A little town with a millenary history. In the first century it was the biggest trading port of South East Asia. Many merchants came here from India, China and Japan, during the centuries; even Portuguese, Dutch and French got here. The city has assimilated every influence without loosing its soul. What we can see today is definitely an enchanting and romantic city: with water channels, silk lanterns which enlighten the narrow streets, or the little candles on mini-boats made of rice paper that are released on the surface of the calm river. The streets along the river are full of little restaurants, well furnished and good looking, always packed with tourists who come here from all over the world. The architectural style of the houses in the ancient town is very typical: The space for the building is long and narrow, divided in three squares of the same dimension: the first one, along the street, is usually the shop, the second one on the back is open as an internal secret garden and the third, on the very back, is the proper house.
You can visit a couple of examples of those places that have been turned in to restaurants from two Italians: The first one ‘Good Morning Vietnam’(on Nguyuen Thai Hoc) is very expensive and chic, the owner is a man from Valtellina. The second one, on the same street at number 88, is ‘The Dive’ that is a bar, a restaurant but even a diving center. Even this is not that cheap in comparison with others, but much more friendly and easy style. The owner is Lodovico Ruggeri who come from my own town in Italy, he is very helpful and can give you a lot of tips. The streets not along the river side are given to the shopping. There are many artisans, most of whom are tailors. Even hand-made shoe shops and lanterns shops are every where. Everything you want, they will make you on measure and it will be ready the day after. From boots to suits and even prescription glasses. More for curiosity than real need, we ordered a shirt, a pair of trousers and one prescription glasses (this more necessary). The result has been amazing. It is a lot of fun going in a tailor shop to design by your own the model, and the day after collect your ideas realized just for a full hand of dollars. Here some people go literally crazy. They spend whole weeks pointing at models in the magazines and asking for this and that.
The tailors always assure you that the result will be: “same same”. It is like the motto of HoiAn. After all this you have just to send straight home all this stuff in huge boxes, going away very satisfied, knowing that those suits and dresses in silk or cashmere would cost a fortune in the western countries. Definitely you gotta have an eye for details and materials to not be scammed or being disappointed. We are not expert and even not interested, so in this way we easily limited ourselves. We spent 10 days wandering around taking pictures at the ancient buildings, consumed by the mold like Venice (due to the high level of water in the monsoon season) and at people in the market. The most difficult thing is to do not listen to the calling from the sellers: “buy this, try that rent something…” I remember the last day a woman saying: Motorbike, motorboat, motor something! Like: “motor what ever you want but at least rent something and give me money!” They are boring and they know it, but they are even auto-ironical. We stayed in our usual mini-hotel 15 dollar per night, that is not the cheapest but is however very basic. Every night we changed restaurant, but for lunch we always went to the dear Win at the Old Garden Restaurant (76/26 Kiet Tran Phu), the food was amazing and the price really reasonable, and she even taught us some more Vietnamese words. With a bicycle you can go to the closest beach (3Km from the ancient town) but our advice is to go a bit north of that beach because you will find less crowd and less sellers, and the prices of the restaurants are cheaper. Another beautiful excursion (but this time you need a motorbike) is the promontory close to DaNang.
It is worth to drive along the street near the sea-side. On this road you will find, close to the big white Buddha, some really nice restaurants that are not visible from the top of the bluff. If you see some motorbikes parked at the board of the street, just stop there and go down on the little path toward the sea. You will be impressed by this gorgeous little buildings in straw and bamboo surrounded by the tropical forest facing the crystal blue sea. In one of this places you can even bring your own food and rent a palafitte on the sea. After lunch you can explore the area to spot monkeys and big butterflies in their natural habitat. From HoiAn we go to Huè: just 130km, a trip that will take more than 4 hours because here the buses go so slowly that you can even be over taken by an old woman by bicycle. Yes the old ladies here are very strong and powerfull but anyway it explains well the travel slowness in Vietnam.
In Hué you can have a full immersion in the recent history of this country. Huè rises exactly where was the DMZ (demilitarized zone). An area that marked the border between North Vietnam and South Vietnam after the first Indochina war. After the second Indocona War (or as we call it: Vietnam War, or as Vietnamese call it: American War) Hué has been stage of many battles. The city was part of the territory of the south, governed by filo-American Diem. Actually it was the closest city to the Ho Chi Minh’s comunist territory. So it was both attacked by the Viet ( remember Tet Offensive or Huè massacre) and bombed by the Americans. The same senseless and cruel american bombing as always. Infact they didn’t just kill innocent people, but destroyed the already poor cultural heritage. Anyway Huè is still rich in historical buildings and sites, as the tombs and Imperial Citadel: a magic place that could be more beautiful if there weren’t all the rubble of the war everywhere (even after 40 years) and if we could freely walk around without the danger of the Unexploded Ordnance. Hué has been the capital from the early XIX century till 1945, during the 13 emperors reign . The Citadel, built in 1687 suffered mixed fortunes, it has been occupied by rebels and colonial forces, it has been modified, destroied and rebuilt, and then forgotten for 30 years by the comunist government. Now it shows itself at our sight as a place without a soul. Saying, as I read in guides and books, that when you walk along its streets you can feel the imperial grandeur is not true at all.
I felt instead the the romantic sadness of a nostalgic desolation. I liked that place a lot anyway, it has something to me absolutely special. I liked most riding the bicicle around the village inside the citadel. Out of it, the modern Hué is the usual concrete monster of the economical boom born by the Asian dragon. Other interesting places are the imperial thombs, 15 Ks out of the city and the Thien Mu Pagoda along the side of the parfume river. It has been built in 1601, it is a place that brings a quiet sensation of perfect peace in every soul. More than this it is interesting to me the fact that you can see a piece of the vietnamese modern history. You will find the car used by Thich Quang Duc, to reach the place of his self-immolation. The buddhist monk burned himself to death sitted in the loto position, he was protesting against the persecution of Buddisth peole by south Vietnam’s Ngo Dinh Diem administration. Two facts that I like to underline are the words of the cattolic sister of Diem who said in regard to this event: “if the Buddist would like to do another barbeque I will be glad to offer them the charcoal”. And the second one is: After the cremation of the most venerable monk they found that the heart remained intact and this convinced everyone about the purity of his soul.
Nha Trang (350.000 inhabitants) is the capital of Khành Hòa province,well known for its beaches. First of all the good weather (sunny and windy, 30 degrees during the day and 20 during the night) and than the relaxed atmosphere had made our stay longer. We should have stay just 3 nights but after 10 days we were still walking along Nha Trang beach. Davide’s job has played a big role (because his boss had needed some work done asap) as well as the very comfy and cheap hotel (not in the touristic zone = 15 dollars per night) and Lac Canh a Vietnamese restaurant, that serves delicious food at a very cheap price. Long established and always packed with locals and expats, Lac Canh is a typically bustling Vietnamese street side restaurant, where you can BBQ your own food at the table or enjoy any of the other sea-foods or rice dishes on offer. Nha Trang beach itself is not something particular: 5 or 6 km long, wavy sea and a light brown sand pretty soft. If you want something more you just need to rent a motorbike (we did it thanks to the young Hunguien Trang, the owner of our namesake hotel, for 3 dollars per day) and drive away towards south, north or inland. On these unsealed and narrow roads you will find very beautiful views among fishermen little villages, rice paddies and farms where they breed the funny water buffaloes, that spend all the day soaking in the ponds ruminating and blowing water from their nose. If Ho Chi Minh was full of French tourist here it happen with the Russian ones. Once you arrive in Nha Trang you will see from the main beach a big white sign on the hill of one of the islands. This sign in Hollywood style has written the name of VIN PEARL, that is one of many Russian investment in this place (anyway not everyone ended up in a good way).VinPearl, is a kind of Disneyland of Vietnam, an amusement park connected to the main land by a cable-way. So every year heaps of mustached tourists land up here from the cold and desolate Russian countryside.
After known that, we understood the presence of so many Cyrillic signs, menus and advertisement. And there are a large amount of tour operator specialized in Russian as well. During one of our motorbike tours we discover one Russian investment which ended up in nothing done: 10 km north of Nha Trang there is a territory totally owned by Russians, whom twenty or more years ago started to build a kind of big resort composed by many attractive bungalows with the straw roof in ancient Vietnamese style. But if you come close you will see that the building site has been stopped from at least a couple of decades, going to the dogs, and the gorgeous coast in front of it is completely inaccessible.A tall wall try to hide all the ruins. Anyway Nha Trang is living the economic boom: there are skyscrapers under construction along the sea side, and a big residential zone with hundreds of new Holiday homes.
This is a totally new conception for Vietnamese, who has always been struggling to own one house, let alone two. Foreign investment are giving a big push to the economy of Vietnam nowadays ( the big investors are Japaneses, Koreans, Russians, and but even Italians with the Piaggio: Vespa)We noticed, speaking with people, that many tourists that first choose to overnight at the Sheraton instead of choosing some little Vietnamese hotels, after complain that Nha Trang is too much similar to western countries, they complain that here you can eat Pizza, Hamburger and Spaghetti and there is no-more the magical Vietnamese atmosphere. Our tip is: if you want to choose a place easy to reach, with safety hygenic condition, Internet, and so with all the comforts of a touristic location: enjoy it with all its western aspects. Don’t expect to find too much magic!Here there are night clubs, disco-pub, party-boat (all you can drink), and many activities: snorkeling, diving; you can also go to spa and mud baths (everything much cheaper in comparison to the western standards). The only thing we did of all these was the mud bath at the natural hot spring (the whole day cost us 5 dollars each), all the rest of the time we were walking along the beach eating delicious food and chatting with other people. Because if there is something interesting to find in a very touristic place is that everyone who works there can speak English and wants desperately do exercise with it.
I write this article for two special people, who I hope will come to visit us soon.
My Friends, you are going to leave. You will fly back in time, going towards the night on your transoceanic flight. It Will take approx ten hours to come here in this very far country, far in space as far in time, far from our society and from our habits. This country fought strenuously for more than a millennium for its Independence, against Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and French conquerors and last against the American invaders. A Country, inhabited by this little people, that can do great things. Vietnamese people learned by their story made by abuse, to never give up, to fight together for survival, to protect their cultural identity. Vietnamese who make treasure of our rubbish, learned to recycle everything that comes already old from the western countries. From the used tires that they use again and again on their motor bike and when they became completely useless they are transformed in rubber tongs, to the pieces of wasted wood that become toothpicks made by hands. It has always been like this, even thirty years ago, when they were used to collect unexploded American’ bombs, to open them (risking their lives) and hide the device in beer cans that the Americans had left on the ground. Then they put the pitfall back into the forest hoping the American soldiers would have kicked the cans making them explode. It has always been like that, necessity is mother of invention, and they are really inventive.
You will arrive in this country, where the horrified westerns call them uncivilized cause they eat cats and dogs. If you ask them about that they will say innocently: “ yes we eat dogs but just the lazy ones not the smart ones”. This is the necessity of a poor country, that’s it. To be honest I remember my gramma telling me the story about the bombing in 1943. When in Rome, near San Lorenzo, she was forced to remain hidden underground for 2 weeks and one day, no food left, she cooked the family pet, a cat! You will come in this country and you will find it dirty and stinky, where people pee and shit in the street. Where the streets are full of holes and most of them are unsealed. As well as you will see people always busy cleaning and fixing stuff, even polishing the rubbish bin. You, my friends, will see the locals that improvise every kind of business. Little kids selling lottery tickets and barbers that having so few bears to shave turn up in ears wax cleaners. You will see very old and skinny woman pushing their overloaded bicycles. They collect rubbish to sell it again to the recyclers, this is a very respectable job to do with the hands in the garbage bin and a big smile on the face. You will not fall in love with Vietnam for its wonderful landscapes, not even for the very charming rice field or the colourful little houses. But you will fall in love for sure, and believe me, you can’t help falling in love with this country. Because here you will have the magic opportunity to learn something that we lost ages ago: Simplicity. You will learn how to smile to the difficulties. A man we met last night confessed us to be very surprised about the sadness of western people who come here for holiday. He couldn’t understand how is possible to not see them smiling and honestly we neither. He said “ we are happy people, here in Vietnam, we love smiling people who enjoy life, cause we are grateful for every single day. We smile even if we don’t have teeth, we laugh with our lame friends and do not just look at them with detached pity, we are full of joy for our children, even if after two generations they still born with birth defect caused by Orange Agent and Napalm”. Here you will feel more than welcome. Eventually you will come to this country, that may scare you, you may have fear to be robbed, because it could happen in a poor country if we accept it happens in our rich ones, but believe me the only thing they will steal will be your heart.
Chiara
We went to visit the biggest floating market in South-East-Asia, the one on the Mekong delta. (one advice: do not go with a one-day-trip departing from Ho Chi Min, because by the time you get there the market will be closed, instead go the day before, sleep there and wake up very early in the morning, you will be amazed of how many colored boats selling every kind of goods you will see). Another good tour is the Cu Chi tunnels: they are very small burrows dig by hand by VietMinh people at the time of the French war and used once more and enlarged in length and levels from the Vietcong to fight the American Invaders. The remaining days we wandered around the city, but not with the schedule that you can have visiting Rome or Paris, from a museum to a monument. Mostly we spent time in the Phuong (districts) were people live in the street, not because they do not have houses at all, but cause they like to stay together and share every moment with the community, from eating to sleeping.In this very narrows streets, it seem like you are entering the people’s houses. Some times we like to cross many times the streets. Because here they don’t need crossing lights, the just go, horning the klaxon but keep going. A pedestrian has just to cross the street whit confidence and slowly, the bikers will avoid him very naturally. You can even cross blind, I know that seem crazy with all that traffic jam, but they seem to tell you “ there is space enough for everyone!” They are so accustomed to live many people in so little spaces, that for them the safety distance has no meaning. I’m not telling they are space invaders, at the contrary they are space creators. We are more used to gain spaces in external, with our houses, in our cities,
they are more good to share their space for infinite times. One example: On the train Saigon- NhaTrang (hard seat-no/air-con, not common among tourists) that was almost empty, we were the very only foreigners, this aroused all their curiosity and sympathy. That means everybody come close to us. No-one could speak English and with our poor Vietnamese we could always chat about the same matters with everyone (where do you come from? where are you going? what’s your name?, nice to meet you…) although this lack of communication they keep staying sited with us, smiling and moving the head in sign of approbation. Once they noticed that we were very pleased of their company even the people from the other coaches come to join us, with their wife and kids. At the end we were in a space made for four, happy smiling in 12 or more, for 8 hours. When we arrived, after so many hours, to Nha Trang they couldn’t help stopping to greet us with the hands from the windows for a very long time. That was moving!
One week ago we landed in Saigon. The most populous city of Vietnam. With its normal nearly eight millions of inhabitants, during the Tet “ feast of the first morning” reach the 10 millions of people. Tet is celebrated on the same day as Chinese new year and it is the most popular holiday in Vietnam. Not just the tourist, come here to join the celebration, but the country people from the villages nearby end up here as well. The high class celebrates it for one month, the middle class for one week, closing their business, and the poor people never stop to work, not even a day. In this period of the year the prices are the highest and the number of tourist make it a very good moment for business, although, as I said, many shops and restaurant decide to remain close for the whole week. The first moving, with the back pack from the airport to the hotel, aroused many “Hello” and “Welcome to Vietnam” from the locals. They were very happy and surprised to see us walking. Cause nobody use to walk here. Tourists usually go around with the very cheap cyclo-risciò, taxi or moto-taxi. The Saigoners move just by motorbikes or at least bike, even if it is just to go 20 meters further. They have a pathological relationship with their motorbikes. You can only see them driving the motorbike, or sited on the motorbike looking at the motorbike jam or even sleeping on it.
are millions of scooters everywhere, available for rent and you can rent one very easily. The price for tourist is 4 dollars per day. But who use most this service are the locals. They jump on in 3 or 4 people. Is not uncommon the scene: dad, mum kid and gramma all on one little broken motorbike. Some times may be gramma and kids are even sleeping. Dunno how is possible in that bustle! We just come from Australia, where there are special driving lines for whom are at least two in a car. You can understand how different it seemed to us. Anyway we are shocked at the sight of what they carry on this little motorbikes, from alive and dead animals to big heavy pot with tree inside. Some days after we understood that all these trees were connected to the celebration of the Tet. The following days we joined some organized tours.
(to be continued…)
Arriviamo a Sapa all’alba di un gelido mattino di inverno. L’autobus che ci ha prelevato a notte fonda a Lao Cai ora ci sta per scaricare con i nostri bagagli nei vari alberghi, ma noi non avendo prenotato (sicuri dell’inculata) dobbiamo farci un giro per cercare l’abergo. Nel frattempo quegli accidenti di zaini north fake che abbiamo comprato ad Hanoi due giorni prima stanno già cominciando ad abbandonarci. Mentre cerchiamo di riappropriarci delle facoltà basilari per connettere, decidiamo di far colazione e di rimandare la ricerca di un oretta quando si spera farà meno freddo. Anche se ha tutta l’aria di riprendere a nevicare. Sono le sette del mattino. É in questo momento gelido e brumoso che veniamo assaliti dalla vera essenza di Sapa: le venditrici ambulanti. Queste folcloristiche signore si avvicinano correndo verso il primo gruppo di turisti che vedono e lo seguono per sempre. Il che non vuol dire per una bella manciata di minuti, ma significa tutto il resto della vacanza. Loro vi seguiranno fino all’albergo, anche se ne cambiate sei prima di decidere quale scegliere, vi aspetteranno fuori, perchè prima o poi dovrete pur uscire, no? Poi vi pedineranno fino al mercato, dove però, grazie a dio loro non sono ammesse. Allora vi verrà naturale pensare alla fuga, vi comincerete a scambiare occhiate con I vostri compagni di viagio. Metterete in atto un piano: disperdervi tra le bancarelle per poi incontrarvi all’uscita del mercato dalla parte opposta della piazza. Queste cose non si posoono improvvisare, dovrete essere pronti e scattanti. Nonappena sarete fuori simulerete naturalezza cercandocon lo sguardo I vostri compagni, e lo sguardo che incrocerete, l’unico dritto davanti a voi, sarà quello della vostra venditrice, la vostra personale. Sì perchè loro si muovono in gruppo come noi, ma alla fine ognuna di loro ha un suo unico obbiettivo e non lo mollerà fino alla fine. Dopotutto ci si abitua a farsi la scorta, è come avere dei fans che ti seguono ovunque, e non aspettano altro che …bè I tuoi soldi, ovvio. Ci aggiriamo un pò per il paesino con le nostre buffe accompagnatrici che si limitano a sorridiere e chiedere l’età e poi apparirne meravifgliate come a dire sembri più giovane, a chiunque ed in continuazione.
La sera quando rientriamo all’albergo e ci accorgiamo della magnifica vista, prima occultata da una spessa coltre di nubi, di cui potremo godere ogni mattino svegliandoci, in quello stesso mometo facciamo anche un ingrata scoperta. Offuscati dai -3 gradi del mattino, ci eravamo incaponiti nel voler in camera almeno un eater (quelle pericolosissime stufette ad incandescenza senza la grata) ed avendo visto bellissime camere asolutamente gelide avevamo optato per quella che alla fine ci aveva concesso quello srtaordinario elettrodomestico. In tutto ciò nessuno di noi 4 si era posto il problema dell’ acqua calda. Così I più coraggiosi hanno scelto la doccia con l’acqua surgiva delle montagne di 2000 mt di Sapa io ho impiegato tre ore a riscaldare col bollitore 75cl alla volta una vasca da bagno che era sproporzionatamente grande. Chi se lo fa un bel bagno gelido in 300 litri d’acqua ghiacciata in montagna d’inverno quando fuori c’è meno due?I
Il mattino successivo ci svegliamo in paradiso, credendo di esser morti di assideramento. Sotto di noi solo il bianco , un mare di soffice bianco, nuvole così dense da non permetterci di vedere se il nostro albergo è ancora piantato a terra. Davanti a noi uno spettacolo sovrannaturale, 3000 o chissa quante terrazze di prato verde che sembrano i giardini pensili di Babilonia, uno sopra all’altro in tante scale infinite e verdissime, che slagono sù, fino al cielo più azzurro che si possa immaginare.
Eccitati e vivi, scendiamo a fare colazione dove notiamo con gioia che il camino è acceso ma il combustibile di tal fuoco è un tonco lungo circa 2 metri che giace steso in mezzo alla sala, l’ottanta per cento del quale è fuori dal camino. Proprio mentre ci sediamo a fare colazione il nostro oste lo sistema dandogli una spintarella che lo fa avanzare di circa due centimetri, capiamo che non c’è molto con cui tenersi occupati. Noleggiamo un paio di motorini e partiamo per la nostra scampagnata tra I paesini delle cosidette minority people, le minoranze etniche. Non prrima dell scena più esilarante dopo di mesi di viaggio. Noleggiamo I due motorini ad due tizi che è ovviamente il loro unico mezzo di trasporto e il loro paese dista 20 km e finchè non torneremo stasera staranno là seduti a grattarsi le palle probabilmente.
Scorrazziamo su e giù e ci fermiamo a fare foto nei vari paesini, dappertutto ci sono magnifiche camminate su e giù per I terrazzamenti, dove tutto ciò che vedi è fatto dal’uomo ma non è in nessuna misura artificiale.
La sera mentre prendiamo un birra in un localino vediamo passare un tizio con al guinzaglio un animale che desta la curiosità, non solo nostra, ma di tutti gli altri clienti. Al guinzaglio furente e selvaggio, che cerca di mordere la gamba al suo catturatore c’è un topo di 15 kg, grosso come un gatto ma molto più tarchiato. Non è un ratto è più un criceto smisurato. Il suo cacciatore stava cercando di venderlo ai ristoranti lungo la strada. Voleva 20 dollarazzi! Non c’è stato nessun compratore anche se in un paio hanno cercato di trattare sul prezzo. Per concludere: Sapa è un gran bel posto!! Uno dei migliori!!
If you decide to visit VietNam here there are some practical advices. First of all the Visa. In VietNam you must obtain a Visa before entering the country, cause you can’t get it on arrival like in other country of south-east Asia. The best you can do is to visit the web site www.myvietnamvisa.com.Is very cheap and reliable. Once you have the letter of request of the visa (that you will obtain on-line by e-mail) make sure you have 2 passport format Photos and 25 or 50 USD (depending if you want the single entry one or multiple entry one) you can also pay in Dong or Singaporean dollars, but remember to put that amount in your wallet cause you can’t withdraw inside that part of the airport. Once you get it you can enter the country and look for an accommodation. Two very cheap ways to find accommodations are: Go straight to the back packer district, right in the city center, Phurong Pham Ngu Lao, here you can find a bed from 5 bucks or a twin room from 10. Otherwise you can visit www.agoda.com, there you will find heaps of offers about very comfortable rooms ( from 15/20 bucks). Of course if you want to spend more it will be very easy to find any kind of accommodation you desire, and all them will be always cheaper in comparison with European or Australian standards. As soon as you are in your room you may need to contact your dears, and possibly you want to use your favorite social network. But you will face the lack of social freedom about the usage of this media. In fact the government has imposed restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association. The government persecutes who spread information against it and the penalties are very strict. The cyber dissidents risk to go in jail or in re-educations camps for many years (from 5 to 16). But don’t worry if you really need to connect with your social network you can download from the web the free program: Hotspot Shield. http://www.hotspotshield.com/ In this way you will be free to surf in a very private and safe way.
So far so good! Have a good one and see you in VietNam.
A Ninh Binh ci siamo stati due volte. La prima salendo da Huè, e ci siamo arrivati in treno. La seconda con Fabio e Diana scendendo in Bus da Hanoi.
Le due volte sono state esperienze molto differnti tra loro. La prima dormivamo a Ninh Binh e non a Tam Coc, il posto che ha reso famoso Nimhbinh a livello turistico. Ninh Binh si trova sulla linea ferroviaria ed è più facilmente raggiungibile anche in bus, poi da lì si noleggia un motorino e si arriva a Tam coc in 10 minuti. La seconda volta credendo di far meglio abbiamo dormito direttamente a Tam Coc.
Quando siamo arrivati, ‘incastrati’ in un giro organizzato non voluto (visto che in agenzia avevamo prenotato solo i 4 posti sul minivan) abbiamo avuto un diverbio con la supposta guida. Noi avevamo pagato solo la corsa in autobus e facevamo invece parte di un tour organizzato, quindi stop obbligatorio al gift shop e tappa in un posto a caso che ha portato via un ora abbondante. Durante la tappa la guida ha anche osato raccogliere I soldi per l’ingresso al sito, che era assolutamente gratuito, ce ne siamo resi conto solo dopo ovviamente. La supposta guida parlava inglese in modo pessimo e rispondeva tutte le domande con: -pray-here-bings-luky-an-money! ovvero pregano qui che gli arrivino dal cielo fortuna e soldi, e ci sembrò di capire che anche lui pregava a quello stesso tempio. Insomma, sapendo che era una battaglia persa, chiediamo alla guida di vedere I biglietti che aveva comprato e dopo una pantomima assurda durante la quale ha anche provato a rifilarci due biglietti per la barca che aveva trovato a terra, ci arrendiamo al volere del dio che porta I soldi…a lui, e lasciamo correre.
Dopo pranzo prendiamo la barchetta guidata dall’anziana signora di turno che rema coi piedi e sorride sempre. Dopo circa 10 minuti comincia piovere a dirotto dopo 20 minuti siamo fradici e la barchetta è una piscina, decidiamo di tornare indietro e diciamo alla signora che la paghiamo il dovuto ma che rinunciamo al giretto di un ora e mezza, che non è per niente piacevole. Lei allora ci rapisce, si infatta sotto una roccia con la brachina per non farci bagare e comincia ad apparecchiare la bagnarola con dei fazzoletti dipinti di cui non ce ne frega un ….
Dopo una decina di minuti, mentre piove sempre più forte, si rassegna lei questa volta e si rimette a remare per portarci indietro. Ma questa a Tam coc è una storia vecchia. Noi la prima volta evitando autobus turistici e barchette , ma noleggiando il solito motorino e girando tra le risaie abbiamo visto una parte eccezionale di Vietnam, scenari surreali con spedizioni esplorative nelle varie caverne-tempio. Spettacolare! A volte si è solo sfortunati e la piogia non migliora le cose! Infatti il caso ha voluto che la seconda volta trovassimo anche una bella pantegana sulle scale dell’albergo. Never mind!
Some days after landing in Perth we decided to buy a car. We would like to drive for 30 thousand Km so we needed a reliable one. For this reason we went to Second Hand Car Dealer. Now, after one year and 28.000 Km we can say that was a good idea. In fact we met hips of unlucky drivers, who had bought the car from a private and than they broke down in very remote areas. This is not just very expensive, but can also upset your trip if you are forced to come back to the closest big town. This way you have to pay for the transport of the car from a remote area, and if is not possible to fix it you have to pay the demolition. And may be you are back to the starting point this time without any money. This is our advice: If you absolutely want to spend as less as possible, go to a private but at least bring the car to a mechanic that you choose and possibly one who is very expert of your car brand. Once the trip end up, your new challenge will be the selling.
I stayed challenge cause for us wasn’t easy at all. The best is to buy the car In Western Australia or Northern Territory and to register it there ( this means your plate will be WA or NT) So you will be Allowed to sell the car easily (without the need of any kind of mechanical check)
Otherwise to sell the car, if your it has been registered differently as above, you would require the Road Worthy Certificate. Though we bought the car in the right place we did a big mistake renewing the registration, cause we moved the plate to Victoria. We didn’t know we could renew it in WA by phone, and at the transport office in Melbourne they told us we were obligate to transfer it after 3 months of permanence in Victoria. That’s it!
Why Road Worthy is so bad? Because now you are in the hell of mechanics. They will tell you that the car is full of hidden damages, and to fix it it will cost the same to buy onother one. Happened to us, they offered to buy our car for an unreasonable ridiculous price instead of fixing it.You can’t sell the car without RWC unless the buyer provide it in 14 days. But is not easy to find a buyer who wants to buy a car that cost double of the value. Otherwise you could sell the car without the plate, like a normal object, but the buyer must register the car if he wants to use it, so unless you want be dishonest, you have to lower a lot the price of the vehicle. And think about this: a vehicle without registration doesn’t interest anyone, cause it is a big part of the value of the car (700 dollars for 12 months in Victoria). We have been very Lucky. The very last day we found an Italian mechanich, very honest, who sayd that the cost for the fixing would have been just around 1000. That means, for our Subaru all wheel drive, just the replacement of the 4 tires and the front screen (which had just some tiny, invisible, defects caused by the little rocks that hit the screen while you are driving behind a big truck for example. But anyway much better than the other preventives. So we cut 1000 off from our price of the car and convinced the buyer to fix it. Any way be aware of all these and feel free to ask for more advices.
Check the following web sites.
For Victoria http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/Registration/BuySellTransferVehicles/BuyingSelling/
For Western Australia http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/licensing/21617.asp
For Northern Territory http://www.nt.gov.au/transport/mvr/registration/index.shtml
For New South Wales http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/registration/index.html
For Queensland http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Registration/Transferring-registration.aspx
For South Australia http://www.ezyreg.sa.gov.au/ezyreg/renew-your-registration.htm
Buon Road Trip a tutti!
Chiara
