Somewhere on the Globe

Travels in Southern China

nobody@vox.com(Bill and Marge Pfeffer) — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:34:26 -0700

We’re now traveling through Southern China having taken a train out of Vietnam on 30-April. As of 06-May, we’re in the town of Yangshuo, a very scenic location about an hour south of Guilin, where we’ll be staying for the next 10-14 days. Within China, 10% of all Web sites are censored/blocked, unfortunately, our www.pfeffer.vox.com is one of these ‘taboo’ sites, so for now we’re unable to post or even view our blog. Rather than transfer everything to a new blog site that is accessible within China (and there are quite a few), we’ll wait until we’re in Hong Kong the end of May and post our accumulated entries then. Perhaps as we move through other Chinese provinces, the situation will change, but for now, there’s not much we can do.

Trust that we’re both safe and sound and that we’ll be traveling through China until 19-July – our itinerary will be Guilin, Yangshuo, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Shanghai, Xian, and Beijing (with other stops along this main route). We’d really like to get to Lhasa on the new railroad, but this is not possible right now – maybe in another month when we’re in Xian things will open up. We will be in Beijing the beginning of July to hook up with our Trans-Mongolian train across Russia (leaving 19-July).

Travel in China takes a little patience – modern and clean, very few people speak English, most everything is signed in Chinese, and there are crowds of people wherever you turn, yet very few westerners. Despite these challenges, the people are friendly and eager to understand and help you, while we’ve learned the basic phrases to get by and communicate. Still, simple things, like figuring out a cheap calling card for our cell phone, took up the better part of two days, and Marge is still trying to get a prescription filled at a Chinese pharmacy.

All in all, the next few months will test our independent travel stamina and ingenuity, as we navigate our way across the huge expanse of China, employing local buses and trains on our way north. Stay tuned for more updates as we try to keep everyone up to date on our current status.

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A Stitch In Time

nobody@vox.com(Bill and Marge Pfeffer) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:13:27 -0700

Lantern Lit Hoi An

As the pretty young gal efficiently read my measurements and relayed them to her helper, who distractedly recorded them in a paper notebook, I attempted mental conversions from centimeters to inches – the circumference of my neck, the size of my biceps, the volume of my crotch, the girth of my thighs, the width of my shoulders, the span of my calves, the apex of my navel, the breadth of my hips, the thickness of my wrist, reflecting on how, up to now, my only concern was waist size and inseam length. Why, today of all hot days, did I not wear my underwear ?

In Hoi An, famous for its custom clothing, everything is made based on individual shape, where blocks of retail tailors are interspersed with sweat shop sewing factories lined with workers and their machines (best workers earn $60/month). What began as an innocent new travel shirt - two zipper pockets hidden by Velcro

More Hoi An

flaps in a lightweight cotton fabric - greedily ended three days later, with a smart charcoal grey wool overcoat, a classic cashmere wool suit, a pair of cotton pants having three hidden zipper pockets, and another print shirt, all made to order overnight, with everything ultimately stuffed in one box for the three month sea mail journey back to the states. Shop around and interview a few establishments before making a commitment, perhaps starting with a simple shirt (as we did) to determine their workmanship. Had I not been so reliant on flip flops, I would have had some custom shoes made at the same time.

Hoi An is everyone’s favorite town in Vietnam, in fact, it may be my favorite spot so far in Southeast Asia. Whether you choose to walk the many blocks of ancient town and admire the centuries old architecture or dine at one of the many outdoor cafes along the riverfront, or day trip to the My Son ruins, or ride bicycles to the local beach, or just lounge at one of the many inexpensive hotels, it’s difficult to imagine a

Hoi An - I Like This Picture

more perfect town. From the huggable little grammas wandering the colorful lantern lit alleys late at night in their silken pajamas, to the family run restaurant we frequented often (Café 43), the people of this town are disarmed easily with a quick smile and hello (‘sing ciao’ is how it sounds). Compact, cultural, charismatic, charming, colorful, Hoi An has something for everyone, and every adjective from A-Z could be applied to this little gem of a destination.

The day trip to the My Son ruins, about 40 km outside of town, was an especially interesting and high value venture. Built in the 12^th century by the Cham dynasty, the ruins themselves are in varying states of disrepair, in fact, parts of them were bombed during the Vietnam war, yet the ones still intact were impressive in the steamy jungle setting. On the way home, we opted for the optional boat ride, stopping at a woodcarving island, and soaking up the cool breezes. It continues to be very hot in Vietnam, but we hope that as we move north into China, it will cool somewhat.

My Son Ruins

There are many interesting shops scattered throughout town, although predominantly clothing, as well as a very colorful local market, where I foolishly glanced a millisecond too long at this hat for which the lady wanted 180,000 dong ($10), and then patiently suffered her insistent and persistent nagging as she followed after me, beseeching me, begging me to be her first good luck sale of the day, repeatedly crossing out the price on her etch-a-sketch as we tangoed past the bananas and papayas – 160,000 – 150,000 – 140,000 – 130,000 – 120,000 – 110,000, while I continued to emphatically decline her offer, telling her I didn’t care for the hat at any price, until after 15 minutes of her pitiful pleading, I fitfully relented at 32,000 dong ($2), not so much because I wanted the hat, but more so because her Emmy winning theatrics were entertaining. And actually, the hat is not so bad after all.

Colorful Pagoda in Hoi An

Next stop up the road was the old capital of Vietnam, Hue, about 2 hours away, but with these tour buses, you stop many times, mostly unnecessarily, so the trip actually took 5 hours. Along the way we stopped at this really lonely stretch of beach where the waves were perfect for boogie boarding and the restaurant probably provided kickbacks to the bus drivers. It had perfect boogie board waves, but evidently no one rents anything, otherwise we may have gotten off the bus and stayed a day or two before continuing on.

The main attraction in Hue is the Citadel, a 10 kilometer walled square where much of the population resides. Within this structure are various other imperial structures and temples, with porcelain encrusted entrance gates, intricately carved support columns, all in varying stages of repair (again, many of the structures were bombed during Vietnam war). What we’ll remember most about Hue is the hotel we stayed, a rare one night stand – after traveling all over the world, staying at many very, very nice hotels, this is the first time that we got a room that came with a computer for our personal use - that and a huge balcony overlooking the city

Lady, You Think You Could Concentrate on Driving For A Second

for $12/night.

The new travel clothes also triggered a fresh evaluation of our bags, and forced a bit of triage, since we’re traveling so light, every new thing displaces something old, something we tend to do every few weeks. Right now we’re a little top heavy in books since we tend to acquire them in exchange whenever we can – many of the books you find here are copies, of sometimes poor quality, with little trade in value. Oh, did I mention Marge’s two traditional Ao Dai silk dresses and a couple pair of pants? If we didn’t need to get this show on the road, I would have returned to our favorite tailor for even more bargains. After all, even with postage, it all came to $302 – my complete suit being the most costly at $75…

Marge on Boat Tour

Bill Supplying The Missing Head

One of Many Sewing Factories

Unfortunate Surname for This Business

I Haven't A Clue What These Have in Common

Is This Old Guy Blowing Me A Kiss ?

Hoi An - Old French Colonial

Getting Fitted

The Citadel, Hue

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Dalat To Like

nobody@vox.com(Bill and Marge Pfeffer) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:28:35 -0700

Dalat Countryside

I couldn’t decide what was most annoying about our frustrated NASCAR wannabe driver, the fact that he felt inclined to check his cell phone for messages every 5 minutes, or the sporting way he slalomed around potholes and cow pies, or the irritating habit he had of impatiently sounding his horn (which sounded like a warbling sore-throated yodeler) at everything, or the paranoid and claustrophobic behavior he exhibited whenever another vehicle blocked his right of way and he felt obliged to pass (and lay on his horn of course)….

We were packed 12 people plus luggage in a 9 passenger minivan for the 5 hour ride from the beach town of Mui Ne to
the hill town of Dalat in central Vietnam. Fortunately, I nabbed the shotgun seat while Marge got a middle row next to a young and pleasant Australian mate. As I gazed over the carpeted dashboard adorned with a bottle of perfume, a smiling Buddha statue, a small vase of fresh flowers, and an oversized beanie baby knockoff, I alternatively kept telling myself, this better be worth it and I hope to live long enough to see China.

Beaches of Mui Ne, Vietnam

Windswept Mui Ne was a soothing respite from the hustle of Saigon, an isolated and quiet 6 mile ribbon of sand, predictably famous for windsurfing and kite flying. We stayed at a very nice little resort (Little Mui Ne Cottages), and did nothing more than lay around the pool, re-tan, and recharge our batteries for the next leg of our journey. It felt good to be back on the beach, something we last did the end of January, although I’m only good for a few days before getting restless to move on.

Seemingly Unseaworthy Coracle Boat

Mui Ne is rapidly becoming a developed beach community, with new growth prevalent along it’s shores, due to it’s proximity to Saigon, yet still retains it’s flavor as a local fishing community, with colorful and sturdy boats littering the beach, and nighttime squid fisherman lit up like a string of pearls (we had the best squid here at a small family run restaurant across the street – the Golden Sunlight). During the day the local fisherman would bravely challenge the choppy seas in round little wicker baskets called coracles (see pictures), setting their nets and bouncing around like cheap bobble head dolls, seemingly always on the brink of teetering over and drowning.

People flock to Dalat for the cool weather, fresh air and pastoral rural scenery. Although the town is pleasant enough, there’s an imbalance between the number of hotels and good restaurants and bars/cafes. By far, the best parts of Dalat are in the surrounding hills, visited easily and enjoyably by employing the self proclaimed and ubiquitous ‘Easy Riders’, a popular excursion where you buddy up on a motorbike with one of the locals. For $20/person, you ride on the back with your driver for the day,

Bill and His Easy Rider Pilot

welcoming the fresh air and appreciating the many sites and sounds of Vietnam - mud encrusted water buffaloes languishing in verdant rice paddies, the secretive cicadas shrieking in the hot air, chocolate colored rivers snaking through coffee plantations, gardens meticulously scalloped from the hillsides, lovely young ladies dressed in snow flake white traditional Ao Dai dresses riding their bikes home from school, farmers in their recognizable triangle hats toiling in the fields, and locals on the side of the road selling the fruits of their labor

One of the more fascinating sites we visited was the non OSHA approved silk factory, where young girls collected and boiled mulberry cocoons, stripping and entangling the individual silk strands on spools that mechanically wound the multiple threads together. The factory was hot, the ruckus of the machinery overbearing, the potential for accidents imposing, as these ancient machines wound the silk,
and the poor young gals slaved away. I was particularly fascinated by this 200 year old Rube Goldberg, very clever, old fashioned contraption that ingested thousands of individual silk threads on one side, fed them through these dirty old cardboard pattern regulating templates on top, and magically transformed the strands into a delightful woven silk fabric

Silk Factory Assembly Line

embellished with elaborate patterns.

Other stops included a home based noodle factory, where the entire family toils all day in a hot building, boiling, slicing, and packaging rice noodles for distribution to local markets, the wonderful Elephant Falls with a very funny and jolly giant white Buddha, lunch at a very local eating establishment overlooking the valley, a building designer gone mad Crazy House, and a mushroom farm with adjoining rice distillery. We continue to be impressed by the zealousness and capitalist spirit displayed by so many people, willing to work so hard under such poor conditions to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Marge, Next Time, Get A Smaller Helmut

From Dalat, we cruised downhill in a minivan (very comfortable 3 hours) to the seaside town of Nha Trang, the trip notable for the very bizarre naked guy walking down the middle of the road as we rounded a corner. There must be some local competition for who can drive from Dalat to Nha Trang the fastest, since there would be no other reason for our driver to act with such reckless abandon, all the while carrying on a non stop conversation with the cute gal sitting next to him.

Bill on his Birthday With 75 Cent Pitcher of Local Brew

Nha Trang, an upscale beach community, is nestled against the mountains with a bay that’s sprinkled with offshore islands, and a beach that extends for a couple of miles. We stayed at a very nice hotel about a block from the beach, and ventured to the sand every day, renting chairs at one of the private beaches, reading, and taking long walks and dips along the ocean. Across the street from our hotel was a small, very popular local pub, where you sat around outside on these smallish chairs that seemed to have been stolen from some child’s playhouse, and where for 75 cents you got a small pitcher (good for 4 glasses) of ‘fresh’ beer, something made by the locals and sold to establishments around town (the last time I had beer this cheap, I was 18 and sitting at the Timber Lodge in my home town). What I’ll remember about our hotel was the observance, as we sat on our balcony during happy hour and looked down upon the debris strewn vacant lot across the street, of a dozen or so rats scurrying about. Nha Trang is very nice, but really, this cookie cutter town could be anywhere in the world – you couldn’t stand down town and look around and know you were in Vietnam.

Elephant Falls, Dalat, Vietnam

Next adventure is an overnight bus to the charming hamlet of Hoi An, about half way up the coast of Vietnam, where I’m apprehensive about inflicting monetary damage to our budget, since Hoi An is known for it’s shopping, especially made to order clothing.

There’s a lot to like about Dalat, Mui Ne and Nha Trang, and for days afterwards, I could not get that annoying and persistent yodeler sound out of my head.

Crazy House, Dalat, Vietnam

Strange Machine

Favorite Locals Pub

Mr and Mrs Dung from the Dreams Hotel, Dalat, Vietnam

At the Noodle Factory

Our Room in Mui Ne

Two Fisherman Would Go In The River In This Tiny Toy Boat

Jolly White Buddha

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Something Happening Here

nobody@vox.com(Bill and Marge Pfeffer) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:40:49 -0700

Hordes of Motorbikes

As we balanced on the curb assessing more motorbikes than I had seen in my entire lifetime, a hunchbacked 150 year old Mother Teresa look-alike walked up, and, without hesitation, stepped off the curb into the seemingly uninhibited traffic. Acting quickly, we selfishly tucked into her 80 pound leeward shoulder and mirrored her movements across the busy thoroughfare, gently offering words of encouragement only we understood. After a few frightful moments we were successfully across, our first introduction to crossing the notorious streets of Saigon.

At first, it seemed daunting to attempt to cross the streets with hundreds of motorbikes buzzing around, yet you really have three choices: cross hesitantly with your head on a swivel constantly scanning the faces of the oncoming drivers – cross confidently, your eyes straight ahead, no hesitation, just a steady direction and constant speed – or cross with a group of locals using them as both a shield and template for when and where to move. If you maintain a constant direction and speed, the drivers will swerve to one side of the other and after a while you experience what Moses must have when he parted the Red Sea.

In a 5 hour timeframe - the time is takes to ride a bus from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Saigon, Vietnam – you are

Jade Emperor Pagoda

presented with the reality of comparing and contrasting a backward, dirty, and seedy capital versus a thriving, dynamic and clean center of commerce. Phnom Penh is no Saigon - I’m not sure it ever will be. As we walked the streets of downtown Saigon, there were industrious and motivated vendors lining every open space, with people on bikes selling everything imaginable, and enterprising locals on every corner with compressors and spare tires for those motorbikes in need. Despite the constant horn blowing and heightened anxiety, there seems to be a coordinated coexistence between everyone, as hundreds and hundreds of motorbikes constantly jockey for position within a laneless fifty foot swath of concrete.

We both loved Saigon, or as it’s called here, Ho Chi Minh City, named after the great liberator Uncle Ho. We spent three nights at the 5 star Sheraton Saigon Towers in a great location downtown, close to all the major attractions. Again, because of our Platinum status, we were upgraded to a rather large suite, given complimentary buffet breakfast, and nightly happy hour with open bar and tons of food.

Selling Everything From Bikes

Some of the highlights include, War Remembrance Museum, although we thought it was really slanted against the Americans. Coming out of this museum, I really felt like the bad guy after seeing pictures of My Lai massacre, the consequences of Agent Orange (including deformed babies in a jar), scenes of torture and effects of napalm, and many photographs illustrating American atrocities. The Presidential Palace, another historic structure, has been preserved as it stood on that fateful day in 1975 when the Republic of Vietnam was taken over by the Communist North Vietnamese. Another interesting side trip was to the Jade Emperor Pagoda, a very colorful Chinese temple filled with wonderful woodcarvings and dark and sometimes menacing figures, all surrounded by the smoky essence of incense, backlit by rays of the sun sneaking through cracks in the roof.

View From Presidential Palace

It was very refreshing to see Saigon as such a modern and dynamic city, throbbing with life, where capitalists flock to

Enterprising Young man

invest in new enterprises, and local people are free to pursue personal ventures. As our friend JW from the wine bar in Luang Prabang commented, he enjoyed the frenetic energy of Saigon, and I quite agree, there’s something happening here and it’s clearly very good.

Our itinerary for Vietnam (30 days) includes 3 days in Saigon, a couple of days in the quiet beach community of Mui Ne, then up into the hills to Dalat for a few days, then back to the coast to Nga Trang, Moi Ann, Hue, HaLong Bay, the hillside town of Sapa and finally Hanoi before exiting into China the first of May.

Nice Pagoda in Saigon

Uncle Ho in The Post Office

Marge at War Remembrances Museum

Saigon Post Office

Compressor On Every Corner

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