Return to Nha Trang

Date: Thursday, January 14, 2010
Travel: Taxis
Party: Vu & Family
Lodging: Nha Trang Lodge Hotel
Photos: 20100114 Thap Ba Spa Bac Loc's Vacation Home

Coming back to Nha Trang, I learn that my brother has moved from the hospital to a private institution with much better care. He was in a room by himself with AC, and a nurse right outside the door at all times. He was getting better as well, and was ready to be discharged that evening. With the better news, the rest of the family decides to go around and finally have a little fun. So we head out to Thap Ba spa, which is another hot spring spa, and the major draw of this location is the mud bath. The spa site is beautifully located along the hill, and is fully loaded with individual tubs, with varying sizes. Since there was 6 of us, we get to be at the highest level in the family section. New mud fills the tub up each time new patrons enter, and after half an hour of sifting through the mud, it is then drained away. There is an area with chaises around so you can lay around letting the mud to dry, followed by a nice warm spring water shower. To help rinse away all the mud in all corners and cracks of your body, there are a couple stone walls, with jets shooting out horizontally. It was a lot of fun just to run around in. After this rinse off, the next stage are family warm water spas, where you just sit and soak in the warm mineral water. After all that, then you can go down to the pool area, also filled with warm spring water, to waste the day in. Theres a mini waterfall you can soak in, or just sit back and relax and get a massage.

After all the relaxation, we visit one of my parents friends vacation home, which is under construction. The 5000 sq feet behemoth sits a little outside of Nha Trang, and has a gigantic balcony overlooking the nearby hills. Perhaps this might fuel the fire in our own family to look into some property.

That night, my brother is finally released from the hospital, and we could finally rest as a family. So now that we know he is ok, we have to make our next travel plans. The initial plan was to fly to Saigon, but the flights were sold out. I thought the train was good, but we have too much luggage. Imagine carrying 14 full size luggages everywhere... what a pain. Being such a frequent traveler, I like to travel light. Anyways, it was too late to buy flights, because it was sold out. We just had no idea when we could go because my brother had to go to the hospital. One thing was for sure, is that he had to spend at least 1 day in Nha Trang.

Dropping off Linda

Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Travel: Taxis
Party: Linda, Vu & Family
Lodging: Sleeper Train

Linda and I arrived to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) around 5 am, where we got some help from Chi Be, a cousin on the maternal side, to get a hotel. We spend lunch with Chi Be, and a handful of other cousins, for some Pho, a brief tour of the city, and some coffee. After wards, Linda and I were able to go around and shop, buying trinkets, souvenir and gifts. We put on our great bargaining skills and got some great deals. However, it really seemed like we were setting a lower baseline of market value for each thing we buy. This would really help me get some nice deals on many other things for days to come. As the time approaches, we make our way to the airport. I had already purchased a train ticket which was scheduled about an hour after Linda's scheduled flight, since the stations were pretty close to each other...on paper.

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However, even leaving 3 hours prior to the flight from the hotel seemed like a bad idea, as the traffic was at its peak rush period. Only needing to drive around 2 km, it would take over an hour and a half, where we ended up in a stretch of 30 minutes sitting in the middle of an intersection. We would frequently see the driver walk out of the car just to see what was going on, and chat with other people. After a bittersweet departure, I would have to rush to the train station to take another sleeper back to Nha Trang. This time I got to meet someone in my room, and he happened to be part of an event which is taking place at my hotel in Nha Trang. Sweet, now I get to party.

Sick in Nha Trang & Train to Saigon

Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Travel: Taxis
Party: Linda, Vu & Family
Lodging: Nha Trang Lodge Hotel
Photos: 20100111 Nha Trang Beach



The airport in Nha Trang was actually closed, as the city had expanded and it was no longer safe to fly in to that airport. Instead, the nearby Cam Ren airport, which was a converted air force base, is where we landed. Its out in the country side and it was filled with a ton of mosquitoes. Already suffering from the runs from the terrible oyster-like animals, my brother was stung by mosquitoes as well. Over night, he ended up falling over, and was taken to the local hospital. The hospital was not a desirable place to be at, as the small rooms housed 4 patients, with windows and doors swung wide open. The bathrooms were not necessarily clean, and the care was not prompt. Of course if you feed some hidden cash into the system, you would find yourself getting a lot more attention. My brother was not doing well at all, getting fevers and chills, along with an upset stomach. My parents stayed with my brother, and we just ended up spending time around the hotel. It was difficult to really go do anything when somebody is not feeling well, but the hospital is not a place where you wanted the family to sit around either. The difficult part was that I had to take Linda back to Saigon for a flight the next night, but the only reasonable train to take was an overnight sleeper train, so we had to be ready to leave that evening.

The train, which was named the golden train, or formerly known as the VIP train, was indeed clean, especially from stories that I heard from the normal trains. The room had 4 beds, and had a TV, which we could not control so it really ended up being more annoying than convenient. The ride was pretty smooth, but it did not move at constant speeds and would randomly stop at points. I actually ended up getting a very good sleep.

Ha Long Bay

Date: Sunday, January 10, 2010
Travel: Touring Van
Party: Linda, Vu & Family
Lodging: Ha Long Hotel
Photos: 20100110 HalongBay


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Early in the morning we take a van including, another cousin working in Hanoi to Ha Long Bay. Even though the bay is not far from Hanoi, we have to wind through traffic and small roads for over 3 hours. Once we arrived, Chau had arranged an entire junk boat for just our family. The boat could probably sit over 100, but we only used up over just a dozen seats. The cruise was to be a half day long, and would include an entrance to a nearby cave. During the short cruise, there would be lunch served, and again, plenty of seafood.

As we returned back to the shore, we stayed around the coastal town of Ha Long for dinner and eventually for the night. What was strange was that Ha Long Bay is a known tourist destination, but yet the town seemed a bit empty. Granted that it was not the high tourist season, it still seemed to be too empty. We went to a nearby restaurant where there was not 1 customer inside. It was a fairly large restaurant. The food ordered was strange, and was not tasty. The Pho ordered had tomatoes in it, which is absurd. And then there was this oyster like animal. It was very expensive and tasted horrible. So horrible in fact that it would lead to a huge amount of troubles over the week, landing him in the hospital. (See post )

After waking up early in the morning the next day to listen to an NFL playoff game with the Cardinals, we shop by local artisan markets, where we end up purchasing crafts. Crafts which are a bit more pricier than other places, but with higher qualities. Spending so much time shopping, we did not have a chance to go back to Hanoi, and instead just went straight to the airport to fly out to our next destination of the beach town, Nha Trang.

Now to the North

Date: Saturday, January 9, 2010
Travel: Rental Van
Party: Vu & Family, Linda
Lodging: Hanoi Capital Hotel
Photos: 20100109 Hanoi

In the morning, the rest of my family goes out to the city and visits some of the attraction, such as Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where you can see the man preserved. I, however, went out to the airport to pick up my girlfriend, Linda, who flew overnight from Jakarta. She had only a few days off from work, and it would be a good chance to meet everyone. We meet up later at a restaurant near Ho Tay (Western Lake) and she would get to meet my family for the first time. Fortunately, Linda is able to enjoy every type of food, and thus was able to enjoy Vietnamese food, even the exotic stuff.

One of the nicer things about this part of the trip, is that my nieces had some other girls that they could be entertained by other than their mother. My female cousin, nicknamed Thi, and Linda were able to give Stella a break. We spent the next part of the day at the Phu Tay Ho temple. Outside the temple was some kind of snails for sell sitting in tubs. I think that after a week of nobody getting sick, we felt confident about eating more liberally. This would eventually bite us a few days later. We visited some other sites in town, like Van Mieu (Temple of Literature), even though the traffic during the day was bad. Motorcyclist were everywhere, but there were a lot of number of automobiles now, which make the congestion on the tiny roads even worse. Dangling on top of the poles are the spaghetti bunched wires for electricity. The infrastucture is bad, and it's difficult to see how the city can sustain a healthy growth.

In the evening, we ate at the well advertised Quan An Ngon, ( I think literally meaning good tasting restaurant ). It has a wide array of Vietnamese food, where you can watch food be cooked over a dozen stations. Unfortunately our party was large and we had to sit at the 2nd story, where we had to order food from the menu rather than just pointing. After a delicious dinner, we walk around town near ho giom, the temple, and the fun weekend night flea market.

Most of the hotels in the city have been retrofitted, and its usually done half ass. Typcially a bathroom is one floor, and you would have a nozzle to shower, a drain, and a squatting toilet. There was no tub, you would just shower and the water would just get all over the floor which would drain in one corner of the bathroom. So walking in to bathrooms of any home, even if it was to just use the toilet or wash your hands, the floor would be wet. Well the squatting toilets in the hotel would be replaced by wester toilets, and a bath tub would be installed. In the Hanoi hotel we stayed at, there was a bathtub, but it had no shower curtains for a stand up shower. So I would squat in the tub to prevent the whole floor from getting drenched. However, I noticed that the floor was still wet. I noticed a tiny PVC pipe coming out of the tub sticking about 1 inch, and water from the tub was actually being drained from the pipe, onto the floor, which would make its way to the corner drain. They never even connected the plumbing, but instead just let the water flow out of the tub into floor and into the drain.

Laziness in Hue; monkey see monkey do

Date: Thursday & Friday, January 7 & 8, 2010
Travel: Rental Van
Party: Vu & Family
Lodging: Duy Tan Hotel
Photos: 20100107 Thanh Tan Spa, 20100108 Hue Farewell

After the long days so far, it would nice to be lazy for once. And why not, a lot of the workers around were pretty lazy. We went to a shopping mart a couple of times, and it was interesting to see the work ethic around. One time entering a cafe, it looked fairly empty with a few tables with people just lounging around. As we sit down and wait for some time, some of those people lounging around get up and come to our table and wait for us, and the rest huddle around the counter. I guess they were just all workers. I was thinking that there are a lot of workers just for an empty cafe, probably around 8 or 9 people. And the worse part, is that the service was lousy, and we had to keep calling the server over to request for things which they had forgotten in our order. So not only are they are overstaffed, they didn't do much. This seems to be the work culture in the marts and malls, which I suppose are corporately owned.

Another odd thing entering these marts or super markets, is that you can not take a bag into the store. I felt like I was 11 again, and I had to drop my backpack down to the ground before I enter my local Circle K convenient store after school. But not only do you have to check in any bags at the security desk, you would have to do this at every level of the mart. So you could have bought something on the 1st floor which is all bagged for you, and then you have to check in these goods if you enter the 2nd level. You can take a purse in under one condition, it has to be securely bagged in plastic and machine press closed. What if you left your money inside the bagged purse and wanted to buy something? Well you better leave the store first, open up the bag, take money from your purse, and then go back to security to re-seal the plastic bag. I guess theft is a real big issue there, so that's why it has to be done. I remember one time during closing time, there was a ton of women walking out of a mall, down the stairs, and there were security guards forcefully trying to check their bags. It was a huge ruckus, as most of the women were just trying to exit, and pushing each other to get out, and trying to avoid the guards.

In some stores however, it seems like it would have been really easy to take anything, as convenient store clerks would actually just sleep on the job. I remember walking by a small convenient store, and there were 3 clerks there (which is 2 too many) and they were all sleeping. After all of that, half the people seem to take really long lunches and the cafes seem so busy. It seems to be a pretty laid back working class.

We could have used a little laziness ourselves, as the family takes us for a nice afternoon at a hot spring spa, at Thanh Tan. You can start your way at the bottom of the spa, where the water is the mildest, and move towards the natural spring, where it gets to as warm as 60 degrees celsius. The spa is also like a water park, but all with warm spring water. After soaking up the warm water and beautiful scenery, we enjoy a massage. The nice part about all of this is that we were able to provide all the amenities to the entire family of almost 20 for less than the price of a 1 hour massage here.

Later that evening I break away with my cousin, Chau, which I did every evening and would just ride around in his moped at night, hanging out at the many cafes. That night we also stop by the university, to watch a performance in which Chau's "friend" was performing in. Performance ranged from traditional folk music, to viet pop and bands rocking it out. It's nice to be hang out with Chau, as he knows all the things going on, and can take me anywhere.

The following day would be our final day in Hue, and it was well spent time with the family. As my brother and I have never been out to the North, we take a couple of our cousins, including Chau since he knows everything in Vietnam. We fly out to Hanoi that evening, to start a tour out there.

Wedding in Hue & River Cruise

Date: Tuesday & Wednesday, January 5 &6, 2010
Travel: Rental Van
Party: Vu & Family
Lodging: Duy Tan Hotel
Photos: 20100105 Nhu Bich's Wedding Photo Journal, 20100105 Hue Huyen Tran Citadel



January 5,6. I set my alarm to 4:30 am, as this morning my cousin had the wedding at the church set for a 5 AM ceremony. 5 AM!! It was on a Tuesday, at 5AM. Driving down the streets of Hue, it seemed like there was a wedding at every corner. Apparently this was the wedding season of the area, as January has the most mild temperatures. If standing in suits under the sun still drew plenty sweat in the mild month of January, imagine how soaked we would be in warmest month of July. The 5 am ceremony was done in order to start the traditional ceremonies at 8am, followed by an immediate reception at the grooms house, where they actually had about 5 tables for guest. Following this meal and party, the bride and groom was actually scheduled to do it 2 more times, as another rotation of 5 more table worth of guests would come, followed by another rotation.
After all that, my family went out to pay homage to my grandmother's burial site, which rested on a nice piece of land. However this is a temporary site, and would be one day removed to make way for a resort or park. Something doesn't sound right about that. Nearby, we visited the Huyen Tran cultural center, which a memorial for a legendary princess. The place is newly constructed, and the complex was still being built, but was complete enough to marvel in the site. The rest of the time, we revisited the imperial city, which had just recently started reconstruction. We enjoyed some of the local fare, which was probably one of the better eating experiences of the trip. The rest of the night, I would spend time with the family and make the most of my time with my ailing grandfather, who seemed to be getting a little better while we were there.

The following day was a little more of the same, spending some time with the family visiting the nearby imperial sites, as well as spending some more time with the family. That evening we rented an entire boat, which we comfortably sat 30 or 40 members (we have a big family). On this river cruise, we would be entertained by folk music, but performed by a younger generation of people. The neatest part of the performance was with the percussions created by tea cups, harmonically coordinated between the fingers of the performers.

We make it to Ba Na

Date: Monday January 4, 2010
Travel: Family Car
Party: Vu & Aunt
Lodging: Duy Tan Hotel
Photos: 20100104 Ba Na Hills

I set my alarm to 5 am, which is brutally early for my standards. My aunt and I grabbed a bowl of pho, which was cheap and available at 6am. It's kind of like grabbing a breakfast burrito at Los Betos. It was decent, but its nothing like the pho at home.

We then returned back to Ba Na hills (after a failed attempt the night before) when the sun was breaking out and you could actually see why you would want to come here in the first place. The hills and the landscape overcast-ed by the hue of the sunrise was remarkable, and the agricultural presence of the country was alive. We arrived a bit early, and the first ride up was set at 9am...or so the sign says. Buses full of tourist were already coming in, yet no one even manned the ticket booth until 5 minutes after, and then there was a huge onslaught of workers roving through, on the count of about 150 or so. So even though the place was open at 9, there was no staff up at the top, they all came 5 minutes after, and then they have to take the cable cars up, creating a long line before any paying customers can go up. You would think that a tourist attraction like this or any larger scale business, staff members would be present a half an hour or hour before opening. Anyways, my aunt was able to talk our way through to the front of the line, ahead of the staff workers, and we were on our way. The tram ride on the longest cable car in the world was at least 15 minutes long, soaring above the jungled hills. You can see the the lush green jungles, the rapids rushing down the hills, and the recklessness of landscaping crews, who were picking up trash while scaling on the side of the mountains to where a slip would have them fall to their deaths. No safety here and it makes you wonder how safe those cable cars really were. Well..I suppose I am still here writing this post.

Once we get to the top of the first line, there is another line that gets you slightly higher, to the peak. At the top of this rests a nice mountain resort. This is where we would have stayed had we spent the night before. You can see the clouds roll through, unfortunately blanketing the city from here. The air was definitely clean and fresh, but the place was still being developed, and some coffee would definitely be ideal. There is a temple and a giant buddha nearby, which was in walking distance.

As the early morning came to an end, we go back down and go back to town, having lunch with the newly weds and sending my other cousin to work. In the evening my uncle and aunt drive out to Hue, where we try reach my other cousin's wedding (or pre-wedding) reception. Hue and Da Nang, doesn't seem that far looking at the the map, yet it was still a 2.5 hour drive, due to the 30-40 km/hr speed limits, windy roads (albeit pretty). We ended up showing up late (of course). After a shorter evening, I crash at the hotel for a hectic day.



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Wedding Day Take #2 & Almost Ba Na

Date: Sunday January 3, 2010
Travel: Flight LAX to SGN; SGN to DAD; Van
Party: Vu & Family
Lodging: Cousin Hung's House
Photos: 20100103 Linda's Wedding Photo Journal; 2010010306 Nice Family Pictures In Da Nang & Hue Weddings



This day would be the actual wedding day for my cousin Linda. We were able to walk from the hotel to my cousins home, where the ceremony would begin. I didn't really want to take too many photos, but that just didn't happen. I had just bought a new 50 mm f/1.8 prime lens, which is nice for portraits, so I had to put it to work. After the morning ceremony at the brides house, the caravan makes its way to the grooms house. After driving through a neighborhood of marble sculptures, we arrive at the groom's house in the country side (I believe near marble mountain). There were water oxens just roaming around. It was a pretty scenery.

After the ceremony was complete, we drive off to the reception hall. There was a few banquet halls in the same area, and in each there was a wedding ceremony. The hall was enormous and beautiful, inside and out. It looked like it was recently built. The reception was grandiose, over 500 people. The reception was like a big entertainment event. Tables and chairs ornately decorated; Projectors; Lights; Laser; a singer singing Whitney Houston's "I will Always Love You", while the bride and groom make a grand entrance from an imploding balloon; a walkway that automatically rolls out from under the stage, for guys in marching band outfits to carry out the wedding cake; waiters and waitress walking in a line and delivering food to the table in unison. I guess the shock factor came from the thought that, wait, I'm in Vietnam. Even if it was in America, I would be in shock. Then again...I'm ghetto. I suppose you can call it humble roots, but I don't need to deny it, I'm ghetto.

After the wedding was over, the rest of my parents and my brother takes the van to Hue, while my uncle invited me to spend the day and night in Da Nang. My aunt, Co Cam, had just finished this big wedding, ran a ton of errands, made some dinner, all while I took a 2 hour siesta (nap). And then after wards, excitedly she says, lets go to Ba Na! Wow...aren't you tired? She seemed so excited and had so much energy, and very spontaneous. I don't know if people are like this in Vietnam, if its something about my dad's family (she is not blood related though), or what, but it really seems like a whatever goes types of attitude. She was like, bring some cold clothes, we are spending the night in the hills. Also, I had lost my voice form the past couple of days, and needed some medical attention, so her plan was to go see the Dr. on the way there. So my cousin, who is Linda's brother, and my aunt hops in their car and starts driving away. We pick up my aunt's nephews, who were just chilling outside their house, and she invites them to Ba Na, and instructs them to bring some clothes. I think one had to work the next day, but who cares!!

We finally stopped by a doctors office in town, and there was a waiting lobby with 3 or 4 others waiting in front of me. I think I waited about 10 minutes, and the guy in front of me was in disgust, about how its taking so long, and just murmuring, "just give her the damn medicine." I guess a 15 minute turnaround is too much to ask for there, which is the same amount of time it would take for me to fill out forms at my primary physician. Soon after, I walk in the door and in about 2 minutes I was already diagnosed. Meanwhile the Dr.'s assistant was already packaging my medication for me, 7 days antibiotics and some cough drops. Done. So now we are back in the car, and the sun had already set. I asked if there was anything we could see at night, but I was told, ahh, don't worry, its nice to see at anytime, and you can just spend the night up there. She hadn't really remembered all the directions on how to get there, but it was like, "ok it was on this nice road...." Well that helps (granted that the description of "nice road" actually filtered out 99% of the roads in Vietnam, but it doesn't tell us WHERE it is). And then on the way there, she states that hopefully its still open. Haha, this was like deja vu with my cousin in Boston, whatever goes. We get to Ba Na hills and the main draw for the place is that it has erected the longest cable tram system in the world. And yes, it was still open, however it had only one more run one way, which it would take us to the top. The operator said it was really dark out, and you wouldn't be able to see anything, and the only thing you could do is go to the top and spend the night. We contemplated on what to do; should we just go up and spend the night there, but people had to work early in the morning, including my aunt. The decision was that just my aunt and I would return the next morning. She'll just have to go in to work later..whatever.

Good Morning Vietnam

Date: Friday & Saturday January 1, 2010
Travel: Flight LAX to SGN; SGN to DAD; Van
Party: Vu & Family
Lodging: Green Hotel
Photos: 20100102 HoiAn ; 2010010306 Nice Family Pictures In Da Nang & Hue Weddings

Happy new years from the airplane. I don't think we actually hit 12:00 AM Jan 1st at any point on our flight. We left on December 30 at about 10 PM, and we probably crossed the international dateline after midnight, making it officially January 1st. It's not like we were counting anyway, as we all fell asleep after the barrage of crying from Christine. She just does not like seat belts anymore.

After an 8 hour layover in Taipei, we arrive to SGN. Aside from a quick visit to my Ba Ngoai's (grandmother), we rest for the night to prep our travel the following day. The next morning, we had a nice Vietnamese breakfast buffet and then hopped on a Vietnam Airliner taking us to Da Nang. The aircrafts are just like any other commercial jets we fly at home, which is a big surprise compared to 15 years earlier, where we had duct taped up propellers gliding us to our destinations.

The agenda was tight, as we were supposed to rush to my cousin's wedding reception immediately after we landed. The Da Nang airport was small, and I don't think it even had doors. It had more of a feel of my high schools craft and shop class, only dirty with mosquitos. Yet with the tight schedule, I changed into my suit in the bathroom. I was expecting an airport bathroom to be a nicer place to change clothes (at least better than inside the van), but I forgot, this is Vietnam. Turns out the rest of the family ended up going to the hotel to change anyway... Oh well, at least I was already ready and probably even got a souvenir of molaria.

We came in fashionably late, and it looks like everybody was waiting for us. Oops. It was feeling like a typical Vietnamese wedding reception, until I hear it's not really the reception, but only a party for the mothers side, or something like that. The wedding and reception was continuing on the next day, and then 2 more days of weddings immediately following for my other cousin in Hue. I knew I should have brought more underwear. At least I can buy another tie for a different look.

At the end of the reception, the family along with a handful of extended family members went out to Hoi An to visit my great grandparents burial site, as well as visited the house where my dad grew up with his grandmother in. We've been to Hoi An before, and visited the family historic sites, but we never really got to understand why the town was a tourist destination. This time around we would actually go down by the river, and visit some of the historical sites and markets. The town was decorated in many of its lanterns, and made the night very inviting. Of course, with the little ones, we had to buy a lantern. The prettier lanterns unfortunately were a tad big, and were not collapsible so it would be difficult to pack home. We stopped by an interesting eatery, and it looked it would be tasty from the streets, but there were a lot of foriegners around, and it was catered to them. In other words, it sucked. Still trying to recover from the long journey, we break early in the night, but we make a driving tour around Da Nang. Da Nang seems to be a growing city, and is starting to become a little more modern. Its also seemed cleaner and more groomed in the busier parts of town.