Hoi An and Ba Na Hill Station July 2012

Hoi An, on the mid-central coast, is an historic town that almost every foreign tourist wants to visit.   We rented a very nice room in Thanh Binh 2 Hotel on the corner of Tran Hung Dao and Ba Trieu Streets. It was large, bright and airy, with a big bath in the bedroom and separate showere and toilet.  The staff  had arranged for a double and single two double bed to be pushed together so that An could sleep with us.  She just loved the room at first sight


 













Nga and I like visiting Hoi An very much, but because it is so popular, hotels are not short of guests and can overcharge.  The Thanh Binh Hotel was no exception.  The normal charge for our room was 800,000 dong a night, but because we booked for five nights we paid only 650,000 dong a night.  

Ba Trieu Street from out hotel room, Thanh Binh 3 Hotel on left

Breakfast was included in the tariff, but we had to go around the corner to Thanh Binh 3 Hotel to eat it.  Since many guests book for day tours, there is a huge rush at 0800, almost nothing is left on the breakfast bar by 0830, and the staff are very slow to replenish it.  You must also go to Thanh Binh 3 if you wish to swim in the dirty water of hotel pool or have an overpriced, 400,000 dong massage.  I don't mind paying 3-star prices for 3 star service, but the service was not good enough.

 The massage was, however, excellent and the nurse/masseuse surprised me when she put my bad back into place by pushing on my shoulder blade.  She advised. "You don't have a back problem, you have a shoulder problem.  Next time, relax your shoulder and get some one to shake your arm."

An playing

Paper and bamboo lanterns, Hoi An

Ba Na Hill Station, elevation 1485m, is listed in the 2009 Lonely Planet guide book, but not in the 2011 edition.  The 2009 edition says, "Near the top, the Linh Ung Pagoda (1999) is a supremely peaceful spot  ... The provincial government has high hopes of once again making Ba Na a magnet for tourists."

Ba Na Hill Station, a faux medieval fun park

Instead of the old and cheap price for a cable car ride to the top, it now cost 400,000 each adult and a little less for children under 1.00 metre tall. What you get at the top is a work site busily constructing a mock up of a medieval French village.  Above are hotels whose restaurants don't want you unless you come with a packaged tour, outdoor food stalls selling assorted rubbish, and a noisy, indoor fun park for kids. Our 1 million dong taxi fares, nearly 2 million dong for cable car/fun park fare, plus refreshments and food added up to a completely wasted day, as fun parks are the last places I need to go.

John and Lisa inside the fun park

Hot spring at Ba Đùi, Khánh Bình district

Suố Nước Nóng Nhân Tâm 2 hot spring is located in Ba Đùi village, Khánh Bính district, 45km from Nha Trang.  Entrance fee to the large pool is 30,000 dong.

There are also open air bath tubs for couples and large groups, and indoor bath tubs.  Drinks and cold beer are available, but food is not.  They did try providing meals, but it was uneconomic. 

The pool is shallow and suitable for children and for bathing, but is too shallow to swim. It is best to visit in the morning to avoid rain.  During the wet season it usually rains here in the early afternoon and access can be cut after heavy rain. 

The motor bike ride there is half the fun. Go to Ngã Ba Thành (Thành T-junction) 9kms west of Nha Trang, turn north on Highway 1 to the first traffic lights 1.5km down the road. Turn left and follow 30km to Khanh Binh town. At the north end of town take the right fork, which is the road to Dục Mỹ. After 5kms turn at the only left turn, cross two creeks after half a km and turn first left . The hot springs are 400 metres down the road.  

NOTE: there are presently NO sign posts.  The large signpost that was in Ba Dui village has been stolen to help make somebody's house.
 

Mr Hai Thai's Historic House (Nhà Cổ Ông Hai Thái)

Mr Hai Thai's Historic House

Built in 1925, this large, 300 square metre house is situated on large grounds in Suoi Tien village, 22km SE of Nha Trang.  Entrance fee is 20,000 dong, free motor bike parking.

Over the years the house has been put to many purposes, including being used as a school.  A former teacher is now a director of  the Yasaka Saigon Nha Trang Hotel, which now operates the site under licence as a 'social business', in order to preserve it rather than to make a profit.  

 

The house faces north, has a wide veranda on the front and two sides, five large living rooms in the front and four small bedrooms on the south side. A separate kitchen and toilets are behind the house.  Mr Hai Thai built the house when the area was still inhabited by tigers, and planted a farm. 










Visitors' facilities include a very nice swimming pool, picnic shelters,

and a restaurant serving cheap, light meals.  
It also serves as the staff canteen at lunch time.  Try the tasty Saigon rolls (Сhả giò)

Rooms of doubtful comfort are available to rent for 300,000 dong/night.






To get here, go to Dien Khanh township 10km west of Nha Trang, pass through the Ancient Citadel ( Thành Cổ Diên Khánh), go 4km to Dien Phuoc commune. Look out for two tourist signs saying Suoi Tien 6km, Nha Co Ong Hai Thai 4.5km (incorrect, it's 6.5km) and turn left following these signs.

Hon Ba - Yersin Historic Reserve

 

Located on Hon Ba Peak, altitude 1578m, and 56km SE of Nha Trang, this newly developed site includes a reconstruction of Dr Alexandre Yersin's outstation. The building contains items of original furniture transported from the Dr Yersin Museum in Nha Trang, and reproductions of several period photographs. Entrance fee to the historical site is 30,000 dong. On site parking is free.

Outstation interior

Dr Alexander Yersin's outstation

 The peak offers splendid views to Nha Trang and Cam Ranh Bay on clear days. On other days it can be covered in 5000 feet of fog and be cold, wet and miserable, especially in winter.

View from Hon Ba Peak

Also on site are: an open sided canteen, and five small chalets for rent at 500,000 dong per night per couple (100,000 dong per additional guest). The electrical grid has been extended at great expense to Hon Ba Peak, but as yet the lines carry no electricity. Hence (1) the canteen menu is limited to light meals made from noodles with dried fish, dried squid, fresh vegetables grown on site and fresh chicken, killed just for you. Tea, coffee, soft drinks and non-refidgerated beer are available, without ice; (2) the chalets are unheated and without hot water; and (3) small kerosene hurrican lamps are used for lighting.

Two double beds, and ensuite toilet, but no hot water

 To get to Hon Ba Peak, go 17km from Nha Trang towards Saigon, turn right at Suoi Cat commune at a blue and white tourist sign “Hồ Chứa Nước Suối Dâu”, after one km and turn left a market onto the Hon Ba road. Follow this road 38km to Hon Ba peak.

 

The winding Hon Ba Road.

 A visit to this site would suit history buffs and those just wishing an escape from summer heat in Nha Trang. Good swimming holes are available in the stream at the bottom of the mountain, especially near the Foresty Inspection Station boom gate, 13km from the Suoi Cat turn off.

This site is not mentioned in any tourist information yet. The only outdated reference I could find was at:

http://vietbao.vn/Du-lich/Khu-du-lich-Hon-Ba-mang-ten-nha-bac-hoc-A-Yersin/40026921/254/

Mỹ Sơn temple ruins August 2012

 Nga, An Ngoc and I did this trip with my 33 year old son, John, and his wife 26 year old wife, Lixia.  Because Nga and I went to Hue and Hoi An last year, there wasn't much new for us to see in these two places.  So I was keen to see the Cham Hindu temple ruins at Mỹ Sơn. 

We booked a tour through our hotel.  A rickety, rattly, worn out wreck from Phu An Bus Company took us one hour or more to My Son site, where the guide let us know that the forecast temperature would be 38 degrees C.  Fortunately a breeze was blowing during the whole inspection.





There was not a lot to see at the ruins, as the USAF has successfully bombed it back to the stone age.

linga

Yoni

Hindu linga with Buddhist lotus base

  There were several lingas and yonis, which were worshiped as representations of Hindu gods of creation, many Greeco-Romanesque stone columns laying about,  and a few salvaged figurines in a partially repaired ruin.  Most of the statues and figurines are on exhibition at the Cham Museum in Danang.

Cham script

Hindu god Vishnu ?

Elephant figure

 

Only one building was being restored and French archeological team were digging out one hill.  Our guide was entertaining and had a good vocabulary of archeological terms, but completely missed explaining what a yoni and its significance was.  I tried to imagine what it would have been like during festivals when the temple was in use. How many people could fit in here? What would they be doing? Where had they come from? How far had them travelled?


In the heat I drank one litre of water in two hours, drank two cans of beer on the pleasant boat trip back to Hoi An.  I chose to walk the final one km back to the hotel while Nga and An went by cycle. Bad move !  I got the spins along the way and arrived at the hotel exhausted, and then slept for two and a half hours. I woke, ate, and slept for another 11-1/2 hours.

Dalat trip August 2012

Nga, An, son John and daughter in law Lisa, and I have just been up to Dalat for a couple of days.  It was cold 17C and very windy 30km/hr, and that's SUMMER. 

Being so cold, hot water was a must, but in this area our PX Hotel let us down badly.  On arrival in the early afternoon the hot water heater didn't work and there was no one around to service it.  The repairman came in the evening and declared there was nothing wrong with it. The following morning, after a further call to reception, another bloke came up, had a look and shortly after replaced two "D" cell batteries in the gas hot water heater.  Then it worked, temporarily.

In the evening, again no hot water.  Repairman came to inform us, "We are out of gas.  We are getting some."  The heater worked shortly afterwards.  The following morning, Nga informed me we had no hot water again.  Repair man came up and checked.  "Ah, low water pressure. The rooftop tank has run low, we'll pump some water up."  

After a day's sightseeing on Tuesday, Nga again reported 'no hot water'.  It worked all right for me. By this time I'd discovered that the water needed to run at full flow for the gas hot water heater to work, and Nga had turned down the tap while having a shower.  Nga was once again definitely not happy about having a cold water shower.

We had key break off inside the door lock as well, but that's another story.  Travelfish tourist info on the internet reports that PX Hotel was built in 2007 and "seems to have been put together quickly".  It seemed to me that it was put together on the cheap. The hot water heaters, for example, look and work like something from the 1950s. Maybe the hotel bought them second hand.

                                                            John and Lisa

On Monday, the others went shopping to Dalat market, while I escaped to a nearby coffee shop to read the morning Thanh Nien newspaper.  Lisa bargained for some clothes, but wasn't able to get the price she wanted, and when she turned to leave, the salesman tried to hit her. John pushed him out of the way, then was punched by Salesman No2 (SNo2).  Not a good move!  John's first punch split his lip wide open and maybe knocked out a tooth.  Then John preceded to re-arrange his face a little more, while SNo1 lobbed a few punches into the side of John's head.  Having finished with SNo2, John turned towards the SNo1,who backed off in a  hurry.

While this was going on, An was screaming, "He's hitting John! He's hitting John!" and a woman picked up a stick to hit Lisa.  Nga intervened and took the stick away.  SNo1's kick to John's stomach had no effect, as John simply used his stomach to push the fellow backwards.  After that Nga and family left and caught a taxi back to the hotel.

I later put a post on the Lonely Planet travel forum warning readers to avoid Dalat market, and one woman reader complained, " I can't imagine any parent boasting about how their child had used violence against another."    Other readers came to to bat for me, including one bloke who complimented her on single-mindedly supporting would-be thugs.  

Nga and An

On Tuesday we hired a taxi and did the normal tourist sightseeing to: the Chinese temple, which was a very windy place indeed; the cable car, which was running at one-third speed due to wind; Truc Lam temple, which surprisingly grew specimens of Australian silky oak and banksias; Datanla Falls, where we had great fun riding their billy carts on rails one km down the mountain; and the city flower garden, where there were many beautiful orchids on display.  Dinner, beers and a good red from Chile at "Peace Restaurant" nearby our hotel finished the day.  Now it's good to be home again in Nha Trang.

 

 Chinese temple with three bodisattvas

                                                           Datanla Falls

 Hollyhocks in Dalat Flower Garden

The new route Nha Trang to Dalat via Khanh Vinh is very scenic and very winding, so the bus sways and lurches a lot while travelling. This is not a good trip for people with bad backs, nor for poeple who get motion sickness.

                                           View on road to Dalat

Hanoi trip July 2012

We have just got back from a week away in Hanoi and Halong bay with  An, John and Lisa.

Hanoi is a charming city, with it's parks and lakes, French era buildings and wide streets around them.  There are also a very large number of back street temples to suddenly come across. Being a capitol city, the cost of visiting there is quite high: hotels and food are dearer than Nha Trang. 

                                                 A park in the French Quarter

We stayed at The Artisan Boutique Hotel (that's the way the blurb described it), 24 Hang Hanh Street, a hotel Nga found on the internet. It's Australian run, very polite staff, good room and facilities, including supply of laptop with wifi, and a hairdryer for the ladies.  An loved the hotel laptop to play her Pokemon games.  She liked to walk with John and Lisa, so that everyone thought she was their child, which was quite a laugh for us all.

                               A restaurant two doors down serves as the hotel dining room

While in Hanoi I sent this sms to friends:  "In Hanoi. Lots of:  tall, beautiful young women in short dresses; expensive fashion wear shops, upmarket hotels and restaurants; red light runners, parks, trees. A charming city".  I do like Hanoi.

                                               Artist and model, Sword Lake, Hanoi

We visited excavations at No. 18 Hoang Dieu Street of a 1000 year old palace of the original Thang Long city on 12 July.  The excavations are under a huge hangar type roof.  There is not a lot to see, but the government guide gave a good summary of the site while guiding us around, pointing out which centuries footings came from, the size of the original palaces, where the servants prepared the meals and where the king lived.  Unfortunately, only about 40% or the original site remains. The other 60% has been destroyed to a dept of 30metres to build a new National Assembly.  When I expressed my disappointment, our guide asked, "Wouldn't you do that in Australia?"   I answered that in Australia we are not allowed to demolish or destroy 100 year old buildings, let alone 1000 year old artifacts.  No photography was allowed, so I have no pics.   I bought a DVD with photos, Vietnamese commentary and English subtitles, but it is such poor quality that it won't play.

For more details, see also 

http://talkvietnam.com/2012/05/thang-long-imperial-citadel/

http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/National/2012/8/102281/
or both these links at
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1twbpg68mnjTGgQ_IyF6-5aG1ox4BlkM8in9rmqmKYjU/edit

We lunched yesterday with the tres nouveaux richs of Hanoi at 'Maison Sen', 61 Tran Hung Dao Street. There was a 300,000DVN ($15) [450,00 DVN Fri-Sun including crayfish] for an all you can eat seafood buffet, from which a pretty young waitress served me without my having to leave my seat.  A steady stream of pretty patrons came past our table on their way out the door, allowing me to catch up on what the latest fashion wear is amongst the Hanoi elite. Short dresses (not skirts) are very 'in' at the moment, and platform shoes with impossibly high stilletto heels, both of which  made for those long legs look lovely.

We booked through our hotel a boat trip on Halong Bay. It was a bit expensive, but we had lovely, clean, adjoining cabins at the stern with a share balcony to sit on and watch the stunning sunrise over Halong Bay.

                                                           Halong Bay dawn

 The trip went very well, although it was tiring, and we over ate.  It's good to be home to relax.
The weather is so much more pleasant in Nha Trang after sticky Hanoi.

For more of my photos go to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10754999@N08/sets/72157630567712988/

May - June 2012

 Sun 24 June 2012

As an elderly Vietnamese gentleman once explained to me, "Death anniversaries (đám giỗ) are not sad occasions, but rather are an opportunity for the family and friends to catch up again."  We did a large amount of catching up last night.  It's now 0525 a.m Sunday ... I have just woken up and am still half drunk. We had a very good party last night, it being the death anniversary celebration for Nga's dearly departed dad. Australian and Vietnamese friends, wives and girlfriends joined us, as well as Nga's sister Oanh, her husband Hung and The Dragon (mother in law)

Apart from many beers, including VN made 330ml cans of "Tiger" beer and imported, yummy,  500ml cans of German Bitburger at $1-50 a pop, we also opened five bottles of red, including three bottles of very tasty Bordeaux and Beaujolais Villages and two bottles of FAKE wine, made from fruit in VN and labelled as French and Chilean grape wine.  So I've kept the two bottles of fake product, one with contents, to take to the Economic Police for them to do an inspection of the retailers' premises and do some counter thumping.

Add caption

 labels on 2 bottles of fake wine










My 33 year old son, John, is here visiting with his twenty six year old, Chinese wife, Lixia (Lisa).  Lisa is sweet and she and John clearly get along very well together and are very happy in each other's company, which is wonderful to see.  They arrived Wednesday and we have been busy taking them shopping and organising a trip north together to Danang, Hue and Hanoi, leaving tomorrow or Tuesday.  The trip should be fun.

Ah, never a dull day in Vietnam.  As Tony, another ex-Adelaidean, ex-Canberran, now living here says, "Beats Boring Old Adelaide !"

Excuse me now, time for coffee before I collapse on the keyboard.

Monday 18 June 2012

Son John and wife Lisa arrive Wednesday to stay and travel with us for a month. Should be fun. It might force An to use a bit more of her English, too.  When looking for a tv remote control last week, I picked up one and she said, "No, the other one" in ENGLISH.  I was bowled over, and very pleased.

It's Euro Cup soccer season up here again, a bad time, because so many people lose money on gambling that they want to replace their losses by theft and burglary.  I read an article yesterday about a 19 year old who, wanting entertainment money, tried to strangle a 25 year old neighbour. She put up a good fight, he fled and was caught.  Another bloke reported walked into the bank and said, "I have a bomb in this package".  He got several thousand dollars and 19 years in prison for terrorism.

Mayhem on the road continues unabated.  One in yesterday's newspaper was of a truck that took out a taxi's rear vision mirror and didn't stop. The taxi gave chase, cut in on the truck, which then rammed the back of the taxi sending it into two motorbikes in front, killing one moto driver and sending the other flying into the path of an oncoming truck, which hit and killed him. 

One of the national tv stations showed a road safety clip the other night, showing a  compilation of stupendiferous mayhem: Motorbikes colliding with other motorbikes, with cars, trucks, buses, handcarts, pedestrians, and cyclists. The only thing missing was aeroplanes, but no doubt they're working on that.

So at this time we are making sure to lock all doors at night and our upstairs windows, and trying to drive as safely as possible.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

So much happens living here in Nha Trang that I can't get it all on paper before I forget it.

                                       Four sisters L to R: dì Thiện from France, dì Hương from Saigon, mother in law Tuyet, dì Mai from Nha Trang

Mother in law (MIL) and dì Mai  have just returned from a short holiday to Thailand. MIL says, "I've just returned from heaven."  She obviously enjoyed her trip.  While there they had a Vietnamese speaking guide, whom they asked to take them to "show them something that isn't in Vietnam".  So he took them to two 'special shows'.  "Oh, it was disgusting, but such fun." Who would have thought two old ladies would enjoy themselves so much?

Friday 1 June 2012

Blood pressure 167/100. No wonder I feel so ill.  Took a pill and within an hour BP was back to normal 128/74, so I then went cycling for an hour around the back lanes.

Drove the motorbike to town to withdraw 23 million dong to pay for good quality insect screens to be fitted to both bedrooms and upstairs study. Along the way the police fined me 500,000 dong ($45AUD) for speeding at 44km/hr.  Town speed limit for motorbikes in 40km/hr. Hell, I can cycle that fast on my pushbike !  There were a minimum of five policeman in the team: a radar gun operator hiding up the road behind a truck; a baton waver to stop the vehicles; a paper checker; a supervisor in plain clothes; and a chaser with large motorbike should an offender not stop.  

The paper checker inspects driving licence, vehicle accident insurance, vehicle registration, and ID cards (for Vietnamese nationals only). There is an additional 100,000 dong fine for EACH of these not produced for inspection.  I had all mine.  The checker asked Nga, "How come he has a Vietnamese licence?"  "He speaks Vietnamese and did the test in Vietnamese."    So the checker came and had a long and amiable chat with me.  

All the policemen were merely doing there job and didn't cause any unnecessary mayhem. Nga paid the 500,000 fine and we were on our way, after a final advice from the supervisor, "Tell your husband to drive at the right speed from now on."  

Cường, Nga's son's electrician friend, came to clean and oil all our fans ready for summer. One is unrepairable and needs to be replaced.  He also changed three light globes before having to leave to pick up his child from school.

The other day I asked brother in law Hùng further about the stabbing incident in the Kiêu Loan Hotel next door to him.  The fellow who had come caused a lot of fuss was the husband of an employee at the hotel. She has worked there for a year and of late has not been going home at all, but rather living in the hotel and refusing to go home.  It was the hotel owner who stabbed the husband, who is now in hospital.

An Ngoc using the window as monkey bars

Four year old daughter An Ngoc, dog Tin Tin and I went for a walk around the quiet back lanes.  I do enjoy being with her. I try and speak English as much as possible with her, but I have no idea of how much or how little is going in until she follows what I ask her to do or - rarely - speaks in English  herself.  This afternoon she asked me, "Đầu mốt tv đâu?" - Where's the tv remote control?   I saw one on the tv cabinet and picked it up.  "No, the other one" said An in English. I was gobsmacked. What a jaw dropper!  Well done, An Ngoc !

Nga and An Ngoc Schwer