Visible from the heights..

Well I am back from ‘Nam. It was an interesting trip. Nice to be in a warm place and escape the cold of Japan and some people.

I went with one of my Aikido Senseis, a student from the high school aikido club and on of my Sensei’s friends from his home island. We were in Vietnam for 10 days. Here is a rough breakdown of where we went.

Day 1: Ho Chi Mihn
Day 2,3,4 : Phu Quoc Island
Day 4,5,6 : Can Tho
Day 6,7,8 : Tran Lin
Day 8,9,10 : Ho Chi Mihn and the surrounding area.

Day 1- 27/12/2006

After landing and waiting about 1 hour to get through customs and immigration, we met up with my Sensei’s friend and headed into the City.

The first day, more really the first night, we spent in Ho Chi Mihn City (HCMC.) We stayed in a decent hotel in Phaum Lan district. This is the main area for backpackers and budget travellers. Our hotel was $7 a person. We had a good dinner at a little restaurant, not quite traditional Vietnamese fair, but really good not the less. Saigon Red beer is really good.

Sitting in the open restaurant, we were harassed by street peddlers. Mainly selling books and sunglasses, but one in particular was selling Vietnam Zippos.. and marijuana, opium and cocaine. Interesting. Since our flight came in late and we had a 06:40 flight to Phu Quoc, we didn’t do a whole lot besides eat and walk around the area.

Day 2 - 28/12/2006

HCMC and Phu Quoc ( 28/12/2006 )

We woke up and caught a 05:30 taxi to the airport. We made it through check in an security in less then about 15 minutes. Very lax security, I guess they don’t have to worry about terrorists anymore. We had breakfast at the Airport Cafe, Pho and Vietnamese White Coffee. Very good but kind of pricey.

After an hour flight we were at Phu Quoc. We landed and began our search for a hotel with vacancies. This sounds easy, but it turns out that this is the peak season for people to come to the island. It is apparently the hot spot for weddings for wealthy people from Hanoi and Ho Chi Mihn. After going to about 3 places we found a nice resort for $8 a night, per person.

The resort’s name was Miss Hoa and it was on the main beach. They had bungalow style rooms and normal hotel style rooms. We booked two normal rooms for the next two days.The island itself is a fishing island, so the local specialty in terms of food was fish. From Red Snapper and Grouper to Squid and Nemo, it was all fabulous. I think the boiled Snapper with lemon grass and garlic had to be on top of the list.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach sunning and de-stressing with $5 1-hour long massages. A mix between Thai and deep tissue massage, it was nice. I met a Vietnamese Canadian girl who is an English Teacher in Japan also. She is teaching in Shizuoka and was here with another friend who is also a teacher, I forget where though. Ended up having dinner and drinks with them near our hotel.

29/12/2006

We woke up early to go on a boat trip, snorkeling and fishing. There were 10 people on the boat including us. A Vietnamese couple from Hanoi on their honeymoon, a Japanese man from Osaka, and three Canadian ladies that are currently English teachers in Seoul.

We spent time fishing, basically catching lunch, and then proceeded to go snorkeling. The coral wasn’t the best I have seen but it was still nice. The only problem was that the ocean was really choppy, maybe a storm from Cambodia or Thailand. After snorkeling for about an hour, we had lunch.

Lunch was great, grilled Red Snapper, Pho noodles and squid.

After getting back I laid out on the beach and slept for about two hours. After I played some volleyball with Ito and had dinner with the same girls as the previous night.

It was really relaxing and refreshing to do nothing.

30/12/2006

We were supposed to be on a speed boat back to the mainland today, but for some unknown reason it was canceled. So we took the opportunity to rent Mopeds and explore the island. We went to the southern tip of the island to the port town of An Tion. After lunch and exploring the markets of the city we headed up the east coast of the island trying to find another beach. No luck, but we found a little coffee shop that had a macacue as a pet in front. So we spent about a half hour drinking coffee, feeding fruit to the monkey and watching it try and tear the fuel lines off the mopeds.

After getting back to the hotel and relaxing and eating dinner I went for a walk/run on the beach. I ended up going about 5 km south, I finally got past all the resorts and hit undeveloped beach. It was nice and quiet, not too many people out being it was about 23:00.

Heading back was interesting. I was approached by a two really drunken beach girls. The short of it was they wanted to go back to my hotel. After following me, gesturing and howling in vietnamese at me for about 10 minutes, they stopped and maybe went out to sea.

That in it self isn’t that interesting to me, the fact that it happened again about 15 minutes later, in front of my hotel none the less, was amuzing. This time though there was a very flamboyant Vietnamese guy near by that swooped in and took the girls.. so pimp or friend or some guy wanting some fun.. who knows. To you my friend, I hope you have your penecillin pills and lots of rubbers.

After that I spent about 20 minutes chatting with one of the ladies that works at the resort. Her family owns it and she spends 3 months a year there from a northern city. Probably manages another hotel in Hanoi or around there.

The next morning we found out our boat had been canceled again. So we decided to go to the airport and get off the island. It cost of 40$ to get a flight back to HCMC.

Maybe this is Part 1 of 3…