Tickling the Dragon's Belly

If you look at a map of Vietnam, the country looks like a long dragon, with the Mekong Delta forming a curled tail, central Vietnam is the trunk of the body, and the mass of the north from Sapa to Ha Long Bay forms the head. From Da Lat we headed down to Nha Trang on the South China Sea to trace a path along the dragon's belly, stopping off at the major destinations of Hoi An and Hue. After sleepy Mui Ne with its never-ending strip of resorts it was a surprise to come into Nha Trang, a bustling city by the sea. It felt like what I imagine Surfer's Paradise would have been like in the 70s when the property boom was just picking up, with only a couple of skyscrapers lining the sea and plenty of people walking the streets.

We arrived in Nha Trang on Sunday afternoon, and the beach was chock-a-block with Vietnamese bathers, though they seemed to limit themselves to standing in the knee deep surf, so when I went in for a swim I had the deeper waters all to myself. The quality of the water was a great step up from that of Mui Ne, with nary a severed fish head in sight.
The following day we took a Four Islands boat trip with Mama Linh, which at a very affordable $6 included snorkeling, a floating bar experience, lunch, and a visit to four islands off the coast of Nha Trang. The only other foreigners on the boat besides us were a Dutch backpacker and an Aussie couple, and being outnumbered by Vietnamese tourists made for a nice experience, as we got to see what the locals do for entertainment, and all were very friendly. Its quite charming how foreigners become the centre of attention when they're outnumbered - everyone wants to know where you're from, what you're doing in the country, which place you like best etc. The question I love answering the most obviously regards where I'm from - no one seems to have ever heard of Malta, except for a couple of ardent football fans who'll have caught our mighty heroes playing one of the bigger nations on TV.
The first island we berthed at was the location for our snorkeling adventure, though to get to the coral reef we had to either pay $2 to ride 20 meters in a boat, or risk life and limb swimming through numerous party boats all jostling for a berth on the pontoon. Being on a tight budget we dived in and made our way through the hulking boats to the reef. I have to admit that I've only ever snorkeled over tropical coral at the Great Barrier Reef, so the reef of Mu Island was always going to be the underdog, but our experience wasn't much helped by the occasional plastic bottle or bag floating among the corals and giant clams. If Vietnam really wants to gain a place on the tourist trail then something needs to be done about cleanliness, and if you'll permit me I'll step on my soap box for a paragraph or two.
Its not just the sea that gets a bad treatment by the locals - go to any restaurant, and you'll see Vietnamese eaters chucking used napkins, empty beer cans, bits of chicken bone and cigarette butts under the table, ignoring completely the trashcan that sits at the corner of the table. The same applies to buses - things fly out the windows regularly, and people walking the street don't make much of an effort to hang onto their rubbish till they come to a bin. The only positive that we've noticed is that some people walk around collecting empty PET bottles and aluminum cans, presumably to cash them in at recycling centers. Just this morning we were sitting at a bus station and a young boy just threw his empty cup into a corner. If you don't catch them young, you'll never teach them! Vietnam (and the rest of S.E. Asia) please do something about your litter problem!
OK, backing down off the soap box!
After a very nice tropical lunch we were treated to a performance by Mama Linh's house band, self proclaimed to be the best boy band in the world! Well, they certainly get my vote for originality of instruments: their drum-kit was put together from old jerry cans, a paint bucket, and a copper plate. The boys went through a repertoire of some western songs and popular Vietnamese tunes before regaling us with national songs for the foreigners - though obviously they were quite stumped when I asked for a song from Malta! When the mandatory 45 minutes had expired after lunch we were allowed to jump into the sea for the floating bar - a glass of Da Lat wine with a slice of pineapple. The idea was very nice, but the sea had started to get a bit choppy, so our wine was a bit watered down by seawater!
Our final stop for the day was an island aquarium, and Justyna and I made the mistake of paying for admission - it was a heart wrenching experience, as besides the tropical fish (which are fine swimming in an aquarium) they had many sea turtles and giant fish such as grouper, moray eels and reef sharks in aquariums that were much too small and over crowded. If you are passing through Nha Trang and take a boat trip, take my advice and don't visit the aquarium. If enough people withhold their custom the party boats will get the message and change their itinerary!
From the aquarium island it was a short boat ride back to Nha Trang, where we had a little over an hour to find something to eat before catching a sleeper bus north to Hoi An.

Hoi An
Before we get to the details about Hoi An, I have to make an aside about the S.E. Asian Sleeping Bus. We'd seen these things advertised while in Cambodia, but our bus rides there were never long enough to warrant doing an overnight trip. The same cannot be said for Vietnam, as the leg between Nha Trang and Hoi An is a 600km, 12 hour marathon, and the leg between Hue and Hanoi covers more or less the same distance. The concept of a sleeping bus is pretty easy to grasp - replace the seats with reclining beds. Instead of wasting a whole day on a bus, commuters pass the night on a bus, therefore they waste no time at all, and arrive at their destination refreshed and ready to go. Simple enough, right? Well, in the execution things go terribly wrong. For starters, anyone of average Western height will have trouble fitting in the beds, for me, standing at over 188cm, its impossible. Same applies to anyone who's put on more than a couple of pounds round their waist. So if you're an average European you're going to have trouble fitting your seat comfortably. Then throw into the mix VERY LOUD Vietnamese karaoke music or stand up comedy (depending on the driver's mood), incessant hooting of the horn (at all hours), and Vietnamese people sleeping in the aisles and trying to get comfortable by putting their head on your pillow, or on your arm rest, or near your legs. Doesn't make for a very good night's sleep, but at least you save on $6-$10 accommodation!
And now, we start to talk about Hoi An, possibly the most charming town in Vietnam. This little gem of 19th century yellow houses, narrow lanes, tailors and lantern lit bridges is a Unesco world heritage site for its unique architecture. The town is very compact, and besides tourism, which is its main lifeline, there's a vibrant trade in custom made clothing and shoes. At the last count in the early noughties there were more than 200 tailors, to this day the number has more than doubled. This makes for a lot of competition between tailors, keeping prices reasonably low, especially when you consider that you're getting custom made clothing, prepared in 24 hours, to your exact specifications! Justyna was happy as a kid at Christmas hopping from one boutique to another choosing dresses, and all for under $15. I got myself a tailored shirt, and was thinking about getting custom made sneakers, but the prices they wanted weren't much lower than for an original pair of trainers so I declined.
If Hoi An is beautiful by day, its absolutely stunning by night. The myriad lantern makers flaunt their lighted wares in shop windows, and the city council seems to have taken a cue from them and lined the streets with colourful lanterns. This gives the yellow city a twinkle of colour that brings the night to life.

Just south of Hoi An we visited the ancient ruins of My Son, the best preserved ruins of the ancient Cham empire, one of the many great peoples to have populated Vietnam. Seeing the World Heritage listed ruins of My Son and knowing that they are the best preserved makes me wonder about the state of the rest of the Cham ruins throughout Vietnam - the place is in bad need of restoration, and the Vietnamese government is making slow steps towards bringing the ruins to their former glory with aid from foreign governments. The dilapidated state of the ruins is not only due to the ravages of time - The Viet Cong used My Son as operational headquarters during the American conflict; and the "liberators" thought nothing of bombing the historic location to drive the Viet Cong out. My impression of My Son was in no way helped by the fact that these temples are very similar to the temples of Angkor, and without informative displays I was left with feeling like I had visited a run down version of the Cambodian monument. Maybe My Son will be worth a visit in a few years' time, when the ruins are better restored and a proper visitor's centre or museum is in place, but as it stands, if you've seen the temples of Angkor a visit to My Son seems like a waste of time… maybe we should have left our culture vulture hats off for the day and visited China beach!

Hue
With three weeks in Vietnam and ten places to visit we weren't left with much freedom to dawdle, we had to be on a bus leaving Hanoi for Laos by the 30 June. After just two nights in beautiful Hoi An we had to leave the pretty little town to visit the former capital Hue.
Hue's biggest drawcard is its World Heritage Listed ancient Citadel and forbidden city. Hue was the seat of government from the 1802 to 1945 and the Citadel was the royal abode of the 13 emperors of the Nguyen dynasty. As with other culturally and historically important sites in Vietnam, Hue's citadel suffered massive damage during the American conflict. Its proximity to the DMZ coupled with its fortified nature made it an obvious choice as stronghold for the Viet Minh, drawing the incendiary wrath of the American war machine. Much of the citadel has been restored or is in the process of being restored: during our visit much of the Forbidden Purple City was a construction site. The areas that were open to visitors have been skillfully restored and some informative boards were on display. A video display outlined the ongoing repairs and showed a 3D model of what the citadel will look like once rebuilding and restoration is complete. I look forward to visiting again in a few year's time when the works are complete. Exploring the citadel on foot led us to lacunae of calm and quietude when we managed to get away from the masses of sellers and tourists.

The following day we took a Purple River Cruise - a cheap and cheerful $5 trip down the eponymous river visiting the nicer tombs of the Nguyen Dynasty, a Vietnamese Kung Fu display and the Thien Mu Pagoda.
The tombs are just what you'd expect the final resting place of an Asian emperor to look like - a cross between a pagoda and the best in Asian kitsch. Our visits seemed to be timed well enough to avoid big crowds, so we were free to wander in relative calm taking in the architecture and the artwork.
Thien Mu Pagoda is one of the most famous in Vietnam, and was the home of the venerable Thich Quang Duc, who publicly burned himself in Saigon to protest the repression of religious freedom and harsh measures of the government of South Vietnam. Thich Quang Duc had reached such a state of zen that after driving to Saigon he stepped from his car, sat in the lotus position, and covered in petrol set fire to himself. He did not utter a single word, didn't twitch, didn't react. He just sat there and burned, totally in control of his body. The back gardens of the Pagoda provide a shady respite from the crowds, as visitors seem to congregate towards the front of the complex where the Buddha shrines are located.
The highlight of our cruise was definitely the Vietnamese Kung Fu display. Though this martial art is not as "high" as Thai Chi or Chinese Kung Fu, it served the Vietnamese people well for nigh on a thousand years. Our guide explained that this was a true glimpse of the Vietnamese people - we could see as many pagodas and citadels as we wanted, but it was this fighting that made the Vietnamese who they are today. The country's tropical climate makes it a green and fertile land, an ideal shopping ground for the Chinese and Mongol empires of the north. Since Vietnam's population is so small compared to that of its northern neighbours, a fighting style developed that could be used by everyone, men, women and children, using weapons that could be found in the home - scythes, bamboo poles, and short knives. Were it not for the people's skill at repelling raids and attacks, nowadays Vietnam might be just another region of China.

Having seen the major attractions that Hue has to offer, we made our way to the pick up point for our second Sleeper bus in as many days: next stop, Hanoi!