Holding back the tears...

(written on 10/08/09, posted 01/10/09)

Time to say our goodbyes...we said goodbye to a load of people who'd been with us all week and now it was time to say goodbye to the legendary Hoa himself and a couple more of the guests.

We were due to get the plane south to Saigon (no more buses for T and the flights were £31 each so L and myself thought it was a bargain - so much for my personal environmental pledge to only go overland whilst in Asia). Just that morning, I discovered my Vietnamese visa was 3 days out of date and I wasn't planning to leave the country for another few days after Saigon. Big Ooops. This could spell a bit of a disaster. We had our passports checked but not the visa stamps luckily. There were a couple if times I got a bit of the old clammy hands syndrome. Nothing to worry about then until getting to the border although I guess I could sort it out at the embassy in Saigon.

We didn't get to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City (it's modern name) until 6pm so it was a case of a taxi and find some accommodation. The taxi ride was fun and there were even more motos than Hanoi so it seemed even more chaotic on first impressions.

We ended up in the backpacker district so it was all clubs and bars. T, L and myself went up for a good nosh up and a couple of G&Ts. We were trying to plan what to do over the next three days, but it's always fun not knowing what you'll end up doing but just discussing all the possibilities.

...still on China Beach

(written on 09/08/09, posted 01/10/09)

After delaying my bus journey by a day, I ended up staying for 6 nights in total. T, L and a whole bunch of brilliant people hanging out on the beach, listening to people strumming on the guitar and at Hoa's. I really couldn't leave all of that just yet. So travelling plans out of the window for that week whilst it was fun time.

More shopping and visits into Hoi An for cocktails and an amazing visit to Danang to the Deaf-run Bread of Life cafe. Food was amazingly droolingly delicious and I had a conversation with a Vietnamese Deaf man, C. We slowly picked up each other's signs and managed to communicate. Vietnamese Sign Language is very much influenced by ASL (American) so quite different from my British signs. Apparently watching this conversation, the other 5 had tears in their eyes due to this ability to communicate with a local from another country with no Vietnamese language but just by finding common ground between our Sign Languages. I found this very amusing of course.

We all did mostly nothing but relax though there were a few trips about on scary motos. Great views and we saw some great places like a massive Buddha statue up in the mountains. It was fun and took all my powers of concentration. You get used to driving after a while then a cow flings itself in the road at you.

There was also the festival of lights in Hoi An held monthly at the time of the full moon. Scary being on a small rowing-type boat with 6 of us and a rower. Thought we were all going to drown our paper lanterns not float them. The kids were amazing as well. Bartering with us for lanterns and chatting away in English. We suspected sadly that this was perhaps not down to good schooling but having to communicate with the tourists to get extra cash for themselves.

I also had great long chats with T, L and other people around about religion, love and life in general. Amazing what happens when given the time and space to relax, take stock and think. So it was not only fun but there was a bit of soul-searching going around too. Someone told me to go and find myself whilst I was away. I don't think I was ever lost but perhaps I did learn a little more about myself that week.