Asia
local food, people and weather
On the 3 or so days we travelled from Hue to Hoi An, we experienced Vietnam in all aspects and elements. We were escorted on the private tour by a driver and a guide and learnt a great deal about life in Vietnam. As part of the tour, we visited the Healing the Wounded Heart Shop – a charity that supports people who have disabilities or are disadvantaged. The young men who work there make products from recycled goods to sell in the shop. We were able to meet about 5-6 of them, most of whom had hearing impairments. But despite the language and communication barrier, they still managed to have a conversation with us and we enjoyed a laugh together.
Next stop was to visit two schools:
(1) the first was a primary school educating children with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and autism
(2) the second was a secondary boarding school educating youth from families who are very poor and live too far from a school.
It is amazing with the limited funding that they have what the teachers and schools do for these kids.
Hoi An is a gorgeous quaint town where the historical centre is so well-preserved. It probably doesn’t quite compare to Pingyao in China but it certainly is not far off. All the facades are painted a pale yellow and practically identical – it is easy to lose yourself in the woven streets. Now if you have never been to Hoi An, you would probably not believe that you can get a tailor-made suit/s, jacket, dress, shirt (anything that you can think of – a work colleague even had shoes made) in a matter of hours. The streets are lined with pale yellow shops and the pale yellow shows are filled with tailors and fabrics – so plentiful you feel overwhelmed to have to “choose” one over the other. And amazingly, any fabric, colour or style will be made especially for you in less than no time or overnight (and sometimes delivered to your hotel)! When do these people ever sleep? They certainly are hard-working people who take great pride in what they do.
Actually while we were in Hoi An there was a tropical storm making its way to the area and so we were getting the full experience of the preparations – there was broadcasting of the news through speakers of a van that drove around the streets and regular updates by the same van throughout the day. We were a little nervous by this tropical storm but the locals did not appear too concerned. In fact, it worried us a little more when our tour guide decided to get us onto an earlier flight out as apparently it was going to be pretty fierce! The morning we flew out the rain was tremendously forceful on the roof of the hotel. We had luckily timed our stay perfectly.
Now onto the food – pho became our staple for the week that we were in Vietnam, at least for breakfast anyway. We did try a whole bunch of other foods. For lunches and dinners we gave what we could a whirl. Our meals were costing on average under $7 for both of us to eat and the food was delicious, fresh and filling too. Pretty much all the different flavours we tasted were from Hoi An.
View more photos of our trips at Photo Gallery.
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crossing the road 101
After China earlier this year, the next planned trip was the one to Florida and the Caribbean. So the bonus trip to Vietnam was unexpected, admittedly there was a work component at the end but why not use the opportunity to explore another country we hadn’t thought of doing any time soon. With only 6 days available towards the north of the country, we had to decide what it was we wanted to do before we got there. We booked a Charitable Tour of Hue and Hoi An with AdventureWorld.
Flying with Vietnam Airlines – the food was good, seats were comfortable with good leg room in economy and the best surprise was being able to order 2-minute cup noodles throughout the flight. Score!! And we were simply looking forward to eating loads and loads of pho.
At Hanoi airport, we were picked up by a representative of AdventureWorld (or the local equivalent) and transferred to the hotel. We were told that the humidity was “only
about 50%” as opposed to the usual 80-90% they had been experiencing not that long ago. Geez, we were feeling it at 50%. The heat wasn’t the only thing we needed to get use to. It was also the currency; the Vietnamese dong – spending in hundreds of thousands and millions. So we can technically say we were millionaires for a week. The exciting thing for us though was that the money was plastic like the Australian notes.
After one night in Hanoi, we flew to Hue and stayed in an amazing hotel, Hotel Saigon Morin. Air-con in the room was blissfully cool. We enjoyed wandering the streets but not so much the crossing of the roads. Seriously, the amount of motorbikes and scooters on the streets are intense. We were clearly instructed that to cross the roads, you do it slowly. Do not run!
How can you not run when you have hundreds of vehicles flooding towards you? Your instinct automatically tells you to run for safety from one footpath to the other footpath which is 4 lanes across. But the secret is finding a little break in the flow and stepping down and proceeding slowly while looking at the oncoming traffic – it was the in-between of not hesitating and not making that mad dash.
This was going to take some getting use to. To avoid crossing the road, we kept making right turns as that was the only option other than to turn back. Before long, we decided that we needed to cross the road to find something to eat. We watched how the Vietnamese people do it and they made it looks so easy. It clearly is a skill!
With our hearts pounding and sweaty palms, we clung onto each other’s hands to refrain ourselves from bolting across. Miraculously, we made it to safety only to come to the realisation that we would have to do the same thing just to get back to the hotel after lunch. Oh well, we will deal with that later. For the time being we would enjoy what we could without having to cross too many more busy roads.
View more photos of our trips at Photo Gallery.
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from kung fu to commercial
China has such a blend of ancient meets modern, basic meets advanced, east meets west. One day we are watching Shaolin monks performing kung fu moves and the next we are in modern Shanghai with the high rise buildings.
Visiting the Shaolin Temple and watching a demonstration was one thing we were looking forward to from the moment we booked the trip. And it didn’t disappoint. We were treated to a half hour performance where the performers were doing push up with four fingers, boys aged about 10 or 11 performing “stunts” and one performer broke a piece of metal over his head. This demonstrated the power of the mind and how the energy we have from within can be transferred.
There are trees within the grounds that have these deep holes bored out by fingers of monks who had completed the training. Imagine the force and power required to do that!
One thing we witnessed which we are still in awe today. Had we not seen it with our own eyes live on stage we may not believe it ourselves. There was a monk holding a balloon and another two monks holding a piece of glass in front of this balloon. This was a piece of glass that was taken around and tapped to show to the audience that it was a solid piece of glass. One of the monks prepared himself for about a minute with his eyes closed, controlling his breathing and then threw a needle (no bigger than a sewing needle) at the piece of glass, penetrated the glass and burst the balloon. His first attempt had failed and the nail merely bounced of the glass but his second attempt created a tiny “bullet” hole in the glass which was again brought around for the audience to see. Holy moly – it was one of the most incredible things we have seen happen in front of our eyes.
On the same night, we attended a Shaolin zen music show in the open air theatre. Sitting in the middle of the mountains, the backdrop could not be more magical! It was worth sitting in subzero temperatures for!
After farewelling ancient China, we were culturally awoken when we arrived in Shanghai. Shanghai is very westernised, very modern and had blue skies! In most places around China, it was quite rare to steal glimpses of the alphabet as most things were written in Chinese characters however arriving in Shanghai, English is everywhere. We were already feeling like our holiday was coming to an end. We even got to see a little Australia had hit Shanghai when the lights went out for an hour for Earth Hour 🙂
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have no expectations
One post ago, we mentioned anticlimactic holiday experiences and now we can actually describe one of them: the Terracotta Warriors. There was no wow factor, there were no goosebumps and all we saw was everything we have seen in documentaries and pictures previously. There had been an exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, in 2010/2011, of the Warriors that we went to see and were so utterly fascinated and impressed that we would imagine seeing hundreds and thousands of them lined side by side would be mind-blowing. It partly made us more keen to visit China! But it wasn’t to be…
It probably didn’t help that we were in a warehouse, walking with hordes of other people around the “pit” where all the warriors stood! We won’t deny what incredible workmanship went into carving and painting each warrior: individual features, expressions and even sizes! The level of detail and thought put in is unbelievable however the ambience did not lend itself to allow a sense of wonder! So another lesson we learnt through our travels: Do not have any expectations and then you will NOT get disappointed. We actually thought we had come with little expectations but obviously we still had some!
To be fair though, the other things we experienced in China seemed more exciting possibly because we didn’t know what to expect. For example, we visited Ping Yao which we had never even heard of.
To visit Ping Yao is to visit an ancient Chinese city. It is so well preserved and still a walled city. Upon entering the gates, it seriously feels like we have stepped back in time. A time where kung fu happened on the streets and ninjas are running across roof tops – there is a strong possibility that image was heavily influenced by Hollywood and Chinese Kung Fu movies! Here we visited China’s first private bank and a Taoist temple, walked the city wall and watched artists in the lacquer museum. We even stayed at a hotel that was, although modern and comfortable, completely decked out to appear authentic. The decor and courtyards set the mood.
And another example was visiting the Wild Goose Pagoda where Tripitaka resided after returning from India and bringing Buddhism to China. Having grown up watching Monkey Magic, this seemed like a very awesome thing to see for ourselves.
So it’s no wonder that the Warriors didn’t stand a chance amongst the other things that we saw in China.
wise monkeys abroad 