told that she had just forgotten that we had paid her (anyone who believes that is a fool) and I agreed to not contact Kodak over the misunderstanding (I don't think there was a misunderstanding, I understand what happened). I applied WWAOD and won that one.


The last WWAOD moment in Kunming came just as Debra and I were leaving. We had purchased bunks on a sleeper bus to the China-Viet Nam border; they were about 95 RMB each. We got on the bus and were positioned on our bunks when this person, who claimed to be the owner, got on and told all the westerners that we had to pay an additional 30RMB, "for petrol."

In simple terms, I got angry. It was clear that the other westerners were looking for leadership and I took it. I said that I would burn my ticket before I would be stolen from. I told the owner that he was a thief and I would not ride on his bus (I was pretty loud about my pronouncements; think Orc). I then got off the bus, I noticed that the other westerners were following me, which made my position stronger, and told the driver to take my bags off the bus.

At that point the owner said something and I responded by simply shouting, "Bullshit!" A moment later the conductor politely told me that the owner said we would not have to pay extra if we would get back on the bus (it was almost time for him to leave and he was looking at about seven paying passengers walking off). I then agreed and we got back on the bus.

It was then that one of the Chinese told me that he (the owner) regularly does this to westerners and that if you just get loud he will back down. All I can say is that it would have helped if someone had told me that to begin with; however, they were afraid to get involved. Again though, the correct guiding principle was WWAOD.

Friday 20 July 2007

Kunming


The first step of my planned vacation to Viet Nam was to travel to Kunming in order to meet up with Debra. The trip to Kunming was pretty uneventful.

I had arranged with the hostel in advance and went straight there when I arrived. I then checked my email and saw that Debra was due to arrive on the second. I planed to meet her at the train station due to it being a bit hard to find the bus to the hostel. Checking my watch, I confirmed that it was the first and I went to the deck to read.

A few hours I looked up and there was a most unexpected person; Debra, who was scowling at me. It turned out that I had forgotten to advance my watch at the end of the month. We then worked out our plan and Debra explained to me that she was short on expected funds.

We then set out for the Viet Namese Consulate. The fact that Kunming had a consulate was the main reason that we had chosen this city for our meeting. The consulate went smoothly; however, we did have to go get pictures and to surrender our passports for three days.

The next day we rented bicycles and went to the bus station in order to get our tickets to Hekou, on the border with Viet Nam. We also rode around and, other than a slight, previously mentioned, mishap had a good time.

We went to a street that caters to foreigners and found some pants I was looking for. I had come with only shorts and wanted some pants with zip off legs. Yes, they look silly; but, that makes it so I do not have to pack as much.

We went by wal-mart for some shirts (keep in mind, by Chinese standards, wal-mart stuff is high quality). Debra noticed that the wal-mart had no parking lot. Customers either arrived by bicycle or taxi. We also went to a Thai restaurant and had a very reasonably priced dinner. After this we returned to the hostel and returned the bikes.

The next day, after my visit to the hospital, I spent following the doctor's orders and resting. That evening we walked to an Indian food restaurant; it was a bit expensive, by Chinese standards, but very good. Debra purchased a couple of DVDs to watch.

We returned and Debra, again, noticed that there seem to be a disproportionate number of apple computes being used by travelers and we ruminated on this observed phenomena for a while.

The next day it was time to pack our bags to continue the trip to

Viet Nam. We went to the consulate to pick up our passports, complete with the new entrance visas, and went to the bus station.

Wednesday 4 July 2007

Another hospital visit

I crashed yesterday 3 July 07

Today I decided to go to the hospital and have it checked

I wrote a note that comes out to say "yesterday I traffic accident bicycle, I cleaned the abrasion (hydrogen peroxide), it hurts here left knee x-ray." Gao Jing, one of my students said that my writing was very good; however, my grammar was terrible.

Then I walked the 4 blocks to the hospital (it took a long time, I was really hurting)

First, registration (4Y). By this, I got in line at a window marked registration (with a lot of other people). I tried to give her my note, she just said, "four (su) qui," and gave me a hospital book, I am aware of the procedure. The patient keeps all of their records and takes this book with them. So from there I went looking for an appropriate department

2nd emergency (no help). This was my first stop. However, they only appeared to deal with transported patients, not walk ins; So I kept looking.

3rd radiology (they wrote something I couldn't read on my note). I then went to radiology. I wanted an x-ray so it seemed to be the most useful thing. The woman at the window there wrote something (that I could not read) on my note. I then stopped another nurse and she looked at what was written and took me to the director of outpatient's office. From there, an English speaking nurse came and took me up to orthopedics and then back down to radiology, we then went outside to the payment line to pay for the x-rays (everything is cash in advance). Then, back to x-ray for a total of 4 x-rays (160Y).

I then waited a couple of hours for the pictures to be developed and carried them back to orthopedics. Of course I looked at them and determined that nothing was broken; however, I had paid for the doctor, I was going to let him at least look at the pictures. He basically said to get some rest and take some pain killers.

A week later I am still sore but I am a lot better.

The basic details of the crash were none to exciting, I was riding down a wet street and the bike just dumped out from under me. I suspect that I must have hit a patch of oil. The pain was pretty intense.

I then went to a drug store (about a 3km ride) and got a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide and some bandages and cleaned it up (I was surprised to feel the pad I was using to apply the peroxide get very hot) then covered the open wound. People at the hostel were pretty upset to see my condition. That night I ended up needing help because I fell in the hall and was unable to bend my leg enough to stand up… of course, being in a hostel, people thought I was lying in the hall because I was drunk. The being unable to get up off the ground under my own power was what prompted the decision to go to the hospital for an x-ray.