Week 15 – Mendoza, Cordoba and Rosario

This week was really very uneventful and maybe sort of disappointing but mostly because I did have really high expectations from both Mendoza’s wine and Cordoba, Argentina’s second biggest city and its educational and cultural centre.

Disappointment 1: Mendoza

I was very excited about tasting all these wines in Mendoza, the heart of Argentine wine industry. We had 3 options: one to take one of many regular tours through wineries for some $40-50, a posh one that would require splashing out upwards from $160 or just go to one subregion Maipu, rent a bicycle and pop in to random wineries that accept the visits. Considering lack of regular pay checks we went for a regular tour just to see how it goes and decide on the other options later. The tour started wrong from the beginning … we spent 1 hour in the tour bus collecting people from various hotels and hostels around Mendoza. Then it got worse; we went to Navarro Corres, a winery owned by Diagio (one of the biggest if not the biggest alcohol company in the word) who after absolutely boring tour of the production process served us with their probably worst and cheapest wines. Things got slightly better with a medium-size boutique winery Vistandes, that only produces for export and own consumption at the bodega. The tour was more interesting and passionate. We got to taste their Torrontes, Argentine white grape. It was not bad really but sort of strange selection of 2008 for tasting after explaining to us that the young wine that did not age in the oak barrels is best within 2-3 years… The last winery we visited was a small winery Don Arturo where the tour was fun, tasting was ‘richer’ though the wine themselves were rather non-descript; the flagship wine of this winery were 2003 vintages that the owner aged for his daughter’s wedding in 2007, those of course we did not taste! All the wine tastings we did was before lunch; somehow it did not settle with me to drink wine that early after the meagre breakfast! The best thing of the wine tour was the lunch with a humongous picada (selection of cold cuts, cheeses, salads, fresh, grilled, marinated vegetables) that was served with the non-branded house Syrah, that turned out to be the best wine we had that day; or maybe drinking wine at not before lunch is just better altogetherJ

So my take on wine tasting in Mendoza is best to skip it. Just buy yourselves a good bottle in the shop. Most of the stores sell half bottles. It would make much better wine tasting. Mendoza itself is good to visit if you would like to do nothing but wonder the streets and hide from streets on the plazas or in the park; or alternatively if you a football fun in Argentina during the summer. Argentine league does not play so the teams play friendly summery tournaments like Copa de Mendoza. We got to see San Martin beat San Lorenzo 3:2. Sure it was not a big game like Boca v Riverplate who played there after we left (disappointing too) but it was good fun. So football not wine turned out to be the highlight of our day in Mendoza!

Disappointment 2: Cordoba

Cordoba was very hot, very very hot and there was nowhere to hide from the afternoon heat because its supposedly interesting, artsy museums did not open until 5pm or one even after 8pm! So we just wondered the streets full of cheap shops, not even a decent park or a square with benches under the trees! My highlight of Cordoba was a conversation with the owner of the small grocery shop where we were buying our nibbles for the bus to Rosario. He knew Wajda, Polanski, Kieslowski movies and what was even more surprising Zbigniew Cybulski, our polish equivalent of James Dean. It does not happen very often that the shopkeeper on the other side of the world knows so much about small polish contribution to the world’s cinema! Oh, I also liked a very cheerful hippy band that played on the streets: Manana me chanto.

Slight redemption: Rosario

I did not expect much of Rosario. I actually did not even want to go there. It was just convenient place to break the journey from Cordoba to Buenos Aires and it is at the end the birth place of Argentine flag, Che Guevara and of course Lionel Messi (for readers oblivious to football he is the best player these days!). Yet we had really good time there. It was still very hot, if not hotter than Cordoba but somehow seemed more pleasant and not as busy. Even the shops were nicer! Sitting in the café on the river Parana made a really good pass time. We did not get tickets to go on the boat to the river islands because the day boats were full but even walk through the park on the river was very pleasant! So do not get out of your way to get to Rosario but if you do enjoy it but if you want to sleep at night avoid hostel La Mansion de Nomada, decent place in good location but a hard-core party place with the barbeque on the rooftop starting at about midnight.

Next week we are going to spend in Buenos Aires. I am going to have absolutely no expectations to avoid any disappointments.

Week 14 – Perito Moreno and Bariloche

Unlike last week when we were somewhat active this week we mostly sat on the bus. We travelled 2,641km which took us together 44 hours! So inevitably this week’s blog will be dedicated to the bus travel.

Route 40

The first and the slowest was the overnight journey from El Calafate to Perito Moreno. 621km would have taken us 14 hours on mostly unpaved (apparently famous) route 40 if the bus wouldn’t break some 2 hours before destination. It added extra 1.5h to the already turtle like ride. The bus drivers clearly struggled with the repair and needless to say there was no mobile coverage at all. Fortunately the bus was full (like always) with Israeli backpackers, one of whom managed to fix the problem with the help of a duct tape. I guess it was Israeli backpackers’ redemption after adding 1h to our journey to Punta Arenas because of illegal fruit smuggling. Still they need to do much more to redeem themselves after burning Torres. There is no much going on outside the bus window on the route 40. Really nothing, sometimes occasional guanaco would make an appearance or a livestock from the surrounding estancias. That’s it. The landscape got a little bit more varied on our next stretch from Perito Moreno to Bariloche travelling through the Lake District and Andean valleys. Luckily so because this time it was a 12 hours (800km) journey during the day. Both trips were on special bus services for tourist or as it may seem for Israeli backpackers and occasional Polish or Irish. There are almost no local passengers travelling on route 40. I guess they have no business going from El Calafate to Bariloche overland, not to mention that there is not enough of them to make any sensible demand! Even for the tourists in high season the buses are scarce, El ChaltenTravel goes every other day and Marga/Taqsa only once every four days. So, if you do not plan and buy the tickets in advance you might be really stuck!

Very sweet bus
From Bariloche we went to Mendoza on normal scheduled service and on a fully paved road. We made 1,220km in 18hours mostly overnight with an hour stopover in Neuquén. And what a bus it was! Seats and leg space more comfortable than any business class I have flown. The seats stretched to almost a flat bed. But the ‘thing’ on this bus journey were the meals. There was tea in the afternoon; the sweetest meal I have ever had with 3 types of cookies with dulce de leche, cookies with jam and crackers with dulce de leche and jam on the side in case you haven’t had enough. I did not think I needed coffee at first but then ordered one just do swallow all that sweetness, yet the coffee came sweetened too! Later there was diner service with wine (of course) preceded by dulche de leche snack and followed by digestive liquors. I skipped the breakfast but as one can expect it was also full of dulche de leche!  

Bus entertainment

The description of the bus journey would not be complete if I would not mention how entertainment provided by the service operators helps survive the long hours. It is all about really bad movies carefully selected from the big DVD library by the bus attendant. First I thought that the movies come in two categories: bad SF or worst of American comedies. SF I skipped except for one with Justin Timberlake titled ‘In Time’ but I watched ‘Hangover 2’ and ‘I pronounce you Chuck and Larry’ even though I never watch any movies with Adam Sandler. Then, however the very sweet bus surprised us with some film for children with Bill Murray and with action movie ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’. Yet for me the best way to pass time on the long bus journey was my ipod listening to the Argentinian diva Mercedes Sosa, or Andres Calamaro. Both their music goes well with the Patagonian landscape. I discovered also my new favourite tango 'Naranjo en Flor' that I replayed probably a 100 times this week.

I guess I have to explain why we ‘suffered’ all these hours, sweet food and bad movies on the bus.

We decided to visit Cueva de Las Manos, a Unesco World Heritage site with the paintings of mostly left hands (and also some guanacos, some other animals, hunting scenes, moons and some abstracts) made by indigenous inhabitants some 9000 years ago located in the Pinturas Canyon. Very impressive, almost hard to believe that it is not some modern graffiti! The closest town in the area to make a visit to the cave is Perito Moreno, very sleepy where everything or rather nothing happens on the main street San Martin. The main entertainment in town seemed to have been an afternoon dice gambling in highly overpriced hotel Belgrano, where we had to stay because of lack of alternatives.

Bariloche is the hub for seeing the wonderful scenery of the Lake District when it is not covered by the ash clouds from the erupting (since 4 May 2011) Chilean volcano Puyehue, which makes everything look rather grey.  The Icelandic volcanic ash in Europe in 2010 was nothing compared to this! The ash clouds have cleared up slightly when we were hanging out in town resting after the bus journey but then it went back to grey when we cycled Circuito Chico up in the lakes. The sitting and nibbling on the bus must have taken its toll on our fitness; we have really struggled to cycle undulating 32 km. It took us a disgraceful 7 hours with the long lunch break on the lake, ice cream in the Swiss village and a slight detour among barking dogs! But it was a good and rewarding cycle and in our time and budget probably the best way to get a glimpse of the Lake District.

To Mendoza we travelled of course for wineries and Argentinian Malbec tasting, unfortunately not for summiting Aconcagua like my fellow polish explorers; no fitness, time or money for this. But wine is coming next week. We just booked our first wine tour for Monday!

Week 13 – Torres Del Paine/Puerto Natales (Chile) and Glacieros/El Calafate (Argentina)

This week has been all about hiking and so will be this blog entry but because we stayed in the very interesting accommodation in both Puerto Natales and El Calafate I will first say a few worlds about them in case somebody would like to use it as recommendation for future trips.

Puerto Natales is a little sleepy town on the shores of the Sound of Last Hope (in Spanish it sounds even better Seno Última Esperanza) that serves as base for people heading to Torres Del Paine, famous Chilean National Park and as a transport hub between Punta Arenas and El Calafate. Therefore it has lots of tourist facilities; it seemed like every other house in the centre was a hotel or hostel, restaurant or tourist agency among shops with the travel gear. We read somewhere that no booking was necessary in Puerto Natales because the people with free rooms are meeting tourists at the bus terminal. We thought we try our luck like we did in the Western Balkans. To our disappointment there was only one older lady at the bus stop so we did not have much choice or bargaining power.  She turned out to be a mad woman owner and the heart of the hostel El Mirador, cheap and dated but clean establishment outside of the town centre close, where on the first night we were the only guests. It took the mad woman no more than 5 minutes to arrange for our bus to Torres del Paine, outward bus to El Calafate and recommend the best place to eat in town. Later as we were walking through town we often saw her cruising in her SUV way above the town’s speed limit. Her madness proved to be very handy for us because she seemed to have been always around to give us a lift to or from town. I thought that the hostel should be maybe renamed to Mad Woman but then we saw the binoculars at the window. She has probably been using them to spot the buses arriving to town to come down to town and get more guests hence the name El Mirador is probably appropriate.

El Calafate is a modern very commercialised town on lake Argentina with very good tourist infrastructure around its bustling main street San Martin that serves as base for day trips to the Parque National del Los Glacieros. This time we booked our accommodation because we heard that it gets very full in high season. We found Hospedaje Lautaro on hostelworld.com (I guess it did not make it yet to latest edition of Lonely Planet but I am sure it soon will) and chose it both for price and ratings. It turned out to be a lovely small hostel on a quiet street, yet very close to the centre, run by Belen, former tourist guide who was the friendliest source of all information and Dario, a former chef who cooks a few dishes in the evenings just for the guests from the best of what Patagonia has to offer. We had very tasty homemade fettuccini with wild mushroom sauce, so good that we had again the second night and wonderful pastel de papa, a dish very similar to shepard’s pie. It was a very nice change from not very creative Chilean fast food dishes and steaks and pizzas that dominate menus in the restaurants.

So now back to hiking, in chronological order:

Torres Del Paine – When we arrived in Puerto Natales we already knew about the fire that was burning significant portion of the park (allegedly started by one of many Israeli campers in the region). We knew hiking routes were limited but in any event we only had an appetite for not more than 2 or 3 days trek in the wilderness. Luckily, the trek to the view point of the Torres themselves was open and we saw them on the first day. On the second day after overnighting in the shelter El Chileno, we did Los Cuernos leg of the trek, scenic and relaxing but long walk along the lakes. We ended our last day in the park with a couple of hours wait for the bus back to Puerto Natales. Waiting would have been really boring if it wouldn’t be for a parade of beautiful horses walking past to another gazing field finished with a spectacular sight of the gaucho herding them.

Reserva Nimez – After we arrived in El Calafate we had a spare day of wondering around and doing nothing before we could go on a day trip to Perito Moreno. We spent most of it on a very slow 3 hours walk in the bird’s reserve along the lake. It was a real treat for a newly discovered and emerging birdwatcher in me. I am not very educated, yet, so I cannot really name the species but we saw flamingos, lots of different ducks, geese and some small flying birds (apologies to all the real birdwatchers that might ever read this blog). Thanks to a stray dog that decided to walk with us (until he started to follow some other tourist) we got an up close encounter with some sort of birds of prey (again apologies to real birdwatchers) that followed him until they decided he was too big for them to attack.

Perito Moreno – Perito Moreno glacier is part of the Parque National De Los Glaciares and part of the third largest ice field (after Antarctic and Greenland). We did a day trip that included 1.5 hours walking in crampons on ice. It actually was much easier than I thought. Or maybe it was easy because we were told exactly where to step to avoid any ‘wholes’ or other dangers. It was a very good day and I do not think I have to say how spectacular it was. Just see the photos. We could also visit the glacier just by walking on the viewing balconies and taking a regular boat trip and skip the trek which was much cheaper option but I thought the mini trek was worth the price for somebody who may never have an opportunity to step on a glacier.

Lago Roca – We had one extra day to spare in El Calafate because we could not get our onward tickets. We read about Lago Roca, the southern corner of the Parque National de Los Glaciares, in Frommers that we randomly picked in our hostel. Frommer’s said that Lago Roca was an undiscovered secret of the region offering spectacular views of both Perito Moreno and, on a clear day, Torres Del Paine. So it was an easy choice for our spare day. What Frommers said was absolutely true. The views were spectacular and it was rather empty over there, no words necessary if you look at the pictures. What Frommer’s (or Lonely Planet or the locals) did not say was how strenuous the hike to get those lovely views is. It also did not warn us about jinxing German!  When we started hiking, the 1000m ascent, described on the local map as 4h medium trek we were alone on the path. We were doing really well and well ahead of the scheduled time until some 200 meters before the top when German caught up with us with his super hiking boots and pols. After a very friendly chat he set off to the peak while we took a water break and watched him struggling up the last 100 meters. Then we followed just to discover that some 50-60 meters before the top that I was paralyzed by fear on a very steep, dusty path. I couldn’t do a step forward or backwards. I barely kept my balance on what then seem to me a vertical slope with the sliding gravel surface. And so we turned back sliding our asses down on the gravel… Very unfulfilling to miss the peak by some 50 meters but I guess one has to know the limits. At that time we did not know that it was the German jinx, until he caught up with us again on our way down after our picnic lunch. We started to walk down together chatting our way but three people walking together create too much dust so he decided to go ahead alone. Then I realized I left my camera on our lunch spot. It was there but recovering it cost us climbing up another 150m and worse coming it down again! Anyway, absent German jinx, it was a really good day trip. Highly recommended if you every make it to El Calafate, I just maybe have to tell the national park guards to design the last part of the path in some smoother zigzagging manner rather than straight up!

That’s it for hiking stories. The treks we done this week were just about enough to get us back in shape. We are now heading north and not planning any more substantial trekking, unless absolutely necessary!

Ps: As I discovered in the bus back from Lago Roca to El Calafate, the jinxing German studied BWL in Tuebingen, about the same time where I was there as an exchange student. He now lives in Augsburg and follows the opinions of prof. Starbatty who now is a well-known Eurosceptic.

Week 12 – Ushuaia (Argentina) and Punta Arenas (Chile)

This blog entry will be about what happens at the end of the world (or rather its more southern corner) and it will be very short because other than being stunningly beautiful not much happens here at all, especially in sleepy towns with lots of tourist infrastructure but not to many tourists at all.

How long are the days at the end of the world?

When we arrived in Ushuaia on Tuesday (3/1/2012) after a long journey via Madrid and Buenos Aires we were exhausted and went to bed rather early and woke up late so I had no idea that the sun sets close to 11pm. I discovered it the next day when we walked to the hostel from the Irish pub ‘Dublin’ in the daylight! The following day I was wearing sunglasses at about 9pm. Incredible! On Saturday we walked at about 4:30am to the bus station to catch the 5am bus to Punta Arenas in the daylight looking at the still slightly pink clouds over the Beagle Channel. I realise that this is known fact that the days are longer at the southern-most end of the world but yet it felt sort of out of this world. I guess the long days are also a reason why the locals do not seem to eat dinner before 8pm, with restaurants still filling up long past 9pm. We just have to adjust our bodies to the new schedule.

What did we do on the long days at the end of world?

I never thought of myself as the wildlife aficionado or worst a birdwatcher. Yet, I wholeheartedly enjoyed a visit to the penguin island and a costal walk in Tierra del Fuego national park. Unlike more tourists in Ushuaia who take a long cruise through the Beagle Channel (named after the ship that Darwin sailed on) and see the penguins only from the boat and considering my aptitude for the seasickness we decided to take a different option with Piratour. It involved 1.5 hour bus ride to Estancia Harberton and only 15 minutes on the small boat to the Isla Martillo, with the colony of some 14 thousand Magellanic and a small colony of Papua penguins. This is the only tour in town with permission to walk on the island among the penguins. Our tour guide, Marcia, was really wonderful. The penguin families were now bringing up their little ones that were about 40 days old. It was very exciting to walk among those little families of 4 (Magellanic penguins have always 2 kids) and even more so among the 1 year old youngsters, who unable to nest, are just hanging out on the beach. I had to, however, contain the excitement not stress the penguins!

The next day we went to the Tierra del Fuego National Park, mindful of being out shape after long hours spent at the table at home at Christmas and New Year, we picked costal hike on the banks of Beagle Channel that did not ascent too much. Strangely enough, as we were walking the sun always shone when we were crossing the beach and the rain came when we were in the shelter of the Fuegian forest. Other than the lovely landscapes we saw a fox, rabbits, and black-necked swans and some other ducks. We ended our walk at the end of national route 3. You could say that this was the end of any roads in South American continent. And like anything at the end of the world, there was not much happening there, just the end of the road with a parking spot.

When we went to Punta Arenas, a sleepy town in Chilean Terra del Fuego (I think it is southern-most city in Chile) we decided to rent bicycles for two reasons; (1) to get back in shape a bit, (2) considering our post-Ushuaia budget shrinking we could not really afford another trip to the penguins, even though here it was the major attraction in town. We decided to cycle up to the forest above the town but failed to find the way. We could not really ask the neighbourhood dogs which seemed to be the only creatures we saw on the way. Cycling steep uphill on the gravelled street only confirmed how out of shape we were! So we returned and ended up cycling through town and some 15km south of town in the sun and wind along the Straits of Magellan. We had pick lunch on some deserted beach nested between fishing villages or rather cemeteries of really old ships.

What not to do when crossing the border between Argentina and Chile?

We took a regular bus from Ushuaia that was supposed to get us to Punta Arenas at about 4.30 pm after 11.5 hours. As if the scheduled time was not long enough we arrived some 3 hours later. Luckily (as noted above), the days are long here so we still had time to check into the hostel and have a nice dinner at local treasure restaurant La Marmita. Some of the delay was attributed to the busy border crossing with several buses arriving there at the same time at least 1 hour delay was because of 3 fellow travellers who decided to ‘smuggle’ 1 apple, 1 orange and 3 tangerines across the border. The border guards turned out to be very strict about and ended up writing them up with warning and detailed stamped reports on the smuggling. I guess there must be good reasons to for protecting own habitats, so for future reference please do not try to break the rules for your own and fellow passengers comfort!

After the border the ride was smooth. We had to cross the Straights of Magellan on the short ferry ride at Punta Delgada. Just to reaffirm that nothing happens at the end of the world, there was nothing to see from the ferry, just long stretches of water and a lighthouse closer to the shore. Not much happened on land either; just big fields with sheep, cows, occasional guanaco and a newly discovered birdwatcher in me spotted one nandu (sort of an ostrich known as rhia in English).

This is it for my account of nothing happening at the end of the world. Next week we continue to travel north to the world famous national parks Torres Del Paine in Chile and Los Glaciares back in Argentina. Another border crossing is awaiting us, hopefully smother this time.

Week 10 and 11 Vietnam – Cycle Ho Chi Minh to Hue, Night train Hue to Hanoi, Boat on Ha Long Bay

Another overdue blog entry but I do have a really valid excuse. It was very hard to find time to blog after cycling all day followed by hot shower to keep the muscles in relatively little pain followed further by lovely dinners where we explored the best of the best of local cooking and tasted local beers or surprisingly nice Vietnamese wine from Dalat. So here I am typing this blog already home in Poland in the middle of Christmas preparation and finalising it while waiting in Madrid for our flight to Buenos Aires and publishing already in Chile.

Cycling

I am not sure where to start, so much as happened in these two weeks! We started easy with a 20km ride from Ho Chi Mingh to the Vietkong tunnels where the purpose of the ride was to get a feel for the bikes.  And since then every day was more difficult but yet more rewarding because despite more and more sore muscles I could feel the ability and fitness rising with every km on the bike. To the point that when on the 10th day of the trip (from Hoi An to Hue) when we climbed up the Hai Van pass at 500m I (couch potato) thought it was not that difficult. But do not get me wrong a continued clime 10% for 10 km was hard! But as always with this kind of effort the views on the way: jungle forest, coffe and dragon fruit plantations, rice fields, the fishing villages with its blue boats and beaches (including the famous China beach) plus the satisfaction you feel at the end of each day where very rewarding.

Another reward was the Vietnamese kids in the villages along the way. They did not let us pass without screaming hello or trying high five. Occasionally they would try to race us a short distance on their simple, no-gear bicycles and sometimes they would win! Or as on one break they would just hang around with us being so excited about every gesture of interest.

Hardest Day
While Hai Van pass was possibly the biggest climb in the trip for me two other days were much harder to cycle. The hardest by far was 80km day from Nha Trang to Quy Nhon where we cycled all afternoon in the rain and into a head wind. The head wind was so strong that at some point where we turned around the mountain ridge I could not balance myself on the bike and had to walk a few meters until I was able to shelter behind the next turn. Even at some downhill slopes I had to pedal because otherwise the bike would have come to a standstill!

Easiest day (supposedly)
The 100km day from Dalat to Nha Trang started with a 50km downhill ride. Supposed to be nice and easy way down yet it was another hard day for me but not necessarily for my fellow cyclists who seem to have enjoyed it wholeheartedly. The top of the mountain was covered in the incredibly dense jungle mist with the visibility of not more than 5 meters. It was for me as nerve wrecking as a rollercoaster. At the bottom of the mountain the visibility and the weather improved somewhat but still the pace of downhill was a bit much for me so I rode slowly on the breaks (probably a cycling crime) and arrived last at the lunch break some 20 minutes after the rest of the group! Later I found out that the trip mechanic who had to stay behind me all the way was previously a racing cyclist. I could only imagine how painful it was for him to go so slow downhill yet he patiently followed my turtle pace.

Spookiest day

On a way to Hue we cycled flat. It was nice and easy 100k ride among… graveyards! Apparently people around Hue (former capital of Vietnam) are very superstitious and believe in worshiping the ancestors and build them incredibly ornamental and often very large (larger than their own home) expensive graves. They stretch along the road and sometimes in the middle of rice fields. It was quite spooky experience to see nothing else for some 20 km but graves… Not to mention trying to find a spot to pee in the emergencyJ that would not offend the ancestors! 

Non-cycling days

In the trip we had two days break from the bicycle designed to see the best of the Vietnamese costal town, or maybe to get some time lying on the beach which we could not enjoy cause of the rainy weather) or maybe just to give the butt a rest from the saddle, which my backside was really grateful for. We stopped for a day in Nha Trang and Hoi Anh. Nha Trang is not a very exciting place with a temple with a giant Buddha and a site with well-maintained Cham Towers but it has mud baths. We awarded ourselves with an afternoon soaking in the mud and mineral tubs watching the rain dropping on the jungle covered mountains and really good massage.

The other day break was in Hoi An, very cheerful somewhat touristy historical town set on the river banks. Sightseeing was interesting, the Japanese-Chinese friendship bridge, temple and ancient houses and the wonderful market. We also made a half day trip to My Son, a not very well maintained and damaged in the war site of Cham constructions from about the same time as Ankor Wat (though those who have been at Ankor Wat said it was not as good). Anyway, the day in Hoi An was all about shopping!  Hoi An is the shopping capital of Vietnam. It has tons of trinket but also lots of hidden treasures and I ended up spending some money from ‘the other budget’.
 

The trip finished with a night train ride from Hue to Hanoi where we transferred for a one day/one night cruise on the Ha Long Bay, one of the new 7 natural wonders of the word that defeated Masurian Lakes in the vote. It would have been probably much nicer if the weather were more considerate of our short stay in the bay. It rained a little bit but it was overcast, grey and a bit cold. Yet, I dared to swim for a few minutes in the bay given that it was my last to swim in the South China sea.

Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi

On our last day in Vietnam we went to a Pho restaurant for our last pho. We were sat at the two empty seats and picked our beef style for the pho when we were joined by the English man with his Vietnamese fiancé whom we already met for lunch the day before in the local Bun restaurant… Rather uncommon encounter in the city of 10mln people. If you meet strangers two days in a row it is time to chat. We found out that they are getting married in January and their biggest decision was where to settle in Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi. I so could relate to their hardship in making this choice. Both cities are vibrant, full of life and motorcycle traffic, but Ho Chi Minh City had slightly more European feel to it with is wide avenues and western style shopping malls, large and expensive hotels. Hanoi appeared to have kept its Asian fare busy with small family run businesses. So it is a hard choice to pick either to live in. Luckily as a tourist you can visit both and there is no need to decide which one is the favourite! I liked them bothJ

Pho, Bun or Cau Lau

Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi is a tough call; it seemed to me however that everybody was either a Pho or Bun person. Pho is a clear broth with white noodles served either with slices of different styles of beef of your choice or chicken which you then spice yourself with a bit of chilli and lots of fresh herbs, bean sprouts and lime. Bun is slightly more complicated dish and involves more effort from the ‘eater’. All the ingredients are served separate: cold noodles, fried pieces of pork in the slightly fatty broth, garlic crushed with chillies and a plate of fresh herbs (of course) that you put in the bowl as you like it.

For those that cannot decide the favourite between the pho and bun there is also a dish ‘in the middle’: Cau Lau served only in Hoi An. It is made of thick noodles (slightly similar to the german spatzle for my germanofil friends) served with sauté pork and its jus, and as always with some herbs and lettuce. Unlike pho or bun it is served ready to eat so there is no work before diving into the bow. I do not think I liked it more than pho or bun but yet I had 3 times in a row while we were in Hoi An considering that it is confined to such a small area that I may not visit again (or at least not for a long time).

Generally the food in Vietnam was wonderful. We enjoyed every single meal whether in posh or street restaurant. The only exception was the food on the train from Hue to Hanoi but that often is the case when it comes to train food in any country.

At the end of the trip when we said our good byes to the fellow cycling tourist and our wonderful trip crew we had to fill out the trip evaluation. One of the questions in the form asked what was the highlight of the trip. It was very hard to answer because every day was different and equally wonderful! And such was my response. Today I can also easily conclude that Vietnam is my favourite travel destination, beautiful and varied landscape, different and interesting culture, lovely people, exciting shopping and wonderful and really varied food… and contrary to my expectation it was much more to it than the world famous fish sauce!


To all my friends: Start planning your trip to Vietnam, it does not have to be cycling, however you travel I am sure you’ll have wonderful time!

Week 9 Phu Quoc Paradise or maybe Heaven

After 2 days of travel (night train from Jodhpur, 15 hours at the Delhi airport, night flight from Delhi to Saigon through Bangkok and a short morning propeller flight from Saigon to Phu Quoc and half an hour taxi ride through some unpaved roads) we arrived in Freedomland resort on the Phu Quoc island. So in this blog I will describe of our 4.5 days in paradise or maybe heaven, not sure have not been in either, so that I have a record of how paradise or heaven should look like in case I do not make it there again..

So what did we do in heaven….

Day 1: Right after checking in, absolutely exhausted we walked for 15 minutes to the closest beach as Freedomland is located inland unlike all other beach resorts on the island had some tropical juice we fell asleep and woke up when the sun was setting down. That’s it, that’s all we did on our first day

Day 2: We joined the boat trip to the northern secluded beach on the island, very close to the border with Cambodia and again not much happened… We swam in the middle of the sea, we sat on the beach with nobody else there and ate crabs caught on the beach and squid that we bought straight from the fishing boat on our way. The squid was served with crushed black pepper grown on the island with a bit of lemon! How simple and good.

Day 3: We woke up very late with a slight sunburn from previous day so we decided to rent a car for half day tour of the island. After we quick shopping at the local market where we had to use hands and pictorials to purchase some supplies we headed to the waterfall. Maybe it was not the world’s most spectacular waterfall but it was a great pleasure to shower under the crystal clear waters in complete seclusion! We went to the most southern end of the for a swim in the sea and returned home…

Day 4: One day away from the beach was enough. We spend the day again on the beach in the Mango Bay resort where I treated myself with foot massage and a pedicure. My feet where very grateful J and we finished the day with beers over sunset!  Day 5: Not much to say here… we just went to the beach in Mango Bay again and did absolutely nothing. Oh no, we read the book!



The highlight of our stay in Phu Quoc was the dinner. Every night Peter (the owner of Freedomland) cooked a communal 5-course dinner from the fresh produce that he bought in the market. I am not a foodie and certainly not a food writer so I do luck words to explain how good it was! So just take my word for it, it was really great. It was mostly traditional Vietnamese cooking but we also had one Spanish tapas night. And the best part of this was that there was no menu, no choices to make, we just ate what we were served. And there was also the company!  All the guests (who never met before) sat at the long table under the trees and chatted about everything and nothing, the French, English, Australian and surprisingly also Polish. Peter says that Polish people often come to his resort, always like and are the very welcomed guest!  

After 5 days in Phu Quoc we fully recovered from the hassles of travelling through India, physically and emotionally! We only got one evening full of flashbacks when a couple from Melbourne arrived straight from Delhi after 2 months tour of India and turned out that we had similar if not the same experiences and the same perceptions of the country. So just a little validation to what I wrote in my blog entries from India

We not only recovered from previous travels but gathered energy for our upcoming cycling trip from Saigon to Hanoi. Let’s see if mainland Vietnam would resemble paradise that we encountered on Phu Quoc.

Week 8 Udaipur and Jodhpur and still Incredible !ndia

This week was a bit less incredible than last week but mainly because we have been moving to smaller cities Udaipur and Jodhpur. It gets easier for travellers as the cities get smaller…or maybe with time we just got immune to the noise and hassle and filtering out what we wanted to hear. Udaipur is a quaint city on the lake that gets really loads of tourists (strange because it does not have any world heritage sights like Delhi, Agra or Jaipur…). Jodhpur, the blue city at the footstep of the magnificent fort is slightly less crowded with tourists and seems to go around with its own life. In both cities tourists and locals seem to co-exist quite peacefully. We did not even have one scam attempt in neither!!!  So this week’s blog is a continuation of my experiences and observations from India but maybe this time a bit less harsh than last week because things definitely got better!

There were no helicopters in Udaipur or Jodhpur!

In contrast to last week the tuk-tuk drivers only occasionally ask a question if you need a rickshaw and you can politely reply No and that’s the end of the conversation! Very surprising… We even started to smile when refusing the service because we knew no further hassle awaits! Udaipur actually is very easy to navigate on foot and is not crowded at all so the walks are a real pleasure! When we decided to take a tuk-tuk it just took us where we wanted to go with no unnecessary discussions. It Jodhpur it was bit crazy when the tuk-tuk drivers where fighting between themselves to ‘catch the foreign tourist’ which was quite a scary sight but our hotel sent their own tuk-tuk driver which spared us the hassle which I do not think I could fight after 6 hours on the Indian busJ  So for any future traveller to India, I recommend reserving hotel in advance and asking for help with the pick-up.

Poland, Warsaw… my friend has been there…

I think this is a good time to say a few words about shopping in India… It truly incredible experience! Everywhere you walk the shopkeepers lure you to their doors… because once you enter you would not leave unless you buy something, regardless if you like it or not! They will make 1000 reasons why you should buy. The most popular are that you are buying something truly unique and getting the best deal, which is never the case cause a guy (rarely a woman) next door sells exactly the same staff and is likely to offer different price (of course there are no price tags whatsoever). Another more difficult one is that if you do not buy it would be bad luck for the shop cause you are the first customer of the day (regardless what time you come to the shop). So, until Udaipur I was only buying in the more expensive stuff (for India, not for the western pocket) in fixed price shops just to spare myself the hassle as I do not seem to be a good haggler, especially if somebody’s good luck depends on me buying something I do not need. Anyway, I do not regret the slightest that I have not been shopping with the quasi-artisans because buying really cheap trinket is really not helping anybody. Who can make money when you pay £2 for a pair of shoes? It is just approving the poverty status quo. Instead I bought a few nice clothes in the ethical, hassle-free, fixed price shop where you shop and nobody is taking to you until you have to try or pay.

Luring customers to the shops is art on its own…. Sometimes it is just a hello, typically immediately followed by the question where you from. Once they find its Poland then the conversation is supposed to continue, again typically with a friend or cousin or neighbour who has been to Poland. One of them even had a polish wife… You would have thought that half of the India has some sort of connection to Poland. Incredible?... The best guy we met was telling me how his Indian painting school (that has a shop selling pictures) is going next week to Warsaw to hold an exhibition at Warsaw University. It takes a week of being in India to realise all of it is a made up lie, just to keep your attention. As long as you are talking to them there is a chance that you enter the shop and then you are lost! You just have to buy something. Again the concept that you JUST do not need or want something else is very hard to understand by the shopkeepers!

Again Udaipur was again different… The shopkeepers rarely go beyond hello and where you from and let you easily pass by when you show no interest. The most incredible thing happened when I went to buy something very specific. Our hotel had Rajastani style bed sheets in a hand-made block print. The hotel guy told us about the area of town where to buy it slightly outside of the touristy zone. I went to the first shop that did not have it and amazingly they did not try to sell me anything else and even more incredibly gave me the directions to competitor shop that specialises in the block print Rajastani design…. And then I got the really personalised shopping. I was patiently shown at least 20 designs or colours with absolutely no pressure to buy and allowed to make my own choice. Maybe I paid more than locals but I do not care. This shopping experience was just a pleasure!

Hello Sir, Yes Sir!

Actually, I probably should not have been bothered too much with the shopkeepers, eateries, rickshaws, guides etc hassling, because all of it is primarily directed to man. In most places, I did not exist at all. 99% of times it was Gavin who was approached… If they only knew how much he hates shopping:-) Me, however being me, I would without hesitation talk back, which sometimes was indeed a mistake. But you have to imagine how awkward it is to be reduced to being just the company of Sir. In many restaurants, Gavin would get the menu first and with the ‘Yes, Sir’ would get asked first to order, probably for himself and me. It was very surprising when in one restaurant in Jodhpur Fort, I was given menu first and asked first for my order. Sometimes also people would ask Gavin a question about me: ‘And she…?’

I found this this sort of inequality in simple day to day situations quite incredible. I thought for a moment how contrasting to strong presence of woman on the streets of India defined by the beautifully colourful saris… But then on our last day at the Delhi airport I got slightly confused. The security officer when checking my documents at the entrance would address me ‘Yes, Sir’. Deas it mean that he did not even know how to respectfully address a woman? Or maybe Sir in India is a unisex expression….?

Thalis, Lassis and other incredible dishes

All our month in India we ate local. We continually sampled local specialities in Mumbai, Goa and Rajastan and tried the ‘pan-Indian’ dishes too. We ate cheap and a few times in a sort of more expensive restaurant (they were still cheap, though). We really liked almost all of our meals, though we are not experts in Indian cooking to really judge the quality. At some point we decided that our favourite dish through the travel was vegetable Jalfrezee; I am not sure about the spelling because every restaurant spelled it differently on the manu just as differently they cooked this dish! So it was always fun to order it just see how it would come out each time. Oh and the magnificent lassies! Before coming to India, I only knew (and loved) mango lassi but fortunately in November mangos are out of season so I got to sample lovely papaya, pineapple, banana and spice (cardamom and saffron) lassis and also discovered lemon lassi, which with its zesty taste is a real thirst quencher and now is my truly favourite! Shame that for the quantity of Indian restaurants in London, they all only serve mango lassi!

The only complaint we sometimes had about the food that especially in the tourist hubs is that they seem to tame the food for the foreigners, assuming that we cannot take the spice. So sometimes we had to ask to make like at home. On our last day in Udaipur we went for a real deal on the advisement of the ‘local’ English woman who has lived in Udaipur for a number of years and who we met over coffee on a leisurely Udaipur morning. She told us about this restaurant out of touristy zone where the locals go for a treat of thali lunch. Thali is a selection of various vegetarian curries served in small bowls, raita (curd either with pineapple or tomato cucumber and herbs and spices), chutneys and/or pickles that comes with the selection of breads and rice. There was no toning down of food for foreigners in this restaurant as we were the only tourist… We just sat down at the free thali plate and the procession of waiters filled up the plates with nans and papads and colourful and aromatic curries that were all spicy as hell! I think one was a mild dish but by the time I tried it my mouth was already burning so I am not sureJ I think it was our best and ‘truest’ indian dining experience but as we found ou later the price was high! Sparing the details let me just say that we had a really difficult last evening and night in Udaipur which was not helpful as we were boarding 7 am bus for a 6 hour journey to Jodhpur and after arrival in Jodhpur we went straight to bad again!

After this experience we spent our last 2 days in India in Jodhpur eating little, safe and tame. The best and apparently the world’s largest selling biscuits ‘Parle-G’ got us through the trouble!

I forgot to mention that other than fish dishes in Goa, I was eating only vegetarian and only broke it at the sight of the ham and egg sandwich at the Delhi airport on our way out!

Please believe everything that Sabir says!

The one peculiar thing in the tourist services in India is the recommendations or remarks book that the hotels, shops, restaurants collect and display to right when you enter the door! Typically it is just a selling techniques where other travellers experience should convince you to buy more and more and exclusively use their own service. In Jaipur, we met at the first impression very quiet and polite tuk-tuk driver who after dropping us at the hotel, offered us an afternoon sightseeing tour of major sights for of course the best price in town and pulled out his book open at the page where a travellers from Ohio wrote: Fellow traveller, please believe everything that Sabir says…. Obviously, recommending somebody’s honesty is a big deal in India, to the point that it is an outstanding feature. We used his service the following day for a trip outside town to Amber palace. Yet, despite this outstanding recommendation he managed to misinform us about the sunset time which we of course missed in combination with is inability to find the right way to the sunset point! So, never believe somebody who is recommended to be believed in everything he says…. 

On the positive note, in Jodphur there a street food stall selling superb omelettes (yes it is recommended by Lonely Planet) and it also has is own book with comments raving about the quality of its food, where the two man genuinely pride themselves on the collection of comments from around the world and are able to find for you a few from your own country, even if they have to dig one from two years ago!

The End....
That’s it! This is my last blog from Incredible !ndia written mostly during our 15 hour waiting at the Delhi airport. Of course we could have just gone into town but considering how hostile we found the city during our first visit we thought the time would be better spent in the ‘protection’ of international airport facilities! Maybe we should have let Delhi redeem itself… but it was just easier and in case it would not, we will be leaving with the lovely memories from of last week from Udaipur and Jodhpur.

I could have written so much as our experiences were as vast as the India itself even though we only visited a small part of the country. I have not mentioned in my blog anything about our really good train journeys, not so good long-distance buses, a few lovely hotels that we stayed in (I hope to give them justice through a note on tripadvisor in the next spare moment), fellow travellers that we met along the way. I probably did not tell you enough about the splendour of the sights we visited but hopefully our photos give them some justice.

And the last word of warning! I am sure that everybody who comes here would have seen and experienced this country in a completely different way so this is just my version of Incredible !ndia.