On the tourist Autobahn...

When we got to Hoi An we had spent wonderful quite days on the back roads of Vietnam’s central highland with only very few foreign tourists and no hassle at all. This was over now. We were right back on the tourist Autobahn.

The streets of Hoi An

Hoi An is a beautiful old city that used to be the capitol of the country during the Chinese occupation. Its old buildings and nice small roads, the location at the river and the tropical beach front only a couple of km away make it a beautiful place to stay, with many things to do and see. So it’s really no wonder that all the tourists flock here – and that the Vietnamese make the best of that situation by turning every building into a handicraft shop, a souvenir shop, a café, bar or restaurant or a tailor (yes, we suited up). Hoi An is definitely the Vietnamese pendant to Pingyao in China. But even with the herds of tourists and the dollar signs in the eyes of the Vietnamese that look at them, Hoi An is still charming with its beautiful facades, courtyards and hidden gardens. 

And renting a bike to go to the beach early in the morning to take a quick swim, then have breakfast at one of the beach bars and slowly peddle back for a cooling shower is definitely the best way to start into a good day!

Crazy guard of an emperor's tomb

After having spent some time in Hoi An we went further up north, to the city that became the capital when the rule of the Vietnamese emperors began: Hue. Scattered around Hue are the impressive tombs of the various emperors and their families that they all designed themselves during their lifetime. We went there on a dragon boat that cruised down the calm Perfume River that flows through Hue - together with a mass of foreign tourists. The tombs are huge, though, so it didn’t get too crowded. Hue is also home to the imperial city that lies behind the great defensive walls of a citadel. The imperial city is very impressive with its sheer size and the many palaces, houses and temples that are still there. It gets even more impressive if you remind yourself that it once was far bigger with over a thousand buildings more than today. Two wars and many natural disasters like typhoons have destroyed the majority of the complex.

At the imperial city in Hue

Speaking of which – a typhoon hit the north of Vietnam right when we left Hue to our next stop along the tourist Autobahn: Ninh Binh. We went there on a nightbus – our first sleeping bus. It was a hell of a ride since we didn’t fit into the “beds” and we also drove right into the typhoon which was a little scary after all. We got to our destination at 4:30 am and were dropped off in the middle of nowhere, right in the dark. It was pouring, we were tired and uprooted trees were lying around everywhere. We took the first available Moto to the Hotel and went straight to bed. 

View from above Mua Cave

When we got up a couple of hours later the Typhoon had left us with clear skies and we were ready to go see what all the tourists come here for: the limestone scenery of Tam Coc, also called “Dry Halong Bay”. We rented a motorbike and explored the backwaters of the Ninh Binh and then climbed Mua cave for a beautiful view of Tam Coc. Then we went there, got shocked by the massive amount of tourists - and then decided to jump right in : after all, we are just another two of them, right? And we were so glad that we did what they all do: take a boat trip around Tam Coc. The pictures say it all.

Tam Coc

After a week of tourist towns and action we are ready for a more general place now where really no one cares about us anymore. So tomorrow we’re heading right to Hanoi, the modern capitol at last.

Easy Ridin'

Imagine a strong, fast and big bike. Imagine the sun on your face and the wind in your hair. Imagine winding mountain roads through lush jungle. Imagine total freedom.

Jens is alone on the bike

Anna on the bike with Trung Pagoda

What you have just conjured up in your mind are only a couple of the great things you experience when taking a motorbike trip with the legendary Easy Rider Bikers from Dalat. So of course, after we took a single day tour around Dalat with them, we wanted more. Nothing easier than that with the Easy Riders: changed all our plans regarding time, budget and places to see in Vietnam and booked a 5 day tour from Dalat to Hoi An. It was the trip of a lifetime! We went through the central highland of Vietnam and got to see not only breathtaking scenery but also the everyday life of the rural Viet people and their history.

View from the Ho Chi Minh trail into the central highland

 

Farming

Visiting a coffee plantation (arabica)

Caoutchouc being harvested at a rubber tree farm

Vietnam’s soil is great for all sorts of farming and it makes Vietnam a leading exporting country for many agricultural products. Dalat is the flower city of Vietnam because of its dry, cool climate. From the top of the mountains you see whole valleys covered with growhouses. The surrounding area, the south of the central highlands, seems to be one huge coffee plantation. The coffee is harvested right now and all the streets, the roofs and everything else that offers some space are covered with the precious beans that dry in the sun before being shipped to the roasting plants. A little further north it's spices: you can go for miles through pepper plantations or drive by thousands of curry trees. And slowly the landscape changes and suddenly you are surrounded by massive forests of rubber trees, all being planted in neat rows. These huge plantations are dotted by big fields of pineapples, local fruits like the forest strawberry, sugar cane fields and tapioca tree forests, paper trees, bananas in the jungle and so on and so forth. Farming is the strong backbone of the central highland's economy.

History

War memorial in Buon Ma Thout

The central highland set the scene for some of the fiercest fighting between Vietnamese and American soldiers and got devastated by American chemical weapons. The remaining scars can be found in the landscape, where formerly jungle-topped mountains are only covered by gras, and they become obvious when talking to the older generation of local people. Many suffer from the influence of Agent Orange or still mourn their family members, some are still regarded as heroes for having killed a certain number of enemies and whole villages get money from the governmet because they are classified as heroic villages for their strength during the wartime. Travelling along the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail that was used to supply the south with soldiers and weapons from the north you see war remnants on every corner. Burnt out ruins of French churches, old American airports in the middle of the bush, war memorials in every city and names like “Bloodlake” or “Hamburger Hill” (for the meat that topped the hill after an especially hard fight) on the maps. The war might be over and the young generation is far from being too worried about it – but this country will surely never forget.

Working

Children working in a brick factory on weekends

We visited many small local factories, often in the back of peoples’ houses. Most of them don’t have a good education and not enough money for land to farm on, so they make their money with simple things and hard work. From the skillful work at a traditional silk factory to the basic steps that are necessary to produce rice wine, from the hard work that even children do at the brick factories to the innovative minifarming of mushrooms, from the making of incense-sticks to the art of fine woodcarving - these and many more are the ways the Viet people make money, support their families or villages and survive.

Religion

Wooden church in Kon Tum

Even though many more catholic churches than buddhist pagodas can be found in the central highlands, we learned a lot about the buddhist philosophy and the art of meditation. We met a master monk at the most important Zen center in Vietnam and he told us about ways to let go of your thoughts (tried and failed), we went to see temples with different Buddhas and found out that we like the fat, laughing Buddha the most as he gives happiness to all people, regardless of their belief or if they are good or bad and we talked a lot about the background stories of Buddhism. Always keep in mind: what goes around, comes around!

Orphanage belonging to the catholic church

Ethnic minorities

Village of the M'nong Ga near Dalat

Communal building (Nha Rong) of Bahnar hill tribe

The central highlands are home to many different hill tribes that have always lived in and of the mountain jungles. Today they still speak their own languages, follow their traditions and live by their own rules. Most are very poor, many don’t use money at all but only trading. The communist government would like the minorities (54 in all of Vietnam) to adopt the modern lifestyle of the Vietnamese and only speak the common language, but they resist. They tend to only marry one another, stay in their small groups and they usually don’t leave their homeland. It has been a great pleasure to meet some of them (like the Bahnar, the M’nong or the K’ho) in their villages and learn a little bit about their lives. The way they have to hunt for their food or pick what grows in the forests, how they build their houses and tools and the way their families and tribes are socially built up – all these things were really fascinating to hear about. Yet, as romantic as the selfsufficient, easy life might sound, you must not forget how poor these people are, that they have no sanitary installations and no medicine other than their herbs. Life may be mostly happy for them – but definitely also very hard.

Food

Pit stop for some fried sweet potato and banana

Enjoying local specialities

Travelling with two Vietnamese, we tried out so much food and local specialties that their has to be a small section about the food as well (especially since they made fun of me as being the one that has to stop at every street stall to try out every little new thing). In Dalat we tried the persimmon fruit that only grows in that area and is being harvested in the moment. It looks like a tomato when it is ripe and tastes fantastic, very sweet and soft. Other fruits that we tried were the durian, a very smelly huge spiky fruit that has a weird texture and might be the only fruit in the world I have to puke from, the tamarinde fruit, a very sour root-shaped fruit that we dipped into spicy garlic sauce, and the forest strawberry that is a wild fruit from the jungle and has nothing to do with strawberries as we know them (looks and texture are more like a litchi’s). We tried sugar cane juice which is so refreshing and tasty, and drank the most expensive coffee in the world, the weasel coffee. We had great treats like boiled peanuts, sticky rice with sweet beans and banana, ricepowder-cake with green beans and sweet potatoe-fritters with ginger. The main dishes we had included several variations of self rolled fresh springrolls where you get all the ingredients, put them into dry ricepaper and then roll them like a fajita (but way better!), great BBQ-chicken with garlic fried rice, stir fried morning glory and cabbage with garlic, shared platters with all sorts of beef, fish and seafood, soups and veggies and a great final dinner of wild jungle deer mixed with jungle herbs. All in all a greatt culinary experience!

After 1+5 wonderful days of easy ridin’ we were dropped off safe and sound in Hoi An, one of the former capitals of Vietnam.

Big city lights

HCMC easily makes it to the top of the list of our favorite cities in the world. And here is why:

Night out in the streets

 1. The friendly and relaxed people of former Saigon welcome all visitors in their city and with all the expats and the long history of international interaction the metropolis feels like a huge melting pot where many cultural influences come together to give HCMC a fascinating vibe that just gets you and keeps you on the streets even through heavy rains and till the early morning hours.

 2. The traffic - yes, it is crazy, but no, it is not the worst we have seen. Go to places outside the citycentre of Saigon and you will much more likely be hit by a moto while bravely trying to cross the street. One of the reasons for this safe feeling you get in HCMC is the helpful tourist patrol that is present at most of the major sights and helps foreigners cross streets by whisteling at cars and motos, making them stop - kind of... Still, the (literally) millions of motos that roam the streets make for a very unique sight for themselves, especially at night when you enjoy a cocktail at one of the many rooftop bars and look down to see all the lights that move through the streets like blood through your veins.

Banh Xeo

 3. The food is just great! Vietnamese coffee and beer are equally cheap to have on the streets. High end restaurants are to be found everywhere, especially close to the most famous street of HCMC (Dhong Khoi) where fashonistas also find the high end shopping strip. The best food we had was on the lower end of the budget, though, at a) a vietnamese fastfood restaurant serving only Pho, the famous vietnamese noodlesoup and b) a restaurant that employs many of the best former street stall chefs that all specialize in only one tasty dish. Yumm!

 4. Dipping into the traumatic wartime history of Vietnam (and the communist propagandic way of presenting it) is one of the most touching and educating things to do while being in HCMC. The city, as the former capitol of South Vietnam and therefore one of the most crucial places of the American war (how it is called here in Vietnam), has been in turmoil during wartime. Today, its Wartime Remnants museum offers horrific insights into the terrible and cruel events that happened in this country and also, more general, in a war. A visit to the close by Cu Chi tunnels, that were used by the local Vietcong (Southvietnamese that sympathized with the communists in the north) for their guerilla warfare against the Americans gives you the shivers but also tells you something about the determination of both sides in that horrible war.

Entering the tunnels - king size: 120x80cm

Prayer at the Cao Dai Great Temple

 5. Going to the Great Temple of one of Vietnams most peculiar religions, the Cao Daism, is presenting only more riddles to you that you will probably never solve but think about for a long time. The fusion of eastern and western religions manifests itself in a crazy colourful temple/church where the faithful come to pray 4 times a day: they sit in long rows and chant songs that not even the Vietnamese themselves can understand. And a big divine eye is watching over them. What they believe in? No idea. But it's cool wondering about that while watching them.

Uncle Ho

Notre Dame

 6. Testing our bargaining skills (sucessfully) on the many local markets, playing shuttlecock (da cau) with the locals after nightfall in the pleasant parks, sitting at the busy streetstalls with a beer and share our stories with the many other travellers, walking along the calm Saigon river, seeing the Notre Dame de Saigon that seems a little out of place after so many weeks in Asia, ... the list of great things to do in HCMC goes on and on.

In short: This city is simply legendary!

Waterways

After Cambodia presented itself so beautiful but also emotionally challenging to us, we decided to take a little break and spend 3 days at the beaches of Sihanoukville to sunbath at the white sands with a cocktail at hand, swim in the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Thailand again, watch beautiful sunsets over the horizon and sleep in every single day.

The moment we got to Sihanoukville, it started pouring and thunderstorming and it didn't stop for two days. Being of the optimistic kind, we still had all the cocktails (but inside the beach hut), we still went swimming (but in the grey, raging sea that spit us out after approximately 30 seconds every time we tried), we still watched beautiful sunsets (in the movies that our beach hostel showed after 6pm as there was absolutely nothing else to do in the rainy dark night) and we still slept in every single day (with no changes to the plan whatsoever).
Finally, our good will was rewarded and the sun came out for our last beach day. The sea calmed down, the skies cleared up and we were in a picture perfect world once again. Getting up early wasn't hard at all that day and a morning jogg on the beach, a refreshing swim in the ocean and a huge french breakfast later we were sitting at the beach in the shadow of a palmtree with drinks, nice music and a good book. What more does anyone need?! Answer is pretty easy: someone who wakes you up when you fall asleep and you start looking like a lobster...We went back to Phnom Penh with a 'healthy' glow over all our body.

The next day, we switched from salt water to fresh water: We took a boat down the mighty Mekong river and got into Vietnam, the next great country on our list to explore. What better way than starting in the Mekong Delta with a boat tour? The border crossing was very smooth, the Vietnamese officials didn't even need to see us but only our passports (yeah, weird...but we're in, so who cares) so we could take a break and have our first tasty vietnamese lunch and then go on in a different, even nicer boat. We turned into the Bassac river and went back up to the boarder town of Chao Doc where we spend the night. We made a Moto-trip out to the nearby Sam Mountain from where we had the most romantic view over Cambodia at sunset - an awesome way to say goodbye to the one country and be welcomed by the other.

 The next morning we went on by bus to the touristic center of the Mekong Delta, Can Tho. Its beautiful waterfront, great cafes in the backstreets, rollercoasters and other rides in the city park, and a huge supermarket with french cheese and baguette readily available for a picnic on the roof terrace of our hotel made this place appealing from the first minute. It's secret, like everywhere in the region, lie on the water, though.
So this morning we got up at 4:30am and went out on the river with our private stand up rowboat (don't worry, we were safetly seated; it's the rower who stands up and rows in a very distinctive technique with crossed rudders) to witness the sunrise over the water. It was misty and calm and the mood was magic.

We went to see two floating markets, the first one being Cai Rang, the biggest floating market in the Mekong Delta region and the second one being Phong Dien, a much smaller but also less crowded and less motorized place. Observing the lively doings and dealings and getting involved in some of it when buying a coffee or some fruits off the small boats was a real treat. These people live on and from the river; this is where they find food and work, where they bath and do laundry, where they can easily get from A to B - for most of them it is where all their live takes place. Truly amazing.

We went on into the backwaters of the big Mekong and visited some of the countless arms of the meandering river. Our way went through rice fields and other farming land and we even stopped at a place where rice noodles are produced to see the whole process.
Most of the time, the way went straight through dense jungle, though. Bananatrees, coconut palmtrees, gigantic ferns, mangroves, jackfruit-trees and the like line the banks of the canals and the hot, humid air seems to vibrate with the colorful dragonflies and the annyoing mosquitos while the sun is burning even through the layer of clouds and the leafy rood atop you. We got off the boat for a little walk on a small track and soon a lost feeling got hold of us every time the water got out of sight or a turn made it impossible to see what lay ahead. This was true wilderness and even though it felt very adventorous to visit it, I was glad to leave it again and to get back onto the river.

The water, salty and fresh, was beautiful and mostly very laid back. Now we are ready to hit a metropolis again. It's Hoh Chi Minh City (HCMC, aka Saigon) tomorrow!

Contradictory Cambodia

Some of the beautiful kids we met

After starting off our Cambodian experience in the countries glorious past, we have now spent some time in modern day Cambodia as well – a country full of contrasts that gave us lots to think and wonder about.

Battambang, one of the province capitals, has been a two days stop. The city can’t be compared to the glittering, noisy Siem Reap that so clearly is the tourist capital of Cambodia. Battambang is dirty, horribly poor and dark after nightfall. But it is also welcoming with brightly smiling locals, charming with its old French colonial houses and tasty with some real Cambodian food and great coffeehouses. It is the province’s urban center with bustling markets and paved roads. But it is also the most rural place we visited in Cambodia, bedded in nothing but rice fields and a couple of villages in the middle of the jungle that can only be reached on dirt roads, maybe not at all during the rainy season. 

The trainride is about to start - we are still smiling

 It offers the touristic attraction of the bamboo train that, if you dare riding it, makes your back hurt crazy for a couple of days. But taking the train will also lead you to a wonderful little village in the middle of nowhere where you’ll meet local girls and boys that are so eager to get to know you, play with you and share their thoughts without asking for anything in return. Battambang’s surroundings bear witness of old Khmer glory in the many

In deep discussion with one of our guides

Angkor temple ruins that are scattered around the jungle. But they also bear witness of the more recent devastating Khmer Rouge rule that threw the country in a long period of darkness and ethnic conflict in the killing fields that surround the city and the infamous killing cave in the mountains.

Boah ey, a palace!

Next on our trip was Phnom Penh, the exotic capital of Cambodia. Phnom Penh might not play in the same league of southeast Asian megacities as Bangkok, Hanoi or Hoh Chi Minh City –but it might step up there sooner than you’d think. Skyscrapers start reaching up, financed by the Chinese, life in the streets is noisy and fast, smog is hovering the city on sunny days and modern, cool eateries, cafes and nightclubs dot the city. 

Enjoying the visit to a German restaurant

The city is international, catering to the quite large expat population’s and the tourists’ needs with international cuisine, nonstop electricity, hot showers, a large variety of English language newspapers, western music in the streets and almost total WiFi-coverage. The Cambodian history is omnipresent in old temples, the palaces and the beautiful history museum as well as the places of national memory in Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek. The signs of a new, hopeful and promising Cambodia line the streets in ultra modern office buildings, democracy monuments and shiny new temples – and in the many young Cambodians that come to the city with hopes and dreams for a bright future. Unfortunately, Cambodia and its capital still have a very long way to go. The education of many Cambodians is basic, the infrastructure in most of the country is underdeveloped, human rights and especially those of children 

Choeung Ek

aren’t well protected, there is very little industry and economy is still down, the vast majority of the

people have no access to fresh, clean water, not to mention medical care…the list of problems is long. After having spent two weeks here, all we can say is that Cambodia captures the visitor with its contradictions and contrasts and we really hope that a brighter, better future lies ahead for this warm, welcoming and absolutely beautiful country. 

Beautiful scenery at Phnom Penh