Note: This post is part of a series regarding a recent trip.  Please read this preface to the series prior to this post for context.

Probably one of my personal favourite destinations now within Vietnam, and specifically in the back country, is Hoi An.  Located in the middle of the country just south of Hue (the ancient capital city) and Da Nang, Hoi An is known primarily for it's beaches (just south of "China Beach") and tailors.

In fact, we decided to spend almost a week here, by far the longest we spent in any one place.  While here we were able to recoup from our travel agenda and just enjoy the sun, sand and surf (so to speak).  The fact is that there is very little surf to be had here, though that didn't stop a young American guy from proudly toting his surf board (girlfriend in tow) to the beach to conquer the 2' swells coming in.  No matter...

Another highlight of Hoi An was taking advantage of the opportunity to get a custom made (even better than "made to measure") set of shirts done here.  My original plan was to get a handful of shirts made so as to see what kind of quality could be expected, but given a number of business meetings that I was scheduled to have in Hanoi the following week, a business suit, complete with shoes, shirts, ties and cuff links was required.

I left Hoi An with a very nice summer suit, five custom made shirts (of a particularly nice woven fabric) and even a pair of leather shoes... all for the sum of $305USD, and this was from one of the more "exclusive" tailors in the area, Yaly Couture.  My sales associate was Yen (or her English name "Mary"), and her English was excellent.  We later learned that these girls worked roughly 12hrs per day, 7days per week with typically two days off per month.  What a schedule!  After a little bit of research this is not out of keeping with many of the labour standards in the country.  Given that $300USD is a substantial sum by local standards, it was only proper to tip Yen well as she had worked hard to ensure everything was "perfect". 

By the way, as a rule these tailor shops turn around all garments for their first fitting within 24hrs, and are typically completed the garment 24hrs later.  They accomplish this with an army of tailors and seamstresses that work through the night.  It would seem that this is the equivalent of a "sweat shop", but in fact those that I met seemed very happy and not exploited (and I didn't see any children working in the back).

The village of Hoi An is quite picturesque and is even protected by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as a world heritage site for it's unique history as a 15th to 19th century trading port that was virtually untouched by the countless wars and conflicts that have plagued the country.

We stayed at the Golden Sand Resort in Hoi An, and upon checking in and finding that we were Canadian, the front desk girl correctly guessed that we were from Vancouver, Canada.  She mentioned that the manager was also from Vancouver, and as a result I made sure to meet him.  Christopher Nguyen, the adopted son of a Vietnamese expatriate living in Canada in the '70s and '80s, followed his father back to Vietnam to help run one of four family-owned resorts.

Christopher's experiences after moving to Hoi An from Coquitlam (a suburb of Vancouver) were very interesting, and he spoke of opportunities for those with residency (which he had recently obtained) having the ability to purchase ocean-front lots in the area for roughly $10,000 per lot (about 15m x 35m).  Building a home that is very nice by "Western standards" would cost a further $40,000 aided by inexpensive labour, concrete and even Teak and Marble given the proximity to Teak forests and Marble quarries.  When asked what you would get for a $100,000USD investment in a home, he suggested basically "a palace", though the only differences at that stage are the quality of the appliances and fixtures in the bathroom(s) and kitchen.

While in Hoi An, we also visited Marble Mountain and China Beach, and in fact spent St. Patrick's Day on China Beach partaking of one of the local craft brews.  From this we thought we would create T-shirts when we got back to Canada that had a picture of a Leprechaun with a Vietnamese Rice Hat on with the word's "I partied like an Irishman on China Beach, Vietnam.  St. Paddy's Day 2007".  That's still on my list of things to do...

An interesting difference in Hoi An is that it isn't a dirty place.  As a result of the abundant flour-like sand (similar to Caribbean beaches), you don't see a lot of dirt.  You do however see sand everywhere on their streets, homes, buildings, stores, etc. but it doesn't seem "dirty" at all.  Cambodia was similar, except it was just dusty, not particularly dirty given the lack of humidity and water.

I did get the opportunity to fill out my diver card a little in a couple of dive's off of the coast.  It was about a one hour trip by dive boat to the site, and the ocean was rough enough that a number of the diver's on this trip had made liberal use of the only head (bathroom) on the boat.  I'm sure that didn't help their dive experience. 

The dive(s) were fair, but visibility was somewhat limited.  In fact at one point I got separated from the dive master (and one other diver in our small group) and had to hover at about 5m until I could find their bubble trail.  We found a few interesting fish species, but nothing terribly colourful like those I had seen in Fiji.  I'm told that I should have tried the diving in Nha Trang as it is better the further south you go.  I did find a perfectly good snorkel/mask set in about 20m of water though...

Next up: Hanoi (for some business), then a three-day cruise on our own private Junk Boat in Ha Long Bay...

To facilitate navigation this is a summary of posts in this series:

• Vinh Long (February 28 - March 4, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Saigon (March 5 - 6, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Nha Trang (March 7 - 9, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Siem Reap, Cambodia (March 10 - 13, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat)
• Hoi An (March 13 - 18, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Ha Long Bay and Hanoi (March 19 - 23, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Ha Long Bay)
• Saigon (March 23 - 25, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)

Note: This post is part of a series regarding a recent trip.  Please read this preface to the series prior to this post for context.

• From the moment our Vietnam Airlines jet set down in Siem Reap's "international" airport (serving a small handful of international destinations), we could tell that there was a lot of attention to detail... particularly when marketing to Western tourists was concerned.

The airport was indeed small, but seemingly new, and impeccably kept with beautiful landscaping with green grass and rich foliage.  A bit of a contrast from what we could see from the air, and later found to be the standard: a red clay-esque dusty ground scorched hot from steady sun and little rain.

That said, the country itself is quite beautiful, outdone only by the personalities of the people.  We were greeted at the airport by an airport parking attendant who introduced us to or taxi driver, Richie.  As is the custom there, the taxis are not just for discrete point-to-point travel, but are in fact the platform for selling personalized tours.  Richie, with his shy charm, quickly sold us on his services which were quite reasonably priced (including the use of his taxi stocked with bottled water) at $25USD per day.  He drove us to our hotel, the Hotel de la Paix, and made arrangements to pick us up early the next day for our first full day tour of the surrounding temples.

Hotel de la Paix.  What a place.  Thus far in the trip it was hands-down the nicest hotel we stayed at, and the quality of service would go unmatched for the rest of our trip save our last few days in Saigon later in the month at the Saigon Sheraton.  The real stand-out besides the beautiful design and layout of the courtyards, pools and the details of the room was the level of service.  It would seem that the employees would take every opportunity to offer a huge smile, ask you how your day was and to offer any possible service.  Truly exemplary, though as a discipline easier to implement in a small "boutique" hotel, it was nonetheless appreciated.

The temples at and near Angkor Wat (my photos here) are beautiful.  I didn't find it spiritually uplifting per se, given my own personal faith, but did find the architecture to be fascinating and almost overwhelming.  Though we spent one full (and long) day, and the following morning (to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat), we were certainly "templed out" after this stretch.  We saw all of the main temples of the area, including the temple that was made famous in Angelina Jolie's Laura Croft: Tomb Raider movie.  Angkor Wat certainly has my vote for one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and should be a "must see" for anyone traveling even near the region.

Siem Reap is a nice little town, largely supported by tourist dollars largely as a result of the surrounding temples.  As a result, many of the locals speak very good English, and particularly the school children who are quite able to engage in friendly and witty banter, understanding innuendo and even sarcasm.  Though seemingly hotter than Saigon and the south of Vietnam, it is significantly dryer which made it (at least for me) more comfortable.  Cambodia is also a very poor nation, only a fraction of the economic size of its far more populous neighbours Thailand and Vietnam.  I didn't travel to Laos this time (but will rectify that in the future), but I expect it is more similar to Cambodia than to Vietnam or the interior of China.

Our tour guide Richie was very good all-in-all, and I would probably recommend him to others, but an unfortunate incident shook our trust in him.  As part of what I'm sure is the "sales procedure" taught to him by the tourist/taxi company he worked for, he took us to a number of local temples for the agreed $25USD/day, but on his way to some temples that extended further from town of Siem Reap he mentioned that the fee would have to be $50USD/day (because of the extra gas consumption).  I personally didn't like the tactic, and decided that Thuy and I would rather return to the hotel and make our own arrangements, which Darren and Mel agreed with as well.  In a way I feel for Richie as he was very nice and charming in a shy way.  We learned of his dreams of completing a college degree in tourism (which would make him eligible to work in hotels) and the amount of time and money he had to save for this education.  We gave him a very good tip given the circumstance, but did sever the relationship.

... later that day however Richie did further redeem himself by returning Thuy's wallet left in the backseat of his taxi.  I had expected that it's contents (about $500,000 Vietnamese Dong) were a write-off, but it all came back accounted for.  Thuy thanked him and we gave him a further tip/reward for his honesty.

Next on the agenda is Hoi An, famous for it's garment industry and specialist tailors.

To facilitate navigation this is a summary of posts in this series:

• Vinh Long (February 28 - March 4, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Saigon (March 5 - 6, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Nha Trang (March 7 - 9, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Siem Reap, Cambodia (March 10 - 13, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat)
• Hoi An (March 13 - 18, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Ha Long Bay and Hanoi (March 19 - 23, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Ha Long Bay)
• Saigon (March 23 - 25, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)

Note: This post is part of a series regarding a recent trip.  Please read this preface to the series prior to this post for context.

After a long 7.5hr trip by tour van to get to Nha Trang (photos here) overnight (we left Saigon at 9:30pm) we finally arrive in a pretty poor neighbourhood of what looks like a small town.  Our bus pulled into (... and I mean right into the lobby of ...) a small hotel.  One of the classic 15ft wide by four stories high hotels.

It was about 5:15am and just before dawn, so a little dark out still.  We were shown to our rooms, and they just weren't "doing it for us".  In fact the rooms were very small, moldy smelling and had an adjoining old bathroom that was lacking some essential sanitary "features".

Thuy and I, with Darren and Mel, decided we better take things into our own hands, explore the town a little and find somewhere more suitable.

Sure enough the beach was only about two blocks away and it was beautiful.  By about 6am the sun was coming up and the beach was about as crowded as any Western beach at about noon.  The Vietnamese love their beaches, but are not huge fans of direct sun exposure, so you'll see them out on the beach just as dawn breaks doing Tai Chi and other stretches/exercise, then they'll retreat to their shops, homes, etc. before the day gets too hot.

So we found a nice little hotel, the "Que Huong", on the main strip across from the beach after going to a few bigger ones.  We ended up paying $50USD per night there, but it was well worth it.  (By the way, we later learned that the original hotel was only $12/night...).

We stayed in Nha Trang a few days, soaked up the sun and had a great time on rented scooters.  The most popular form of entertainment in this sun-baked beach town is to go out with your girlfriend/boyfriend (or even family of five) on one scooter and "cruise" up and down the main strip.  We swore the "name of the game" was to see how many common street laws you could disregard as you'll see people blowing through red lights and stop signs, driving on sidewalks or down the wrong side of the road and making quite liberal use of their horns.

The change in climate and food finally caught up with me and I spent the better part of one night sick as a dog in the bathroom.  It turns out I'd only be the first to suffer in the following few days as Thuy, Mel and Darren would all take turns with "the runs".

Another highlight was Bac Hai and his family taking us with Ma to Doc' Let, another large beach that looked prime for (and on the verge of) major resort development.  The beach was like fine flour and kept quite nice.  The area we were at however was exclusively Vietnamese for whatever reason, and Mel, Darren and I were quite the hit with every Vietnamese child under 15yrs old trying out their handful of English phrases ("Hello", "What's your name?", "Where are you from?", "How are you?").

Next we head off to Cambodia, to Siem Reap, where we will be touring the famous Angkor Wat temple (and surrounding temples).

To facilitate navigation this is a summary of posts in this series:

• Vinh Long (February 28 - March 4, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Saigon (March 5 - 6, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Nha Trang (March 7 - 9, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Siem Reap, Cambodia (March 10 - 13, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat)
• Hoi An (March 13 - 18, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Ha Long Bay and Hanoi (March 19 - 23, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Ha Long Bay)
• Saigon (March 23 - 25, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)

Note: This post is part of a series regarding a recent trip.  Please read this preface to the series prior to this post for context.

What a day.  Our epic trek to and through Vietnam started at about 8:30pm (February 28) when we checked into the flight we would be taking later in the night at 1:00am.  We thought we were ahead of the crowd by lining up 30min before the ticketing counter was open, but it turned out that we got two of the last "deluxe" seats available.  We later learned that EVA Airways (pronounced "EEE-VEE-AY-EL-Ways" I think ... ;) "Deluxe" seats were actually very good... quite a bit wider (for those of us with "wider seats") and with more let room than regular economy (and didn't cost that much more).  Business class would have cost us an extra $1200CAD just from Vancouver to Taipei... not worth it.

So after checking in, getting our seats and checking our luggage we headed home for some final packing (into our carry-on luggage) and then to visit family for a couple hours.

We got to the airport for boarding about 1.5hrs early.  Thuy's family and even extended family was there to see us off.  We queued at the gate, then got on our flight on time (about 12:20am) for the scheduled 1:00am departure.  At 1:00am (on board) the captain informed us that because of the freakish snow/hail storm, they would have to pull out of the gate over to the de-icing area, which would delay us 30-45min.  That was fine...

One and a half hours later, the captain again informed us that the de-icing crew accidentally shorted some electronics and they couldn't start the plane (!!!).  In fact, at one point we spent about 40min onboard the 747-400 (with 100's of other people) with no power and more importantly, no air conditioning.  Though I had spent most of the time to this point sleeping (to Thuy's disappointment), it was difficult to sleep in what was fast becoming a real sauna.

Anyway, fully 2.5hrs after our scheduled departure time we were in the air about 3:40am, which made us miss our connection from Taipei to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).  We got the next flight pretty quickly and finally pulled into Saigon's International Airport.  Customs was a breeze after wading through a see of (much shorter) people to retrieve our luggage and then we were greeted by 32-35 degree (Celsius) weather and a wall of humidity outside the airport.

Thuy's Mother, Uncle and Cousin (all from Vancouver) who had been there for weeks already met us at the airport with one of Thuy's local Aunt's.  They had "rented a van", which in Vietnam means that you "rented the driver" too, which drove us for a quick bite to eat in Saigon, then off straight to Vinh Long which is Thuy's Mother's home city.

Vinh Long is quite interesting.  It turns out it isn't the "small town" that I had understood it to be.  Apparently it has over 1 million people in the town and surrounding area.  I am definitely the only white guy for miles, but the people are very friendly (despite the staring and the white guy) and helpful.  Not much spoken English here, so it is good that Thuy, her Mother and her Uncle are here.  There are actually a number of other cousins here as well that are showing us around.

The streets here are interesting... a steady stream of scooters, dotted with a few cars and vans (which are mainly taxis).  The scooters, with their smaller engines are actually not that loud, and you can stand on the edge of the road with hundreds of them screaming by, and it is actually quite muted.  Horns however are used quite liberally for anything from, "I'm coming up behind you", to "Look out!".  Though the street signs, road lines and other "rules of the road" are more suggestion than regulation, there is a certain harmony to the chaos.  Crossing the street as a pedestrian is more of an exercise in confidence.  You just have to step out confidently into traffic and hope to heck that they go around you (and they do... quite proficiently).

Food in Vinh Long so far is great.  We went out for dinner, and we bought for eight other family members (two local cousins, one with his wife and child, as well as Mom, Uncle Loc and Canadian cousin Peter).  It was quite lavish, and I got introduced to another local beer:  Tiger Beer.  Not bad for a lager...

... anyway the dinner came to 429,000 Dong (which is only about $35CAD).  Pretty good value.

 My first experience with "real" Pho (and my favourite Pho Chin Nam) was at the hotel.  Pho is a very common dish in Vietnam generally, but is also a common (and for me, became a favourite) breakfast.

Thuy seeing her Grandmother for the first time in seven years.  Her grandmother is very sweet, but extremely shy.  We had a great dinner at an aunt's house, and spent time catching up with the family.  In fact, I spent most of the time watching Vietnamese TV with a few of the younger kids as I wasn't really keeping up with the Vietnamese discussion.

The next day, Thuy's Mom commissioned a river boat for the day (about $60USD) to take us around various estuaries of the Mekong.  The trip was great, and after having started with a good supply of a dozen or so of our sugar cane drinks we set out on the river.

The river trip was wonderful (photos here), and in hindsight was probably one of the highlights of the trip.  We started off down the river and were able to see all sorts of "river life" and the number of people that obviously make a living on the great Mekong River.  The river is brown, but less because of pollution and more because of the amount of sediment that is dragged from the banks during the rainy season up river.  We started with a trip to a small family-run "candy factory".  In fact it was a small family-run business that manufactured by hand coconut candies.  After that we wen to a fruit farm, Cay Giong (photos here), where for $7000D (about $0.50USD) you could tour the various fruits gardens and sample as much as you could eat.  We even met an "Uncle Ho" (as in Ho Chi Minh) lookalike (photo) who was selling his own homemade wine (which was about 90 proof).  It was okay, but tasted like a cloudy potato vodka.

After the fruit farm, we went to an Island restaurant that was built around a small man-made (and square) lagoon.  There were small platforms/huts built over the lagoon that featured a table (or two) as well as a number of hammocks (which I made use of for a quick 45min nap).  The concept is that you have your hut for 2-3hrs to relax and eat leisurely over that period.  It was great, and if I recall the entire meal was less than $30USD.

An interesting memory of Vinh Long is that the humidity was off the cart for two reasons:  a) because I had just arrived in Vietnam and had not acclimatized myself to it, and b) proximity to the Mekong River.  The side effect was that my lens would fog up regularly on my camera, especially after leaving an air conditioned hotel room.

Anyway, time to head back to Saigon to meet our friends Darren and Mel as they head in from Winnipeg, Canada via Toronto, then Singapore (I believe).

To facilitate navigation this is a summary of posts in this series:

• Vinh Long (February 28 - March 4, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Saigon (March 5 - 6, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Nha Trang (March 7 - 9, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Siem Reap, Cambodia (March 10 - 13, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat)
• Hoi An (March 13 - 18, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Ha Long Bay and Hanoi (March 19 - 23, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Ha Long Bay)
• Saigon (March 23 - 25, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)

Warning: the following several posts are primarily for myself as well as friends and family to chronicle my recent trip to Vietnam.  I don't stand by any claims that the subject matter will be even remotely interesting to most, but at the very least it will serve as my own personal and permanent record of the trip.

If you're interested in a few pictures on the topic, I've uploaded a whole bunch of them here, but my favourites are here.

This is a summary of posts in this series:

• Vinh Long (February 28 - March 4, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Saigon (March 5 - 6, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Nha Trang (March 7 - 9, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Siem Reap, Cambodia (March 10 - 13, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat)
• Hoi An (March 13 - 18, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Ha Long Bay and Hanoi (March 19 - 23, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Ha Long Bay)
• Saigon (March 23 - 25, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)

I also posted a "wrap up post" of our (or more specifically, "my") experience during this trip here.

If you're still with me, I'm impressed (and frankly don't believe it), but as I mentioned before, this is a journal of our trip primarily for our own purposes.