The Ready or Not Adventure Guide

Good old Honey Bee.  You weren’t the fastest or the newest or the prettiest scooter in Danang.  You weren’t even the smoothest ride and your suspension was pretty much shot.  You were however our first scooter.  You had a descent storage compartment under your seat and I could always seem to locate you in a crowded parking lot.

Our three-month lease has expired and it’s time we move on to something a little newer that doesn’t stall when we’re heading into oncoming traffic.  (Surprise!)  But don’t feel bad.  You’re not used to carrying so much weight around, and you are in your golden years, after all.  We will always have a special place for you in our hearts and in our memory of Danang.  Take care, our bumbling Honey Bee.  And thank you.

 

The drive from Da Nang to Huế takes about four hours if you opt for the more scenic route of Hải Vân Pass, which we did.  It was a very pleasant drive, although we were happy to reach our hotel and stretch our legs.  Ryan chose the Charming Hotel for our one night stay and I was very happy with the accommodations.  We were each given a freshly made banana smoothie when we checked in and the scrumptious crepes we enjoyed the following morning were included in the cost of our room.  We even had fancy towels and all for $13.16 USD!

We spent the afternoon and evening exploring the city by foot and trying some of the local food.  Even the more standard Vietnamese dishes are a little different everywhere you go and we found this to be the case in Huế as well.  My go-to bún thịt nướng (rice noodles with pork) was accompanied by an interesting peanut sauce, rather than the expected fish sauce we’ve grown accustomed to in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.  Bún bò Huế is a popular Vietnamese soup that can easily be found throughout the country so we were sure to try some when we were actually in the city of its origin.  We also tried bún hen (baby clam with rice noodles).  There was a little too much going on in this dish for me, but Ryan enjoyed it.

Huế is the former capital of Vietnam and is now a World Heritage Site.  It has a population of roughly 350,000 people.  One of its major attractions is the grand, crumbling Citadel surrounded by a moat and thick stone walls.  The Citadel was built in the 19th century between 1804 and 1833.  According to Wikipedia, a total of 13 Nguyễn emperors lived in Huế between 1802 to 1945.  The Nguyễn dynasty was the last ruling family of Vietnam.

Inside the vast Citadel lies the Imperial Enclosure and the Purple Forbidden City, which we were very happy to explore the following morning.  These formed the epicenter of Vietnamese royal life for 143 years and it was interesting to imagine what their daily lives might have been like as we made our way around the grounds.  The sun was hot but luckily there were a lot of palaces and temples to wander in and out of, as long as we left our shoes outside.

I especially enjoyed finding a quiet shady corner in the formal royal garden.  This was a great place to just sit and relax.  There was not another soul to be seen, aside from Ryan.  We stayed here until we felt up to venturing back out into the morning heat.  We took our time and when we’d seen all we wanted to see, we said goodbye to the Citadel and returned to our scooter.  We had a four hour drive ahead of us that was sure to cool us off.  Thank you Huế for sharing your wonders!

I’ve discovered a secret to surviving the radiating summertime heat of Southeast Asia.  It can be summed up in a single word: “Wheeeeeeee.”  While neither Ryan nor I have ever done especially well in the heat, I feel that we’ve adjusted better than we expected.  Sure, there are times when it’s not pretty–like the 15th of every month when we pay our utility bill–but from the back of a scooter with the breeze blowing in our faces, it’s more than tolerable, it’s pleasant!

Hải Vân Pass is by far the most scenic drive we’ve ever taken, and we’ve enjoyed it more than once.  We took the pass the most recent time on our way to Hue and it was absolutely wonderful!  I call this James Bond Bay.  I could have sworn I saw him down there…

When the weather is nice and the sky is clear, you can see forever.  The winding mountain journey of the Hải Vân Pass is approximately 21 kilometers long (or 13 miles) and reaches 496 meters in altitude.  Put in some tunes and take in the view of the South China Sea and some beautiful topical green terrain.

Driving the Hải Vân Pass is considered by many to be a must do while visiting Vietnam.  It was even featured in BBC’s Top Gear in 2008.  Presenters called it “One of the best coastal roads in the world.”  I can’t really speak to this, but it was certainly the best coastal drive I’ve experienced.  It took us a little over 4 hours to get to Hue from Danang and it was worth every minute.

Hội An is a forty-five minute scooter ride from our apartment in Danang.  The road is somewhat busy but the breeze is pleasant.  The road is along the coast.  When the ocean is not blocked by a big resort or construction project, the views can be very nice. Hội An is a port city with a population of approximately 120,000 people.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its well-preserved Vietnamese, French, Chinese, and Japanese architecture.  I’ve been to Hội An twice, although the experiences were somewhat different.

The first time we visited was during the heat of the day.  Before we’d even reached the city we had a friendly young couple zoom up next to us and casually visit with us all the way to the city center.  It was strange having an ongoing discussion with two strangers from the back of a moving scooter, but it seemed completely normal to them.  They were very interested in our plans and I kept waiting for them to pitch us something, but they only seemed interested in talking to us.

They showed us where to park which was helpful as this can often be confusing in a new place.  Just when I was beginning to feel guilty for being suspicious–I was even considering inviting them to join us for lunch–the woman pulled a business card out of her pocket.  She told me that her family owned a tailor shop and I should come and look at it.  It was right on the way.  It wouldn’t take long.  The quality of their clothing was excellent and the prices were very reasonable.  I could just look at what they had.  There would be no pressure to buy, etc.  By then we’d already been having a casual conversation for the past fifteen to twenty minutes and it felt awkward to not follow her to her family’s store, so we did.

Hội An is well know for it’s tailor-made clothing scene.  If you’re in the market for a nice suit or dress or coat custom made to fit your figure, Hội An is the place to be.  If you’re more interested in taking in the scenes and trying some of the food, then walking past the endless tailor shops can feel more like running a gauntlet.  At least that’s how it felt for me.  Everywhere we went there were friendly faces beckoning us to come into their family’s store, or sometimes to follow them there.  “What’s your name?  Where are you from?  What do you think of our city?”  If you chose to answer any of these questions then you’re already having a nice conversation and it feels rude to cut it short or refuse them a few more minutes of your time when the subject of commerce rolls around.  (It always did, by the way.)  The high-pressure sales situation was so distracting that it was hard for me to even notice the city’s interesting mix of french colonial, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese architecture.

We ended up doing a rushed once-over of the city center (which didn’t take long).  We decided not to purchase a ticket to enter Old Town and see the handful of buildings that aren’t shops.  Instead, we grabbed a banh mi from one of the eateries previously visited by Anthony Bourdain (Banh Mi Phuong) and jumped right back on that scooter.  “Get me out of here!” I told Ryan, and he did.  Promptly.

I wasn’t in a big hurry to go back after that, but we did a couple of months later.  This time we visited Hội An in the evening and I much preferred this city at night, all lit up with paper lanterns.  It was truly a beautiful sight.  While there were still high-pressure salesmen at work, this time trying to talk us into taking a romantic boat ride down the canal, at least I was more in the market for this service than the tailor-made clothing scene.  We let them talk us into taking a short boat ride.  We paid the elevated prices that were asked and for the most part, we enjoyed ourselves.  In conclusion, Hội An was not my favorite destination in Vietnam, but it was still worth the visit.

In May our friends Justin and Kristy came for a visit and we had some fun adventures together.  My favorite was the day trip we took to visit the Mỹ Sơn ruins.  Getting to the ruins was one of the best parts of the experience because it involved an hour and a half scooter ride through the Vietnamese countryside.  It was nice to get out of the city and take in the views.

The Mỹ Sơn ruins are located in the Quang Nam Province near the village of Duy Phú.  Clusters of abandoned Hindu temples can be found in clearings surrounded by dense brush and foliage.  The temples were constructed between the 4th and the 14th century AD by the kings of Champa and were dedicated to the worship of the god Shiva.  The valley at Mỹ Sơn was a site of religious ceremony, as well as a burial place for royalty and national heroes.  According to Wikipedia, Mỹ Sơn is perhaps the longest inhabited archaeological site in Indochina, but a large majority of its architecture was destroyed during the Vietnam War.

What remains is still impressive.  Walking around the ruins, I couldn’t help but feel like I had stumbled into the Lost City of Zinj from Michael Crichton’s book Congo.  I love this novel and have read it many times.  We took our time exploring the ruins, ducking in and out of the many temples to escape the heat.  All the while I kept my eyes peeled for diamonds and murderous monkeys with stone paddles.  I kept my ears open for their ominous wheezing sounds.  Luckily I saw and heard nothing to cause alarm.  The deserted and ancient feeling of the place added an extra sense of excitement.  Within a few hours we were safely back at our scooters, having “escaped” not only with our lives, but with some great memories as well.  Thank you Justin and Kristy for an awesome adventure!

After three months in Vietnam, it was time to do a visa run.  Although Ryan and I have one-year visas, we still have to leave the country every ninety days.  But no matter.  This gives us the opportunity to do some more exploring.  So we took a long weekend and went to Malaysia.  Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, has a population of nearly 2 million people.  So yes, it’s a big city, but I found it to be clean and orderly and full of diversity.  In addition, for the first time since arriving in Southeast Asia, the language barrier was nearly non-existent!

Public transit was pretty convenient and easy to figure out.  We took the express train into the city from the airport and from then on, it was Uber time!  Oh how we have missed Uber.

We stayed in a budget hotel which was still very nice (Ryan does good).  It had friendly people working the desk 24/7 and a great view of the KL Tower.  In addition, it was in a really good location.  We could walk to many of the places we wanted to visit.

I noticed a few things about Malaysia right away that are different from Vietnam and other countries we’ve visited.  Malaysia is the first predominantly Muslim country we’ve ever been to and I saw hijabs everywhere.  Drivers drive on the right side of the road.  Their money, the ringgit, might be the prettiest paper money I’ve ever seen.  It’s so colorful!  And lastly, while South America had stray dogs and Vietnam has rats, Kuala Lumpur has stray cats.

As far as I could tell, there was much to do in Kuala Lumpur.  One of the big draws appeared to be shopping.  There was mall after mall.  Ryan waited patiently while I tried to locate a few more teaching materials for my new job with VIPKID.   These included things like flashcards (in English) and hand puppets and rewards systems.  I even found a Sylvanian Families village and I am happy to report that I was completely well behaved.

One of the malls we went to (Times Square) had an incredible indoor amusement park.  We didn’t ride the roller coaster but we did play an escape game.  We were locked in a room for 45 minutes and our goal was to get out.  There were many different scenarios to choose from.  In ours, we were art thieves trying to steal a valuable painting.  We did terrible, but we had fun.  In the allotted forty-five minutes we didn’t even make it into the third room.  Instead, we got arrested.

Other shopping opportunities included Central Market and the Chinese Market which we visited at night.  Here the stalls were crowded and bartering was expected.  I’m not very good at bartering, although I did my best to bring one of merchants down on the price of a pink kimono.  In the end I’m sure I paid much too much but I’m happy with the purchase regardless.  It’s so pretty!

Aside from the shopping, we did a lot of eating.  Malaysia is a cultural fusion of Chinese, Malay, and India.  As you can imagine, there were some interesting meals to be found.  My only challenge was finding food that wasn’t too spicy.  However, with the language barrier no longer a concern, I did quite well and survived the entire trip without a single case of food burn!

We also enjoyed exploring.  The area around the Patronas Twin Towers was one of my favorites.  This area has not only a great mall, but it also has an enormous park and an aquarium.  I got very excited about the aquarium and we were on our way to check it out, but then we saw the price.  It was $79 ringgits per person (which is about $18 USD) and we were running low on cash.  We decided that since we both liked Kuala Lumpur so much, we would definitely be returning and we could visit the aquarium on our next visit after we’ve been working for a few months.  It looks like a great aquarium.  Kids can even come in and sleep with the sharks.

We did however get to visit the bird park in a different part of the city.  Here we got to see some beautiful birds, which is no surprise.  What did surprise me were the pesky monkeys hanging around.  After the bird park we walked around the Hibiscus and Orchid Gardens.  Then it started to rain so we decided to return to explore the botanical garden on the next trip as well.

I especially liked visiting the Mini Zoo at the KL Tower.  The animals seemed to be well cared for and the staff were incredible.  They took the time to talk to us about almost every animal they had.  We got to pet a lot of the animals and pose with them in photos for no additional cost.  The baby wallaby was probably my favorite, or the bat-eared fox.

The Upside Down House was a lot of fun.  It took us a while to get the hang of the pictures, especially since I drank too much of the upside down drink.  I tend to get a little greedy with the sweet things.  But just like Charlie in Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, I let out a few good belches and it helped matters considerably.  This is the part when I tell you that yes, I am completely joking.  (I would never belch in public.)  🙂

Before we left, we took another train out of the city to see the Batu Caves.  We climbed a lot of steps and saw a pretty impressive cave that reminded me of Danang’s Marble Mountain.  One important difference was that the Batu Caves had monkeys!  I enjoyed watching them for a while before we climbed back down and boarded the train to take us back to the city.  It was a nice half day adventure.

In summary, it was a great trip and I’m very excited to return and see the aquarium and the botanical garden and eat more of the interesting food.  Maybe next time we’ll be able to stay for a few months.  Here’s hoping.  Malaysia, I’m a fan!

So, a funny thing happened.  I’d been jogging on the beach every other day for about two weeks.  These were not long trips, or especially difficult–about two miles each time.  Then one night I got to the half-way mark and I started having a serious case of heartburn.  While it was certainly inconvenient, it was no big deal and I finished exercising.

The problem was that the discomfort didn’t go away even after I’d stopped jogging.  Instead, it progressed.  I don’t often get heartburn (not anymore at least) and so I didn’t have any antacids on hand.   But Ryan is a nice husband and so he ventured to the 24 hour K-Market (a Korean convenience store) down the road and bought me some milk.  This didn’t help either, but I eventually was able to get some sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, the problem was even worse and it became more and more of an issue throughout the day until my arm eventually went numb around 10pm.  (I should mention that I had found some legitimate antacid tablets at a local pharmacy that morning and had taken the maximum dose throughout the course of the day.  Nothing.  Now it was 24 hours later and my arm was numb.)  This had me a little worried.  It was my left arm.  In addition, shooting pains were making it difficult to breathe and I began holding my arm like a broken chicken wing.

I called my father who is a doctor and he told me to go to the hospital.  We took a cab and about fifteen minutes later I was ushered to a bed in the Danang Emergency Room.  This was an interesting experience with the language barrier and all.  The doctor spoke fairly good English and the nurses tried.  They were efficient and attentive, checking in often and getting the message across one way or another when they took me first to get an EKG and then second to get some chest x-rays.

I was mortified to be causing so much trouble over heartburn, but by this time I could barely move and breathe.  Ryan was calm and supportive and this kept me surprisingly calm.  In fact, there were times when I had to stop myself from laughing (this would have hurt really bad).  I kept thinking that my sister would get such a kick out of my broken chicken wing arm.  It was so pathetic!  I asked Ryan to sneak in a few photos.

It was eventually concluded that I was suffering from a rare case of Intercostal Neuralgia (or nerve pain located in the rib cage between the ribs).  While the condition is usually a result of either illness or injury, neither seemed to apply to me unless my jogging was to blame.  This seems unlikely, but it remains the only conceivable possibility for my strange medical emergency.

The doctor gave me a stout pain killer, with a prescription for more, and sent me home on muscle relaxers.  I’ve never been so relaxed in my life!  I feel like I was literally melting into that bed.  A week of rest put me right as rain and I’ve had no problems since.  All in all, it wasn’t a terrible experience.  It was even surprisingly affordable at $849,600VND (which is less than $40USD).  Still, I guess I’ll have to think twice before I go jogging on the beach in the future.  Sad Panda!

It’s been nice being back in Danang, away from the constant hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City.  My favorite part of the day is actually nighttime, when Ryan and I walk along the beach.  We do this every night, usually around 9pm.  It’s cool and relaxing.  We walk nearly two miles in the soft sand.

Unlike other places I’ve visited, enjoying the beach after dark is very common and popular in Danang.  The areas are well lit and very safe.  In fact, during the early morning hours around sunrise and after sunset appear to be the only times that the locals come out and enjoy their beautiful beach.

Ryan’s favorite hypothesis is that the good people of Danang are in fact vampires who scatter as soon as the sun appears in the sky.  We saw this happen one morning when we got up to enjoy a sunrise and found the usually vacant beach to be crowded with locals exercising and swimming in the sea.  It was a major contrast to the daytime scene.

Though he was not serious, it was interesting to hear a friend from back home say that she’d heard Vietnamese people drink blood.  She’d heard this from someone living in Napal.  Ryan told her that while he didn’t believe this to be the case, he was entertaining the notion that Danang might be full of vampires…it was good for a laugh at least.

Another scenario, and a much more likely one, is that many people from Vietnam (as well as other parts of Asia) prefer to keep their skin as white as possible.  Women zoom around on their scooters in the heat of the day completely covered to keep the sun off their skin.  They wear gloves on their hands and socks beneath their sandals.  They even cover their mouths and noses which not only blocks the sun but keeps the exhaust from passing cars and scooters at bay.

Everywhere we go, people look on us pale-skinned foreigners with our legs and shoulders exposed and shake their heads sadly.  How could they purposefully be baking their naturally pasty white skin? they seem to be thinking.  I’ve even had one or two concerned onlookers try to convince me (mainly with gestures and pointing) that I’m ruining my skin.  How can I explain that this is simply not the case?

Much to Ryan’s delight, I have become more diligent than ever in applying sunscreen daily to every part of my body that could possibly come into direct contact with the sun.  Ryan on the other hand has not been so diligent and compared to him, I’m still fairly pale.  It doesn’t help that the sunscreen we buy has a “whitening” agent and it’s hard to find any without it.  Like I said, they want the white.

In addition, as the weather grows hotter, we rarely visit the beach during the day.  Like the locals, we prefer to enjoy it without the sun when the sand doesn’t burn our feet and the breeze feels fantastic.  We go out for meals twice a day and the occasional shopping trip, but more and more often we hide ourselves inside, waiting for the oppressive sun to go down.  It seems that we too are on our way to becoming creatures of the night.

Earlier this week, Ryan and I went to the Mekong Delta which is considered to be the “rice bowl” of Vietnam.  Here, everything from boats to restaurants to markets float upon the many rivers, canals, and streams that make up this watery world.  We took a tour for convenience.  After we were picked up at our apartment we were driven about 38 miles southwest of Ho Chi Minh City to My Tho.  This relatively quiet market town on the banks of the Cua Tien River is the gateway to the Mekong Delta.  Once here, we boarded a boat and crossed the river.

To see the floating markets, houses and restaurants we would have had to venture further into the Mekong Delta to Can Tho.  However, as we were short on time (and funds) we settled on a day trip that still offered a variety of sights and activities.  Our first stop took us to try some honeybee tea.  It was really good and not as sweet as I had been expecting.  In addition to the tea, there was an assortment of honey candy.  My favorite kind tasted like peanut brittle.

From there we traveled further inland by foot to try some fresh fruit and listen to traditional southern Vietnamese music.  It’s called “don ca tai tu” and is a blend of court music and folk music.  The instruments were interesting, as was the singing.  The fruit included pineapple, papaya, sopadilla, star apple, and brown lychee.  The brown lychee was definitely the most fun to eat.  After you pop the little ball into your mouth, you have to bite just hard enough to break the skin, then peel it away to reveal a rubbery little ball.  You chew the flesh away from the pit. It’s a sweet fruit.

After the fruit tasting and the music had finished, we loaded up into long boats called sampans and were taken down narrow canals.  These were crowded and we had to make sure to keep our hands inside the boat so they couldn’t get crunched by passing boats.  We saw tadpoles jumping along the muddy banks.  Our lady was nice and she did work hard, but she definitely made a display of her efforts to ensure she would get a good tip.  This whole leg of the journey was very touristy and even passing boats tried to get some tip money out of us.  We didn’t tip them, but we did tip our driver well.

Once we were safely back on land, we were taken to a family run business to try some coconut candy.  I didn’t particularly like the finished product–it tasted too much like molasses–but it was interesting to see how it was made.  We were also highly suspicious that the business was created solely for tourists.  While we were there, different tour groups came and went and we were given ample time to “shop around.”

Then it was back to the boats, only these were motorized and the canals were went through this time were much less crowded.  Along the way we got to visit with the other members of our group.  They were all from Australia and were lovely and friendly people.

This leg led us to our lunch.  I don’t know what the restaurant was called, but it also seemed to function solely for tourists.  Each tour company claimed a different section of the restaurant for their group to sit and as far as I could tell, everyone was served the same thing.  Our meal included a nice variety of local specialties such as “standing fish,” fried rice, morning glory greens, banh xao (a Vietnamese savory fried pancake), some kind of soup, and an interesting sticky rice ball.  The food was pretty good, but it wasn’t great.  In my opinion, the fish tasted a little muddy.

After lunch we climbed onto carriages pulled by tiny horses.  They took us back to our boat.  This was my least favorite part of the adventure as the horses were small and unshod and forced to trot or lope down paved roads while pulling carts packed with four to five people.  Again, the horse and cart business seemed to be operating solely to serve the tourists.  Locals zoomed around us on scooters and in cars and once we arrived back at our boats, the cart drivers were tipped.

We boarded the same boats that had brought us across the river at the beginning of the adventure.  We were given fresh coconut water to drink (yum!) and got to enjoy the cool breeze and each other’s company for the remainder of the ride back to My Tho.  All and all it was an enjoyable experience, although definitely on the touristy side of things, as far as tours go.

My favorite part may have been afterwards.  On the way home, we stopped to visit the Vinh Trang Pagoda.  It was very impressive and was definitely not built for tourists.  If we ever get another opportunity to visit the Mekong Delta, we’d really like to see the floating markets in Can Tho.  This time we’d probably explore on our own and avoid some of the tourist traps.  I know that what we saw was merely a glimpse of the Mekong Delta, and although it may have been through a tourist’s binoculars, it was interesting all the same.

One of the most interesting things Ryan and I have done since arriving in Ho Chi Minh City is attend the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Show.  This was a very fun event, despite the rat that ran behind our feet (no big deal) and that fact that my seat malfunctioned.  It was a theater style seat and when I unfolded it, the darn thing came right off.  But no harm, no foul.  They had it reattached by the time the show began.  We were seated in the fourth row, eagerly anticipating some puppet action.

This was the first real puppet show that I’ve ever attended and I considered it to be a bonus that it took place in the water.  I mean, how cool is that?  I’m pleased to report that I was not disappointed (although I think Ryan was just generally confused).  It was awesome!  The show lasted for fifty minutes.  The music was live and each section had different puppets with a seemingly different story.

To be entirely honest, I have no idea what was going on as the puppets all spoke Vietnamese.  I’m not sure if the sections were related or if they were separate stories told in a random order.  But no matter.  I chose my favorite bits, mixed them up, and here’s what I think was happening:

Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a small fishing village called Pu Pu Fhu.

The the fish were abundant and fat.  As a result, the village prospered.  The people were well-fed and and all were content.

Then one day, everything changed with the arrival of Zesty Cat.  Zesty Cat terrorized the villagers and frightened away all the fish.

The peopled searched far and wide, but there were no fish to be found, such was the wickedness of Zesty Cat.

They traveled so far that they eventually came across and ancient tortoise who told them exactly what they needed to do.

The people made offerings to their fishing gods, praying that the fish would return so that they could feed their grumbling bellies.

In answer, the water dragons appeared and did their water dragon dance which frightened off Zesty Cat for good.

The fish returned and the villagers were happy once again.

THE END