....Continuation

After the pagoda, we parted ways with Linh’s sister and scrolled through Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor for some dinner ideas.  Libby and I came away from this trip with two travelling epiphany’s. The first was the moto, we were able to cover what felt to be an exponentially more amount of ground with a moto and yes we theoretically could have done the same amount of exploring with taxi’s, but the headaches we saved from dealing with foreign taxi’s allowed us to explore that much more in a day. The second epiphany, and one I’m most proud of, is the double dinner (with the future opportunity for a triple dinner). Everyone was touting Danang’s culinary prowess back in Saigon so we were left with the dilemma of trying to get the most out of Danang’s food offerings in three days…Meet the double dinner…it’s like a course meal except better…though in our case our courses happened to progressively ascend. Anyways back to the story, we left Linh’s sister and mother and had entirely too many options to choose from. TripAdvisor unfortunately has the tendency to the rank the nicest restaurant’s highest (which makes perfect sense), and Libby and I are like flies drawn to the lightbulb when it comes to quality food, but we had some “local” knowledge of the street food and what I like to call streetfood-lite- establishments that have a roof and some fans, and 3 foot tall tables instead of 2 foot tall tables to eat at. So we went and split a rice roll dish at our “first” dinner and then for our second dish drove out to Lam Vien-a restaurant that was in a beautifully converted Chinese style timber house. The food was good but unmemorable, but the ambience was great and it was worth the effort to try two places in one night.

The next morning we hopped in a cab with Linh, Linh’s baby, Linh’s sister and mother. Feel kind of old writing about travelling with our friend who has a baby...Libby is obsessed with him-Thom…I like his name. Anyways, he’s two and a half and his whole life he’s only known riding on a moto so he was getting really carsick on our 45 minute car ride from Danang to Hoi Ann so that was funny and slightly disgusting watching this little guy discharge an impossible amount of stuff from his tiny little stomach..babies… We got to Hoi Ann alright, our old friend from the program Christine had recommended us a hotel and it ended up being really nice. Hoi Ann is really beautiful, though after living in Saigon for some time it was insanely touristy. The hotel had free bikes to use, so we were able to ride bikes for the first time since coming to Asia. One of the nicest things about Hoi Ann was just being able to bike around what felt like a real neighborhood. It was so quiet and peaceful and just loads of greenery and French Architecture which made for a very idyllic bike ride. I was a little confused about the city center which is called “ancient town.” Turns out ancient town is as old as French Colonialism hah but French colonial architecture is very beautiful and were all painted a lovely burnt orange. You have to pay to get into anything, there aren’t any really good places to eat along the river which is what I feel like is everyone’s picture of Hoi Ann but there was some pretty good streetfood hidden along the alleys that Linh was able to show us. What was also special about Hoi Ann is that we could bike one way to get to the ancient city or we could bike another way to get to the beach, which was very nice…

The bike ride was very nice.  At night we tried to find food along the river so we could watch the lanterns but most of the riverside restaurants are tourist traps, and we happened to find ourselves at one. I was able to try Bia Hoi for the first time-beer that is brewed fresh daily. It tasted just like all the other beers in Vietnam with the added bonus of only costing 25 cents a glass. After getting a couple bad appetizers we moved to a local streetfood place tucked away in the alleys which was a vast improvement. The next morning we were in the car on the way back to Danang. Thankfully Thom’s stomach was under control. We were able to cover all of Hoi Ann in a day and I don’t really see a point in staying more than two days max, but like all super touristy destinations-there is a good reason they’re super touristy.

Well, per usual, I am too lazy to finish a single blog post in one sitting.  So, you will have to wait a bit longer for the last day in DaNang.  

Part Deux: Danang and Hoi Ann

               After 6 weeks in Saigon we finally ventured out of the city and into the countryside. Of course it isn’t fair to call Danang the country side, but after getting out of the city, I do see why all the Vietnam guidebooks stress just how crazy Saigon is. It was a little bit of ”moto traffic shock” on the way home from the airport upon our return to Saigon. Libby rightfully said Danang was like a single district of Saigons 10 or 11. There are the footfhills in the background and the beach in front, so Danang definitely blows Saigon out of the water in terms of natural beauty. As I mentioned before, I hung out with just the guys for the first time on Sunday night while our flight left at 6 am the next morning. The combination of just finishing working 22 of the past 48 hours and being with the guys inevitably lead to WAY too much beer (the English are pretty impressive drinkers across the board)…anyways, it honestly felt like I woke up in Danang, which was pretty cool yet at the same time I was like, just take me back to my bed in Saigon. Luckily Danang had the perfect cure-a very nice beach. The beach wasn’t stunning, but the sand itself was impressive; it actually sparkled and glittered gold in the water when the sun was hitting off it as it floated in the water. Also there was like a total of 5 people on the beach, which goes on for at least a mile or two. I just sort of flopped around in the water like a Walrus and by the time lunch rolled around I was like a new person.  Our friend Linh and her sister were in Danang at the same time, so we met her sister and their mother for lunch at one of the authentic locals’ place-that they said Lonely Planet had already put in their book hah-but it was pretty delicious Ban Xeo. I ate entirely way too much but the Grandmother was both very gracious and Vietnamese in that she kept my dipping sauce full the entire time even though we couldn’t talk to each other, just smile.  

We had rented a moto in Danang which was great for expediting our exploration of the city (In fact, I almost want to rent a moto in any city I visit from now on). Anyways after lunch we headed to the Cham museum. I was iffy about going in the first place but since it was raining we went for it. Sure glad we did, thankfully the Vietnamese know to put their museums into the beautiful French colonial buildings. It’s amazing what they had to design to help keep things cool before the advent of air-conditioning. The art was definitely the most impressive Art in Vietnam and the museum itself has been open for 100+ years which was also very cool. 

Into the foothills at the point of Danang bay (Danang is in a bay). There is a very beautiful and come to find out very new Pagoda here. Only 3 years old! Which is a bit funny but at least religion isn’t on a precipitous decline everywhere. It was so nice to be surrounded by vegetation on the drive up to the Pagoda, you forgot how relaxing it is when you’re in the concrete jungle. It had just rained and the Sun was starting to burst through the clouds which made for a stunning view of Danang.  Libby’s favorite part of the Pagoda was the enormous Lady Buddha that watched over the city, she liked to think of her as Mary. My favorite part was the courtyard of Bonzai trees, I think I found my new life hobby. Those trees were manipulated in the most incredible ways, I never knew you could literally attach the roots to a branch in essence creating what looks like secondary, tertiary, 4ary, 5ary, 6ary trunks. 

TO BE CONTINUED.......

Updates

             Settling into something of a routine here in Saigon so haven’t felt the urgent need to update everyone on our happenings. That and the sad fact that blogspot is powered by google and hence google analytics happens to highlight a steady and precipitous decline in page views every time I post a new story. Speaking of friends, we are slowly accumulating them over here in Saigon. It’s actually been quite funny watching Libby stress out so much over our ‘loserness???’ We’re kind of opposite in the respect that I like to wait and see if someone is compatible enough to enter “friendship orbit” whereas Libby always has her proverbial fishing pole in the water trying to “hook” a friend. That’s the other thing, with a 20-30 hour workweek of “graded language” (=English you would speak to 5-7 year olds) and insane amounts of movie watching and reading 18^th and 19^th century English; I can’t help but wax metaphors and similes. We’re pretty much a regular at our favorite bootleg DVD store-75 cents a movie which is a little expensive but you know the DVD is going to work.  I just counted 30 DVD’s (35 as of this update 3 days later) which isn’t nearly as impressive as “the stack” but having never been a DVD collector I’m in uncharted territories. The latest group of TESL participants numbers 8 and we had a great time getting Mexican with them on Sunday night. Libby was so excited about having what she referred to as “real” conversations that she gave a preemptive apology to the guys I was sitting next to for *potentially* talking too much….. ***scoff*** Libby actually hung out with this decidedly uncool girl because in her words-“she seems to have a lot of friends so maybe some of them could be our friends.”  We’re going to other Language Corps participant’s housewarming/birthday party tonight. I can’t tell if Libby is super pumped to go because there’s a chance 1 of the 5 housemates could be her/our friend or we get to go to something that ends with the word “party.” (Update: the party was actually quite enjoyable, the droning voice of one of the Girls was pulled back after a few drinks and shockingly enough revealed a very amiable personality. The house was a real house so it was quite refreshing to sit in an actual living room with American size space. We thought there was going to be a handful of people but the LanguageCorps Director Hien really has done a great job creating a community of former participants so there was a sizeable group of people there which made for a great time… Hien was excited because we already have the perfect spot for the LanguageCorps Christmas Party ha). I guess all this legwork is necessary since the alternative seems to be me sitting alone writing these blog posts… (Update on that!: hung out with” just the guys” for the first time, pretty nice to get a reprieve from the estrogen fest, not sure what it is, but most of the guys here are just slightly off in one way or another…or just old, and therefore off in their own ways.  But there are a few cool people who work with us at VUS).      

                     We’ve been to a handful of amazing coffee shops and restaurants in old French colonial buildings tucked away in alleys but rather than write about them we’re going to go back with our camera and show y’all (Update: finishing this blog post up at THIS tropical paradise, which is probably our 3^rd or 4^th favorite for some perspective). Our exciting news is that we’re going to Danang for two days and Hoi Ann for a day next week which will be our first official trip outside of Saigon since arriving in Vietnam. Pretty excited to get out of the city. Danaang is supposed to be the up and coming city in Vietnam with a great food scene and we have our friend Linh to show us where all the good stuff is at.  In not-so-exciting news I FINALLY completed my 4 month and close to 3,000 page journey of the Winston Churchill epic-The Last Lion. Teaching graded English sure isn’t making me smarter but at least the books are. At times it definitely felt like I was slogging through rice paddies but definitely recommend the read. 

A few pictures

"Turtle Lake" in District 1 and the Canal between District 4 & District 7

An Ode to Ho Phuc

 Ho Phuc, I love all 168 of your raw horse powers. Even though you were always destined for a teen tryst, you took me as I was- a relatively huge weight that wears down your brakes at an unnatural speed. All those old security guards that laugh and point at us as we cruise off into the sunset only makes us stronger-because as you tell me every day-when I’m with you I’m living the “style of model life.” I love that when we are almost running into those pretty Vespas or those powerful Ducati’s I can scream your name so loud and so fast it sounds just like “OH ****”! I’m sorry I wasn’t able to hide my shock over finding out you were a Japanese imposter-a bastard. I was genuinely confused when the Kawasaki mechanic kept pointing and repeating: “No Kawasaki, Vietnam and China” over and over. I try to make sure you’re not around when I tell Libby, “we have a damn Chinese bike.” But hey, if you look like a Japanese bike, and you sound like a Japanese bike, can’t we just say you’re a Japanese bike. Keep being good to me plz