text

"Looks like you'll be staying here in New York all summer... fighting the crowds, smelling the hot garbage, while I travel to beautiful, breezy Beijing. "

Saturday, March 31, 2012

SE Asia Part 3: Phu Island and Hoi An

Phu Island and Hoi An
Phu Island
We made it to island paradise, Phu Island. This place is unreal.. It's amazing, and best of all, it's cheap as dirt. Our hotel is $20/night, total. Food is equally cheap. Like $2-3 for dinner on the beach at our hotel. We are here for four days then it's time to travel up the coastline of Vietnam by train.
….
On our first day here we rented motorbikes to explore the island (somewhat small, like 45 km long by 20 km wide); there is really only one decent sized town with paved roads and the rest of the island is dirt roads. At first we rented separate motorbikes and I was sooooo scared driving it by myself, like shaking. I made it to the gas station and back and then returned my bike and just rode on the back of Chris's. I only got mad at him once or twice for going too fast.
We rode for an hour on a dirt road and stopped on the coast in the first "town" we found. I use the word town loosely -- here is a picture of "downtown".
We walked to the water to take a look but there wasn't really a beach where you could sit, only a dock…
So we continued exploring for another thirty minutes until we found an almost deserted beach (maybe 30 people as far as the eye could see) on the east coast of the island, Bai Sao beach, and it was incredible, out of a movie - white sand, palm trees, blue water, mountains. We had lunch and went for a swim.
We rode back up to our hotel alongside the west coastline, stunning. Carrying the backpack hunched over on the bike gave me such a backache -- I think I will indulge in an hour long massage on the beach later for a mere $4 ;)
This island is probably the prettiest place I've ever been, the only thing coming close would be Mykonos island in Greece. What really made our experience great was that our hotel was family-owned and had a happening restaurant by the beach that we ate at every day.
….
Our second day on the island involved simply relaxing. We read on the beach and went swimming. The most action we had was walking about 1 mile to a convenience store to get some sunscreen for our snorkeling trip tomorrow. This is the life =)
….
Ok so snorkeling didn't happen. Last night we tried to be adventurous and have some fish for dinner.
BIG mistake. It tasted great; I even ate squid! But the main event was this red snapper we later learned was not fresh and was raised in a fish farm in a river on the mainland. Chris got it baaaad. I wasn't so bad, just mainly real queasy. It reminded me of college and how I felt drinking too much. Familiar feeling. Anyway, we couldn't very well wake up and get on a boat so we slept late and they refunded our money (which is more than I can say for the boat tour in Saigon that charged us half price extra for rescheduling). We slept late and are both feeling much better. I guess we will settle for another lazy day by the beach ;) What a consolation!
After missing the snorkeling trip I definitely indulged in an extra long massage.
To address all of those comments on Trip Advisor about our hotel on the beach, Amigo's was only annoying when we were having dinner and their music was competing with our hotel's music. The music selection helped to convince us that Vietnam is stuck in some weird 90's vortex. Luckily, we couldn't hear the music when we were trying to sleep.
Here is the sign for the massage lady… I want me some "Foot Love"!
In the morning we go back to Saigon via ferry boat and then one loooong bus ride to catch our first overnight train at 11pm.
Saigon/Train
We are feeling a bit weary at this point of the trip. We are having a great time but I'm already looking forward to being back in familiar territory (as familiar as it gets, China!).
I've been stressing out about our budget and thankfully, last minute on the island we had switched rooms to one with no hot water for 1/2 the price - we figured the hot weather would encourage cold showers anyway. It ended up being totally doable and we were able to save so much.
That's all to report from the coffee shop at the train station. I'm beat and it's only 8pm, our train doesn't leave until 11pm!
I think at this point in the trip I'd use the term weary -- the tummy problems have not been fun. I've informally declared myself a vegetarian until we get back to China. After a long day of traveling today, including a bumpy ferry ride and a 6 hour bus, I'm almost feeling feverish. 2 weeks on the move is hard work! I think we might need a vacation after this...
Trying to stay awake until our train leaves..
Hoi An
We survived our first overnight train experience! Here is Chris in his soft sleeper across from me.
I think after reading the guide books and hearing horror stories we were a bit paranoid and locked our bags closed and locked them to the handrails.
Plus, I slept cuddling my ebook, camera, and cell phone. We were totally fine. I did have trouble falling asleep - I think the motion was bothering my stomach after that early morning bumpy ferry ride. When we got in we befriended this German guy and his mother whom were also looking to take a taxi to the town we were aiming for so I suggested sharing to cut down on costs. I also made one suggestion for a hotel from the guidebook and it worked out great, $25 room with free breakfast, plus a comfortable bed with a view of the rice fields below.
We are planning to wake up early tomorrow to explore the city then after lunch head back to the train station to catch our next overnight to Hanoi.
I think yesterday was just especially rough in terms of heavy travel day. Today I think we are in better spirits.
….
Hoi an is really cute -- very pretty architecture but much more touristy than I imagined. Foreigners EVERYWHERE and souvenir shops in every possible storefront. It's kind of a disappointment; we are somewhat underwhelmed. It's charm wore off fast since we woke up early (630am!) to have breakfast and explore before our early afternoon departure only to find that it started raining as we were finishing breakfast :(. We waited it out watching breaking CNN coverage of Whitney (so terrible) then ventured out with raincoats and umbrellas.
Here is Chris' serious face…
These are swirly incense at a Chinese temple..
During our short time in Hoi An, we saw and were able to photograph the single weirdest thing either of us have ever seen in our lives. Wait for it…
A cat nursing on a dog's teat!!! The best part was when a Spanish woman behind us was looking at the same spectacle and said, "Es incrediblay!" to which Chris replied, "Si. Es muy incrediblay." Muy incrediblay INDEED.
Train/Hanoi
We made it through our second overnight train ride.
We were able to find a bar car on the train and enjoyed the absolutely breathtaking scenery during the first leg of the train journey. The train meandered along beautiful lush green mountains/hills along the coastline of turquoise water. The weather was misty and foggy so it had a Jurassic Park vibe -- so incredible.
We shared our overnight train cabin with some young aussie female university students so we felt less paranoid about locking our stuff up. The 5am arrival was rough times and after having some coffee at the hotel we walked around waiting for cafes to open for breakfast.
Here is 5am groggy Chris
We both agreed it was a cool experience to see the city awaken so early -- all of the locals eating an early breakfast in the street to get a head start on the day. We are back at the hotel in bad need of a nap, the weather today is damp and cold - perfect for a looong nap. During our walk we swung past our next hotel where we will stay when we return from the cruise, just to confirm our reservation. All is good and I have to say I'm very proud of my seamless planning skills! Even our budget is looking close to spot on (thanks to cutting some corners on the island). Hanoi seems great so far but we are too tired to really get excited about it yet. Today was a good preview; we will have a full 3 days here when we return from the bay.
Time for bed then cruise!