Thailand/Vietnam - the chase - Hoan Kiem District, Vietnam
Hoan Kiem District, Vietnam
So it's been a while since I've done my blog but it is simply because I've been non stop for a while and since I have a 12 hour journey on a sleeper bus I might as well kill a bit of time to complete some more blogging. Apologies for the spelling and the sentences that probably won't make spence (no change there though) but it is late and it's not easy to type on a bus.
So where I left the blog was in Laos, not too much else happened in Laos apart from a morning sunrise balloon ride at the crack of dawn, and yep, that meant I was up at 5am- yep.... 5AM!!! No beauty sleep was had that night! Haha. On a serious note though the views from the skies were amazing of the surrounding area and at an expensive £78 dollars (£40) this trip was not cheap but then I wouldn't want to hang in a basket with nothing but hot air keeping me up on the cheap do I!! As we were so high in the mountains already we woke up to what seemed fog at first but it was actually clouds at street level. Bit weird but kinda getting used to the weird happening more frequent now as this is just how it is out in Asia with new experiences everyday.
We arrived at the site of the ballooning with our Chinese pilot doing all the cautionary checks, like throwing a small normal balloon filled with helium thrown up in the sky- to see wind directions would have thought, but surely more checks would go on before 8 people climbed into a small wicker basket that was about to go a few hundred feet in the sky....errrr this is Laos. And health and safety is not top of the agenda. None the less we clambered in with a couple of lads we had met the previous day and a with a few other people we started our ascent. Now before I wasn't nervous, and within milliseconds of lifting of the ground I had realised that we were in a WICKER basket, this stuff is just woven together from trees.... Ok not understanding yet. Above us are two highly flammable gas canisters.... HIGHLY FLAMABLE!!!....that is being set alight in a large sheet..... Again, a FLAMABLE substance!!! What was I smoking when I agreed to pay for this experience but I was stuck and had no place to go apart from up........ After a minute or so I relaxed and took in the stunning scenery with clouds acting as a bed (or a soft landing if anything were to happen- that's what I told myself anyway) with the rocky landscape peaking through, along with the sun coming up over the in the distance I honestly have never thought of any better way of a beginning of a day then what I saw on that morning!! The pictures look stunning but I still don't think they do this experience justice and think who ever designed that kind of activity is firstly just a total nutter strapping gas canisters and setting them alight with nothing but things that go up in flames themselves.... But at the same time a total genius!!
Ok coming, back to present day for just a moment, this coach journey I told you I was in horrific, the roads are so bumpy every time I press a key to type I miss and nearly poke the person I front of me I'm so wide of the mark.... And alcohol is not responsible!!! Not only that but the driver is so trigger happy on his breaks he's I think I will be the first person ever to get whiplash from the driver breaking.
Anyway, enough of that..... Back to the rest of Laos.
We spent a total of 7 days visiting 3 small towns all with a similar French feel to them with bakeries amd coffee shops everywhere, sandwiches sold only on freshly baked French bread and certain words in French (this is down to Laos only being am independent country within the last 50 years as they used to be part of the French colony -blogging at its finest right there).
The scenery is beautiful and is very much untouched with lots of the roads winding round mountains. The people are extremely friendly and always with a smile on there face they would always say "hello" usually followed with "where are you from" then ALWAYS followed with "oooooooo Manchester unitedddd!!!" No not city. I would always use this information to try and barter with the locals for better prices on meals, tuk tuks and market traders. With usually positive results.
This brings me onto my next part of my blog....
Mikes (amateur) approach to bartering.
This is certainly something I love doing, and I've tried many approaches all getting very different results and this is how I would advise to barter with Asian locals if you ever get the chance to visit (clearly I'm no pro but it's so much fun).
Firstly- THE PRE BUY-
obviously pick out something you are interested in but don't give away the fact you "need" the item. This gives the "power" to the market trader if they think you really want it. Ask for a couple of prices of products you have no interest in at all and then come to the product you actually want. At the same time try and get to know them, shake their hand, ask them how they are etc and build a rapport with them- I'm not saying ask how many kids they have and what school they go to but get them to like you and smile.
Secondly- THE OPEN
Spend a little bit more of time on the product you want, if he market trader hasn't already told you how great his price is- ask him how much for the item. Amd wait for the astronomical figure he will give you... At least that's how I would react... "The price for you, 500" quid your response to be along the lines of shock and horror "ohhhhh very expensive. That surely cannot be your best price what is your best price for this?" Within seconds you would 've knocked 20% off and he would immediately reduce.
Thirdly- THE NEGOTIATION
after the trader has knocked off 20% off do not show any sign of agreement and convince him he is to high with comments like "I thought that was your best price?" Or "I thought you were my friend?" (With a smile and a joke)... Normally what would happen is a calculator would be then brandished for you to type your price in to begin the negotiation ( this is a clear sign he is willing to go even further down.. Don't be afraid to test the waters and put in a cheeky amount of 80% off the original asking price to see how he reacts. Body language is key and something you can see as they give away what they are thinking som easily. They will no doubt refer to the quality of the product but you can counter with the fact that there are lots of stalls all selling shorts/shirts/jewellery etc all with good prices. Something he is fully aware of. Then quote around 60% off the original asking price and after a bit of tooing or throwing you should be able to get it for the 50% off. You could go down the aggressive route of negotiation by even starting to walk away, if you are close to his price he will give in once you take 2 steps away. If not, well then it's embarrassing to have to go back and say you agree to his price. All in all it's a laugh
Fourthly- THE EXTRA DISCOUNTS (if applicable)
by this point you have agreed a price for one item but of you are buying more products don't hand over the cash until you have negotiated for further products. This will then entitle you to further discount usually I go for around an extra 10% off.... Remember, if they are selling you 3 or 4 thirst that's a lot of money and they wouldn't be willing to lose the sale for a bit of extra cash as they will still. Most of them will give the extra discounts and everybody wins, the trader sells his stock and you get a good price. One little tip as well.... The longer the trader stands with you and takes his time the more invested he is into selling you a product and doesn't want his time to have come to be wasted.... The extra discount option is really good when trying to negotiate guest houses for multiple days, don't tell them how long you want to stay for until you have agreed the price for one night, and then ask the, if there is more discount for more days, often there is as it ensures the room is filled which means more money for them. If they now how long your staying in the area straight away they are less likely to negotiate as they know you have to stay there.so if they ask you how long do you want to stay. Just reply with, "it depends on the price".
All in all bartering is a way of life out here and you should never pay the asking price for almost anything. I can see myself now- bar in London for 4 pints- "that will be £18 please.... "What's your best price"...... Maybe won't go down to well.
So now were finished with Laos. It's been a a place of stunning scenery but Vietnam is waiting. By this point we are I full swing of this traveler way of life. And a part of that way of life is do everything cheap. Should we take a flight.... It only takes an hour to get to our destination, you have have to drive on unbelievably incomplete roads that ar nothing short of dirt trackers with craters in making for an uncomfortable ride. The land crossing visas are well known for being a pain to get through so surely flying was a clear winner and seems a no brainier doesn't it...... Nooooo!! Flying was £81 where as a 26 hour coach was £21 and you get to sleep on the coach, meaning no need to get a hostel for £4 saving yet more money!!!
Well this decision was regretted within about 30 seconds of this sleeper bus... I'll start of by saying that the general population within Asia has an average height of what seems to be 4ft tall as this is how much leg room they give you. They call it a sleeper, now I'm not sure who can sleep with there knees pinned to there chin but more leg room please... Ok so I'm exaggerating a little but it was a bit tight..... And then. The locals got in on the act. Turns out they just keep selling tickets to the locals on the cheap regardless of if they have enough seats or not. Having said that, the Laotians don't see the bus as having a limited number of seats.... The see the bus as having space to sell, where ever they can out someone they will. I know this by the following few minutes..... I see many people walking past me. Thinking there surely can't be any more seats back there, I was right... But space in the isles there certainly was.....
To break off from, the story for just a moment, I'm still on this bus and I am now suffering from several slipped disks due to jolting on these roads ( no doubt your wandering why I'm on another sleeper bus, but there is a good reason I will explain later).
..... As the isles piled up with more locals I was now fully aware there were not going to stop until the had filled the isles. I was hoping for people who were quiet, small, and didn't smell. I got none of my wish list unfortunately, as a big, ****** Laotian farmer who reared of what he was carrying . None other then his own rice whiskey. I thought that this 26 hours was going to fly by.... Not!!! But I was pleasantly surprised, I knew I was going to get much sleep so I decided to open conversation with the ****** up farmer and his mates in the surrounding area around me. I had got some simple phrases from a book we had and asked the simple questions like "what's your name" where are you from" etc. he was impressed he shared his beloved whiskey and I sat there drinking with these fine people and even giving one am arm wrestle as we sat up trying to talk to one another drunk... To be honest I struggle to talk to English people when I'm drunk so the fact he was Laotian was no problem and I think it may have even helped having this past experience!
All was going well and I managed to get to sleep on the bus when I was woken up about 1hr away from the Vietnam border. The bus driver had gone for a sleep in the hotel as the crossing wasn't open for another 4 hours. The fella had taken his keys with him switching off all air conditioning. Thus massive
Eh preventing me from getting back to sleep due to the heat within the coach I was sat in. It was about 4 am and. Sat up and say through the window a football match going on. Champions league final- Athletico Madrid vs Real Madrid... RESULT. I wandered in sat down and watched it with about 40 locals all getting ******. Knowing I had to pass through a border in little over 3 hours I decided not to join in with the drinking (this traveling has knocked me sensible I think). They all cheered on for Real Madrid. I obviously couldn't help but wind them up a little and say I was supporting Athletico Madrid. I got some stick when Madrid ending up winning but was a good laugh. By this point our bus driver had emerged from his beauty sleep and he was ready for another day of smashing the break pedal and overtaking in ground bends.
The Vietnamese border crossing- well. What nap intimidating place that is. Every policeman/soldier waved his baton in a aggressive way and every single one of them looks at you like your trying to smuggle 50 kilos of heroin in your back pocket. Even the so called sniffer dog goes mental and snarls regardless of you smuggling or not. All in all we were one and off the coaches about 4 times with our bags thrown off to go through X-ray machines passport control, purchase visas and a 3km walk from the Laos border to the Vietnam border made for an unpleasant time but we made it through to the other side and within about 5 miles we had pulled over for the "smuggle".
We pulled over to this petrol station but we didn't fill up on petrol. Within around 10 minutes the fellas at the front (including the driver) had bundled the people who were sat in the isles of the bus, to make way for these "air conditioning units". Or at least that's what it said on the boxes as I scanned my eye over them. The way these boxes were rolled down the isle certainly were not AC units and rice cookers. They had hidden the "rice cookers" at the back behind some travellers seats. And the larger "AC units were then covered up using a big blanket. Around 6 packages were bundled on and then the isle passengers flooded back on- sadly my farmer mate was no longer next to me. Still not thinking anything really of the packages we had just brought on the coach we then stopped at a police checkpoint..... Immediately the tension between the driver and his co conspirers got a little touchy as they were frantically talking to one another. The three of them got off to inspect the baggage area with the police, and as a policeman came on board to look down the isles a women jumped up from nowhere to talk to the police man and start chatting away- without knowing what was said I would think she would be using her charm to get this fella off the coach and it worked- after about 15 tense minutes we then carried on our way for another 10 minutes where we were free of the dibble and the cronies had unloaded there packages with a smug looking group of people. God knows what had taken place and I will never know what was in the boxes but I have a feeling it wasn't to cook you dinner or to cool you off.
By this point we had got to know the fellow travellers and we carried on our journey for a further 12 hours!! And reached hanoi- the capital city of Vietnam- at around 9pm. My first impressions of the city as I sat in the taxi taking us to our hotel went a little bit like this (in order).
Wow, bright lights everywhere New York style.
Lots of motorbikes
Where can I eat
Lots of motorbi......Woahhhhhhhh!!!
At that point I had just witnessed my first encounter of what the traffic in Hanoi is like!! It seems we had about 20 near misses in the 30 minutes we were in our taxi but our driver was behaving as it always happened, and it did. During my stay in hanoi I saw 4 people get knocked off (all women- just saying) there bikes, for a passer by to run in the street, help the person up and then get on with there day. There are no rules In this country. Just make sure you don't hit anybody else and everything is ok. The horn is always a device commonly used in this part of the world. Mainly by busses to tell people to get the F out the way or your getting ran over. There are roundabouts, with arrows clearly telling drivers to go clock wise but of the person isn't in the mood to do the logical thing, they'll happily go anti clockwise smashing the horn to tell people they are going the wrong way. Crossroads, well that is a lottery in itself. You enter with no lights with everyone simultaneously beeping away and when you get to the other side you count your blessings you survived it. It really is a bit of a rat race or wacky races moment but at the same time it's safe- sounds daft but if you just have peripheral vision and hazard awareness I think the roads are relatively safe.... But then again 28 people a day die on hanoi streets due to motorbiking accidents so maybe not that safe.
We spent a total of 6 days in Hanoi with a 3 day trip to halong bay on a secluded island with fellow travellers from the hostels. We drank plenty on the beaches and boats as we took in the sights of the world heritage sight, played beach football and volleyball. Plenty of betting for beers with the family that owned the beach and resort (for the record I was W3-L0). With a cracking load of people we played many drinking games and had a right laugh. Obviously the only thing left to do after a bit to drink late at night was a bit of skinny dipping so without any hesitation everyone jumped straight in, and within 15 minutes I had come accidentally kneed a jelly fish right in the head next thing I know I had been grabbed and stung quite severely, so much so- when I had got back to land- the little fecker had drawn blood and I had whip marks all round my leg- and not the good sort! Haha.
The rest of the time in Hanoi was spent walking the streets and going to monuments of ho chi Minh- the feller who was responsible for the break off from the French colony and masterminded the defence against the Americans in the 50's through to the late 60's. This guy is a big deal round here with his posters on everything and I would say he is more well liked in his country then we like good old Queen Liz in ours! One thing I would say is that the museums here are unbelievably one sided to communism and almost a brain washing state of how good this guy is to help the, "remember" that communism is great.
So I've been traveling for a good month now and I've actually lost around a 2 stone in weight, yes some of it muscle but mostly straight off my waist, I've lost 4 inches off my waist- seriously girls, forget the Special K challenge rubbish, just come to Asia for a month, job done!- I almost feel like the nutty professor when he drinks his potion for the first time as it has been pretty drastic difference, obviously I was in need of so,e shorts to throw out my much bagpiper old ones, so I set off in search of a market to try and barter away some good prices,
Remember previously in my blog I told you how I like to barter. Well that doesn't work here. I fact if you even mention the word discount the merchandise is taken off you and they almost don't want to sell to you. Ahhh, Playing hard ball I thought. ....nope, they just don't discount and barter. The price is the price and that's it. Not even for multiple purchases of shorts. With a lost cause I I decided to sell out and buy them at a big supermarket chain which is basically like a big Asda with George.
Armed with my new fresh shorts, not for long as I seem to sweat my body weight in the space of 30minutes. We went to buy motorbikes to rode down the whole of Vietnam. We here this is the best way to see the country from other travellers who have also done the same thing and with relative ease and plenty of negotiation we managed to buy two bikes for around £280. £140 to travel the country, we will probably end up paying twice that in repairs as these bikes (and every Honda win you buy) aren't 100% but going back to my Thailand Trip, I knew there was a mechanic every 500 ,entries on this roads and Vietnam is no different. We spoke to one guy who had a new engine out in as his blew up. Total cost, with fitting , about £18. If you have a puncture, that will set you back a horrendous £2.... We know this pice already as when we were about to head out on our bikes, one of them had a puncture and we had to get it replaced, we hadn't even gone anywhere and we had our first breakdown. Ha. Anyway, we set out on our bikes with the nutters of hanoi accompanying us all the way out of the maze of a city, it took us an hour and half to make it out and find the right road we needed to get on to head south to our stop off at Ninh Binh about 120km south.
Now normally, back home, that distance would be covered in a couple of hours due to the roads being straight and more importantly without the potholes and dirt tracks. And when I say pot holes, I actually mean craters. The ride was so bumpy it was like driving on the face off a acne ridden teenager not knowing but all the time it was a good laugh. We took the Ho Chi Minh road that stretches from hanoi, all the way down to Ho Chi Minh city (see, told you they loved him, they have roads and a whole city formally known as Saigon- named after him).
The Ho Chi Minh road was actually used by the Northern Vietnam troops/ generals to quickly move troops, food, and material down to southern Vietnam during the war, much of it was previously under the cover of jungle and remained hidden from the USA. As far as they knew, nothing was there apart from jungle, little did they know that the road ran all the way down and remained untouched until halfway through the war. Then America found this round and decided just to blow it up using napalm (a highly flammable bomb) that would burn the jungle so they could see what was from the skies. This has shaped much of the landscape of today. That'll there was no napalm strikes or wars going on and much of the road has all been resurfaced and this road winds through mountains and through valleys with a picture moment at every point. I would loved to have stopped more but we had to be on our way down to Ninh Binh.
About 40km outside of Ninh Binh and the light started tom fade, and the sun started to set, with the light disappearing and the roads getting worse it looked less likely with every minute we were going to get to our destination as we were resorted to going about 20km an hour due to how bad the roads had got. Then one of the bikes light didn't work, this was not something we could go on with and with a pull over of the bikes we decided our next move. Within moments a fella on a far better bike then ours was passing when he asked if we needed help. The damsels in distress we indeed were so we asked him where the nearest guest house. To which he replied with, it is very far... (Bollocks we thought). He then very kindly offered to put us up for the night which was tremendously generous. With little option and a certain element of nervousness we decided to take the local up on his offer, the only thing he would like in return was not money, but to teach him English. I obviously didn't want him learning my English so I left rob to teach! Haha.
This guy was a true hero, he took us in to his farm where he and his family lived. He was 24 and was on his way back from teaching Kung fu with 2 kids on his scooter with him at the same time. He said that he would cook for us, no questions, he asked did we like chicken or duck? Errr well we were not too fussed at this point and within 5 minutes he had gone into the back. All of a sudden we here him shout "rob, can you help me for a moment" straight away rob turned to me and he knew what was about to happen. He was going to help kill our dinner. And he did. I went out and he had popped his throat and then put into a big tin bowl with boiling water put all over him. A little harrowing, but this is the norm out here and even on farms in England.
We sat down to a feast of rice, chillies (also frown on the farm) with some special sauces that were obviously homemade which made the whole experience brilliant. We ate with the family and I drank rice whiskey shots with a Thums dad and we plotted our route with them at the same time as him learning English phrases. His English was very good but there was the odd moment that a breakdown occurred.
We then all slept on the floor in the front room with our bikes locked up in a garage. A truly humbling and surreal experience. The following day saw us take our bikes and hit the road to a place that Thum had suggested. He even came along with us and showed us a s a personal tour to Asia's biggest temple. This place was massive, and ran not only metres long, but kilometres!! We walked the lot and I'll let you see the photos that speak for themselves. We then made our way to Ninh Binh finally and we rested up for the night after going to Asia's biggest temple.