Saigon is loud and squirky! But again a unique experience. After I arrived dead tired after an exhausting bus ride I walked around looking for a budget accomodation but didn't seem to find anything appropriate until a nice old lady asked me: " Are you looking for a cheap room?" Yep, I was! So I followed her into a dark narrow alley away from the bustling loud street and she brought me to a private house of an old lady, who first looked a bit grumpy but turns out to be really lovely. There was no hotel sign or whatsoever. Just a room in her private house among two others she is renting out to tourists. Quite funny but the best option I could pick I figure!
Then walking out of the hotel and looking for a place to have dinner I bumped into two Swiss girls who I met in Hoi An in my hotel there! Small world.
The next morning I met up with Dai, a really great and stylish Vietnamese guy who is a friend of Bu, who I met in Hoi An! Of course he is tailor as well and loves fashion and design, as you can see! We had coffee and went out for dinner last night.



The afternoon yesterday was rather depressing. I spent it in the War Remnants Museum and the facts and especially pictures I saw were truly impressive and shocking! It didn't add to the current attitude towards and image of the United States! Sad to say! The effects of the millions of tons of biological warfare used probably striked me the most!

But back to some more pleasant tales. In between Hoi An and Saigon I spent one night at the beach in Nha Trang and one night at the quiet fishing village of Mui Ne! Nha Trang is rather like the Nice of Vietnam, with a livelier night life and some plush bars and a busy tourism scene. Also the beach is like that, long broad sand beach dotted with palm trees and big hotels behind!
Mui Ne on the other hand is a quiet little fishing village, if you stay away from the touristy upscal resorts! It's famous for its fish sauce that you can smell everywhere miles ahead! I stayed with two Belgian guys as the only guests in a lovely place directly at the beach. It was a little run down but the owners were just the most lovely people and the beach view was perfect! This is taken just outside the door from my room ;-)



The next morning I got on a motorike after dealing with a friend of the brother of the owner of my guesthouse for about 40 minutes about the prize. Well, it takes a while to explain that half of 60 is 30 and not 40 ;-)) Maths is definitely not a strength of fishermen! But the trip was worth it and I almost felt like in the Sahara when I got to the white sanddunes that surround a little lake close to Mui Ne.



Tomorrow I will probably go to a 2 day tour of the Mekong Delta so stay tuned for some pics of the floating markets!

Well, Hoi An didn't seem to let me go and I actually only left it last night with a little teardrop in my eyes :-( I had a really good time. I felt almost like a local, even working an afternoon in the clothes shop of my friend 'Jay'! Wohoo, exciting :-) Well, not exactly the career goal I wanted to achieve ;-) But Jay and her sister were just the nicest people, it’s impossible to say no! They invited me over for lunch almost everyday, and last night even brought me on their motorbikes to the bus!
Since my last blog entry I was also invited to the wedding of the son of the family who runs my guesthouse. Here's me with the happy couple and their parents:



Great times and quite different from German weddings! First the couple is required to visit the buddha shrine in each of the familie’s houses. Since the family of my guesthouse owns 3, they had to make a big tour in the morning going from house to house to light some incent sticks and put them in front of the buddhas! Then, around 11 am, everybody goes to the restaurant. For some reason, the bride changes dresses! Then, the usual picture and video taking and welcoming of all the guests! After that, the BIG eating starts! 6 courses of Vietnamese delicasses, accompanied by lot’s of beer! Throughout the lunch, guests sing songs in Karaoke style on the stage and the more towards the end of the dinner, the more people started to dance! The most impressive was a 70 year old grammy (somehow related to the couple) who finished a whole glass of beer in one zip, after cheering with us on the table! The bride changed dresses one or two more times during lunchtime! I still haven’t found out why! At about 3 pm, everybody was full and wasted enough and the party was over!

Despite all the great times, I felt that I had to move on now. I really loved this place but as soon as I step out of the little world of the local family and the clothes shop, I was still the walking money bag and every minute someone yelled at me: ‘Hey, motobike, hey wanna buy something? Hey where are you from? Hey have a look at my clothes shop!...’ It leaves a bit of a sad aftertaste that everything here is about selling and the money of the tourists! And I am part of this process of development myself even though I don’t want to!

In any case, it was a great time I spent in Hoi An toghether with the family of the Minh A guesthouse which I will never forget! Few nights ago, there was the full moon festival in Hoi An! Nothing like Thailands full moon party, but a beatiful setup of candle lights along the river and some traditional music and arts performances all over in the streets and tiny alleys of Hoi An! Very beautiful!

I am in Nha Trang right now, heading further south towards Mui Ne either tomorrow morning or in the evening, depending on whether I go for a little diving trip tomorrow morning or not!

I am stuck in the shopping paradise!! The past week I spent in the quiet town of Hoi An, designing clothes and getting them tailor made within hours! It’s unbelievable! And I think I just discovered my new profession: clothes designer! Doesn’t this almost look like Armani…



Or Gucci…?? ;-)



You can definitely get addicted to it! But it’s also worth it! Where else can you get tailor made suits for about 30 – 50 $ ??

A tutti gli Italiani: Roma non e piu la citta della moda, pero Hoi An! Vabbe, al meno e meno costoso qui ;-)

Sono in un posto bellisimo in una casa vecchia (del otto cento) tutto in legno con una familia carinissima, qui mi invita tutti I giorni a cena, a pranzo e sono solo simpaticissimi! La piu bella esperienza que ho fatto in Vietnam fin ad ora. Ho fatto amici con tanta gente qui. La familia e grande (come tutte le familie vietnamesi), cosi la sorella della ragazza del hotel ha anche un negozio per fare vestiti e ho gia fatto un sacco di roba li! Non so come portare, pero ci trovero un modo! E poi a Roma vi faccio vedere!

I met the nicest people so far on my trip in Vietnam! The family of one of the tailor shops I bought clothes invited me to their daughter’s engagement! Big fun I tell you. Great food and lot’s of ‘Bia’ (beer). And of course they were perfectly well dressed with ‘home designed’ clothes! Hanging out here for a while, I meet more and more local people. The other night I met two tailors and had a few beers with them and next day one of them showed me his factory where they make all the clothes. It’s incredible here. The tailors sometimes work overnight just to get the orders for the people done until they are leaving!
All the people here are extremely fashionable, it’s like walking in a museum! But at the same time the traditional Vietnamese life style blends into this world of Haute Couture and chique and fancy restaurants! So right next to my guesthouse is the daily market where the boats with daily fresh fish arrives, all sorts of fruits and vegetables and all the other kitsch clothes get sold. And throughout the town there are plenty of temples and places where people worship and hold traditional ceremonies!

I am staying in one of the most beautiful and oldest houses (about 180 years old) here in Hoi An. The family who runs the place is just the nicest family I have met so far on my trip! They invite us for dinner almost every other night and are helpful in just about anything you would like to know or do.
(picture still missing)
One of the owner’s daughters runs a tailor shop across the street and she’s just the greates person. I design clothes on a piece of paper and show it to her and explain her the materials and the style and then she makes it just perfect|! And she makes the changes until it IS really perfect! And on top of that she invites me for lunches and last night even to come with her and her family to Karaoke!! Great fun! Imagine 8 people in a tiny room with a couch a television, 3 microphones and a few beers and a remote control to choose out of a repertoire of about 10000 songs! I leave the rest up to your imagination ;-)



In two days I am invited to the wedding of the hotel owner’s son. I think I will have to stay another 2 nights and do some more shopping :-)

I had a very surreal and bizarre day here in Hue. If it is due to the weather (it is rainy and cool), the bad sleep in the night bus or if it is really that bizarre, I haven't figured out yet! Only looking around me in the internet cafe is quite funny: surrounded by Vietnamese young who each has at least 10 yahoo chat windows opened and hacking into the keyboard!
But the story of today: After checking into my hotel (great room on the rooftop with view over the whole city) and dropping my laundry at the hotel laundry service, I went just to check out the neighbourhood, planning only on a quiet coffee somewhere. What happened was quite different! One of the usual 'Hey where are you from?' made me answer ' Germany' and there you go "Oh great! My aunt lives there and has children. Very nice to meet you!!" And a few moments later I found myself on the back of his motorbike an off for a 6 hour tour through Hue and its vicinities.



He first brought me to a place to have some breakfast: Pho, the usual noodle soup with onions and some greens and sprinkled with nuts on top) and then showed me a few Pagodas (all of them more or less in ruins due to the bombings), and the countryside around Hue. Well and then talking about the culinary pleasures of Vietnam, we came across dog meat and there we were, a dodgy restaurant on the outskirts of Hue, where we sampled 4 different plates of dog meat and had a couple of beers together!
After that he dropped me off again and (of course ;-) asked for a little contribution for the gas and for his daughter. But I guess 4 $ is a fair prize for a private city tour ;-)
Besides that, the business sense of the Vietnamese doesn't change as you go down south. I went to the hairdresser afterwards and after quoting a prize of 20000 Dong (1,3 Dollar) I got in! After the whole procedure the guy said : " Ok, it's 50000 Dong!" Hum???? Did I misunderstand? Well, after insiting on the initial quote, he admitted :"Oh, solly, yeah yeah, 20000!" Yep, the Vietnamese have an almost stronger sense of dealing with money as the Middle East!!
Tomorrow I will continue to Hoi An to get some tailor made clothes. So bargaining will be my major activity during the next two days. I better go off now and strengthen myself with some dinner in a restaurant closeby run by mute-deaf people, serving (hopefully) something else than dog ;-)

Hanoi is a bustling and incredibly interesting city! I just spent my whole morning sitting at a corner cafe, sipping excellent Vietnamese coffee (yep the coffee here is indeed very good!) and watching the people and their busy lifes! The major means of transport is the motorbike! About every second person in Hanoi drives a motorbike! This accounts for very adventurous street crossings! Who thought Rome has the craziest traffic maybe assured that it can get MUCH worse! Almost everything gets transported on motorbikes, sometimes you cannot even see the bike anymore, because the box or the canisters completely cover the bike leaving just enough space for the driver. And wandering the streets you almost can't escape the constant "Hey, YOU!! Need motobike? Vely cheap!! hey hey!!"

Life in Hanoi is outside on the streets. People work, chat, meet and eat on the streets and every corner is just equally busy! In terms of food, the Vietnamese eat just about everything that can be cooked fried or steamed! I had the famous 'Mien Luon' for lunch, basically fried Eel with glass noodles, egg, some greens and accompanied by some soup and a sweetish red sauce and the obligatory fish sauce! Delicious :-)



But it gets even better! Last night I had WHOLE fried frogs with fish and chilly sauce! And believe it or not, you eat them WHOLE! That means the head and the bones as well! If you switch of your mind, they are actually very tasty ;-) Elodie and me sampled already quite a few other culinary delicasses before (like steamed frog and fried pigeon). I haven't made it to try the famous dog or snake, but who knows, maybe i still get a chance ;-)

The overall pace in Vietnam is very different from all I have seen so far on my travels. People here are much more lively, have a greater business sense and Western influence is ubiquitous. I met a recruiter from a London college yesterday at lunch who confirmed my first impressions: "The Vietnamese young are much more clever than their neighbours!". You can see it everywhere: They try to sell you just about everything and for incredible prices. You need to be firm in bargaining if you want to survive the shopping experience here!
Nevertheless, traditional cultures blend well into the bustling modern day life and create a truly interesting mix. You see people playing Go and Chinese chess on the streets, people making traditional arts and handicrafts, worshipping in temples or practicing Thai Chi along the lake! However, the youth seems to change a lot and Western culture strikes hard. Almost everyone has a mobile phone, the young dress up and spend all their money on clothes, hairstyle and prestige items and go out to the new 'hip' bars and night clubs to impress! I had a little chat with a nightbar owner last night and he told me that the average wage of a waiter sums up to about 80 - 100 US$ a month! Not an awful lot considering that normal rent for Vietnamese is already about 40 $ a month and a beer in a bar is about 1 US $ !
People here hardly have any holidays! Maybe one year a month and they spend it maybe at the closeby Halong Bay or some beaches there, since they cannot afford the trip to further away destinations. However, the gap between the 'normal' and the rich seems to be quite significant, since you see a lot of people driving around in Mercedes and dining in top notch places! Concerning business, Vietnam is definitely facing a period of rapid growth over the next years!!

Well, I am going to take in a little more of the city spirit before I continue down south to Hue with the night bus later on.

Oh I haven't talked about Halong Bay yet. The whole thing was a bit touristy. One of these all inclusive bus tours with the regular bus stops where they try to sell you the usual items for 5 times of the regular price and put you for lunch in a shitty restaurant. But we still had a great time out there. The nature was just beautiful! Over 3000 island and rocks with the most grotesque forms (as you can see in the picture below... kazzo ;-)! Almost magical. And we spent the night out on the boat in a cozy bay and had a great seafood dinner, the crew prepared for us.