Hoi An
[originally posted Tue June 30 2009 at 5:44pm]
We've been in Hoi An for two days now, after arriving Monday morning via train. We settled in to our rooms at a nice little budget hotel right off of the main town area and got on our way to explore the old town. I'd heard tons of the bespoke shoes and suits that are made here so purchasing one was on the agenda, as well.
After winding our way through the maze that is the old city, we finally settled on a suitmaker whose recommendation had come from some New Zealanders we'd met in Nha Trang. I ended up purchasing two suits (one three piece gray and one black pinstripe) and two shirts. We picked them up for a fitting today and they both turned out great. The best part? The price -- the whole package was just over $100! After (or before?) shopping we stopped in to a restaurant along the waterfront to try Cau Lau noodles, a dish that Hoi An is famous for. They're basically grittier (texture-wise) and thicker pho noodles that were in the same soup, but served with fried dough (like croutons). Needless to say, they were delicious.
The rest of the time in between was interspersed walking around the town and alleyways exploring the area. After clothes shopping (and the guys stopping in a few other stores to get some other jackets and the like), we met up with Rachel and her sister for dinner at a waterfront and finished the evening up a few beers (and working to avoid some rather annoying young American and British backpackers).
Today we went to the My Son ruins, about 45km outside of Hoi An. The weather was easily in the high 90s and probably crossing in to the 100s. The sites were beautiful, old Hindu relics that reminded me of a little version of Angor Wat. We explored the ruins for a few hours until the crushing heat sent us back to Hoi An.
We spent the afternoon getting the alterations done to our clothes, and then afterward sat outside of a sandwich cart (Bánh mì) while eating our sandwiches (vegetarian of course). While sitting down, the women who owned the store we got our clothes at came over and joined us for over an hour talking about life in Vietnam, her family, the store, life when she was a kid and when she opened the store. It was truly fascinating having a conversation with her and talking about the two worlds we came from.
The trip is entering the back half of journey. It's already Tuesday here, and our flights out of Saigon are on Saturday evening via Tokyo. We've got bus tickets tomorrow at 7am to Hue, where we have a four hour stop over in order to catch our 16 hour bus to Hanoi, thus putting us in Hanoi Thursday morning. Hopefully we'll get the chance to do a day or overnight tour through Halong Bay, and if not enjoy Hanoi. We've got to get on an airplane from Hanoi to Saigon Friday or Saturday in order to make our flights out (and meet up with Justin for a day in Saigon as he starts his trip).
Diving in Nha Trang and Leaving for Hoi An
[originally posted Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 10:16pm
We woke up this morning at 7:30am to catch our ride to our dive boat for a day of diving on the islands off of Nha Trang. I've never been diving before so I signed up for a "discovery" dive, which is basically a tandem dive with a dive master. The ride out to the dive sites was ~50 minutes and the diving was fantastic. There was a ton to sea underwater and the ocean was really clear. I did two dives, and in the in between time we snorked the waters. The diving pretty much like snorkling, only you're a lot deeper and about a thousand times closer to the coral and sea life. Saw some moray eels and a lot of other fish I'll never be able to identify.
After about four hours out on the water we returned back to the city at 2ish and made plans with some of the other people we'd met diving to have dinner later in the evening. We had some pho as a late lunch and then hung out for a while, bumming around. We had a lovely dinner with the people we met which provided perhaps the culinary hilight of the trip so far -- an order of monitor lizard.
We also decided to try to find transport out of Nha Trang to continue our trek north, but as it turned out the sleeper train to Da Nang was sold out tonight, and all the sleeper buses were also sold out. For a brief moment we had hopes that seats in the sleeper bus avaiable, but by the time we pulled the trigger, the tickets were sold out. Long story short, we're on a upright seat train tonight to Hoi An / Da Nang. We'll see how it goes -- we leave at 11:18pm and arrive at 9ish in the morning. Sitting in a seat for that long with a pack does not seem like it'll be fun, but I'm looking forward to seeing Hoi An tomorrow.
Nha Trang
We reached Nha Trang this morning after taking the overnight train from Saigon. Our time in Saigon was brief and towards the end of the day we got caught in a monsoon type of storm. The rain poured from probably 5pm to 10ish, by which time we were on the train heading to Nha Trang. The ride was pretty uneventful, given that our trip was from 11pm to 530am. On our way out, we almost were stuck on the train at the Nha Trang station as we missed the cue that said when people deboarding and people boarding swapped and had the conductor yelling at us to get off the train before it left the station.
Nha Trang itself is a lovely beach town. Given how early we arrived as soon as we had our first room available we managed to catch a few naps, and then went out to eat and lounge by the beach. In the evening, we caught up with a old coworker of mine who was also in Nha Trang, Rachel, and her sister before they were about to leave for Hoi An. After walking the beach for a while, we bought overnight sleeper bus tickets for Monday night for Hoi An as well as signing up for a discovery scuba trip tomorrow morning.
It's not too late here, maybe 10pm, but the train ride's house and jetlag are catching up so it's an early night for our group.
Landed in Saigon
We landed in Saigon late last night after our flight was 40 minutes late but we were picked up by the hotel in our only plannned thing of the trip. We checked in and met Dan who had arrived in the morning. After taking a few minutes to freshen up we went on a walk and found ourselves at a late night pho joint. The place was very cool. They had 30 of so plastic chairs outside and a fleet of waiters (and also what appeared to be a very make shift cyclo valet service). We ordered pho and beers and hung out for an hour or so. After eating we came back to the hotel and did some light planning. Looking like today we're thinking of going to the market to visit the "noodle lady" who is apparently serving lemongrass something today. After that we're planning on going to Sinh Cafe to book either an overnight bus or train to Nha Trang.
Heading to Vietnam
I'm at the airport heading to Vietnam for basically summer vacation. We've got a couple of friends going and others who are meeting mid trip and at the end. The goal is to make of from Saigon to Hanoi in about 8ish days and fly back at the end for our return flight back. I'll be blogging hopefully most of the trip. Should be fun!
Seeing Rome in 12 Waking Hours
I arrived in Rome yesterday at 6pm from Milan taking the new-ish fast train (still 3.5 hrs). My flight out to Barcelona is tomorrow at 9:20am, so I had about 10ish hours of awake time to see Rome for the first time. Thus began my sprint across Rome.
Friday night, I left the hotel and walked down the Spanish Steps towards the Trevi Fountain. Very nice and pretty walk in the evening and there were a good number of people around. It was cold but I can imagine in the summer how crazy it must get here. From Trevi I walked to the Parthenon where I had dinner at the piazza. I got lost a bunch of times on the way back but managed to stop in for gelatto a couple of times on the route which made it enjoyable (altho freezing).
Today (Saturday), I started early and left via Metro for the Colosseum. I got there at 8:30 and to my disappointment they didn't take credit card for entrance. Seemingly keeping with the time of antiquity there was not a single ATM around for what must have been two miles. Finding an ATM put me back at the Colosseum at 9:15, still early enough to beat the crowd. From there I went off to the Roman Forum, which was something out of this world. Standing at the birthplace of the republican form of government is pretty special. The day had blue skies, not a ton of crowds, and an overall ease to it.
From the Forum, I took the subway across the river to the Vatican and made my way to St Peter's Square and Basilica. The scale of the building and plaza is unbelievable. It's so imposing and feels built to make you humble in the greatness of the church. I took the audio guide while I was there and listening to the veneration of everything holy was odd -- it was interesting to get preached to while having a history lesson.
By this time it was about 3:30 so I had enough time to go see the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. The museum was quite impressive on its own. The collection of Egyptian and Etruscan work is incredible. They had a set of Sumerian scrolls and writings that were unfathomably impressible. The Sistine Chapel, and the apartments that lead up to it were equally impressive. My favorite Renaissance piece outside of the Chapel was Raphael's The School of Athens as well as the Belgian tapestries. Inside the Chapel pick any of Michelangelo's works, they're all beautiful. Creation of Adam is particularly striking.
I made my way back via Metro (not without sampling a local Italian digestive at a bar) and parked at the hotel for an hour or so letting my feet rest. I went back out and took a taxi to Piazza Navano, had dinner overlooking one of the fountains. Walking back tonight I had a better sense of direction than last night via the same route, stopping again for gelatto en route.
Tomorrow it's off to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress. Hopefully a bit warmer than there than here, but either way I'm excited to go.
A Quick Day in Delhi
We started the north India leg of our trip today flying in to the Delhi airport by 2pm. We've booked this party all as a package tour, so we were whisked away from the airport in a small bus and checked in to the Taj Mahal Hotel on Man Singh Road. This, by a fair margin, may be the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in.
The attention to detail and the service are impeccable. For example, when you check at reception, your reception agent then gets up from behind their desk and takes you to your room, shows you around, and you sign your paperwork in your room. After which they then offered to send up some tea and coffee and asked if they can come later to clean it all up. The wakeup call was also the best thing ever. So you call to set the call, and the lady then took the time for the call, asked if I wanted a reminder call and when I wanted it. Then (and get this) asked if I was expecting any calls during the night -- which I did not -- so she told me they'd hold all the calls and take messages and give them to me in the morning. The last line before hanging up? "Sleep well sir, we'll wake you up in the morning." Loves it.
On the tourist side, we saw the Presidential Palace and India Gate in the afternoon, then went to Bukhara for dinner. All in all a good set of things to see and today we're off to Agra to see the actual Taj Mahal. The photos on my web site are up to date since I sync'ed last night, too.
Last Day in Bombay
Today's our last full day in Bombay. We spent yesterday going to Haji Ali and Siddhivinayak Temple. I'd never been to Haji Ali, so it was interesting to see. Siddhivinayak was good as usual. The security there was the tightest we've seen so far. After visiting those two we went to my sister's office and had a late lunch at Fragipanni at the Trident Hotel (where bullet holes can still be seen in some Oberoi tower windows). Afterward, my sister and I caught a local train at about 7pm up towards Santa Cruz from Churchgate to have dinner with my grandma and cousins.
The train wasn't as bad as expected since we bought "first class" tickets (which isn't saying much) for the ride up. People are insane at the train station. As the train starts to move or stop people just run everywhere, jumping on to the tracks to catch their trains. People are getting on to the trains before they come to a stop, and getting off as they're rolling up. It's madness. It's no surprise that 4000 people die a year on the trains by getting hit.
In any case, we made it up fine and took a second class train back around 11 which was nearly empty and we were able to sit down. Today I'm spending the day with my other grandma and having dinner with the family. Then tomorrow we head out Delhi on a noon flight.
Arrived and First Days in Bombay
After 16 or so months, I'm back in Bombay and 20 hours in the air. It's been a good first day and a half. We went to Vikram's wedding which lasted all day on Saturday. It was a great time and the food was awesome as well. Today we had a late start (post jet lag and all), had lunch at Indigo Deli then went to Elephanta Island. Unfortunately, we were rushed in the process since we got there quite late, but we got to see everything on the island while avoiding being attacked by the monkeys that live there. For dinner we went for pow bajhi across the street from Chowpatty after which we walked from there all the way across Marine Drive to Nariman Point to work off the butter. I'm off to bed, going to probably go to Siddhi Vinayak and maybe Haj Ali (the latter of which I've never been to). I'm not writing much since the internet is painfully slow and I need to get to bed. I'm getting 9 kbps right out off the interface in total.
Two Days in Seoul
It's our last night in Seoul. Tonight for the first time we had a chance to go see a little bit on the "old Seoul", on the north side of the river. It seems we're staying in Gangnam, which is a more newly developed part of Seoul (although if you look it's just jam packed with people and amazing). In the part of Seoul we went to today, we got a chance to have a meeting in SK Telecom's T-Tower, their new office building that is phenomenally beautiful. It's a glass, steel and concrete building that has an amazing LCD that runs across the interior lobby and the actually reception area is a floor below the lobby which makes the lobby this flowing space where people are constantly moving. Very interesting design elements in play.
On the eating side I've been having bi-bim-bop for lunch most days and noodles or rice/soup for dinner. The bi-bim-bop here is so much better than what I've had in the states. There are tons of vegetarian options, which makes it great to keep trying different ones.
Overall, I've loved Korea and Seoul. It's right in the middle of a spectrum (if one did exist) between China and Japan in East Asia. I love how sophisticated technology here, but it feels like it has a great soul (no pun intended) and heart to it. It makes me want to thinking about living in Asia again. I'm heading to Tokyo (Gimpo to Haneda), where we'll continue customer meetings and end the week. Kamsamida!