Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City Motorbike Trip: Day 6

It was Lunar New Year’s Eve. I woke up at 6:45am and ate free breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I had phở and coffee.

After breakfast I went upstairs to wake up Morta and Lukas because the hotel’s free breakfast ended at 9am. I woke them up at 8:45, but they said they didn’t want free breakfast. We hung out in the hotel room and packed our things. Then we left our luggage in the hotel lobby and rode our motorbikes to Monkey Mountain.

We had beautiful sunny weather. The sky was blue, the jungle was green and the ocean was greenish blue. We rode up into the mountains on an old US military jeep road. It was paved, but not well maintained and very steep in some parts. We had the whole place to ourselves, we never saw any other people. I saw 5 monkeys, 2 long, weasel-like animals, and some black butterflies with blue spots.

We rode down from the mountains to a beach that had bamboo cabanas. We wanted to go swimming, but I felt the water and decided it was too cold. To me, it wasn’t worth it to get all salty and sandy while freezing in the water. Lukas and Morta wanted to demonstrate their Scandinavian tolerance for cold so they went into the water. I read my book under the cabana. I was reading A People’s History of the Vietnam War.

I bought some firewood from a guy who lived near the beach and we strapped it onto the back of Lukas and Morta’s bikes. Their Honda Winns had carrying racks that perfectly accommodated the firewood. We rode to Paul’s house and dropped off the wood because there was going to be a bonfire party that night.

Lukas and Morta said that they wanted to go to Hoi An. I told them I would stay at Paul’s house and celebrate the new year in Da Nang.

I hung out at the hotel and checked my email, charged my phone, and changed clothes. Then I left the hotel and went to look for a phở restaurant where I could have dinner.

At the phở restaurant I had a negative experience. I went into the restaurant and I was the only customer. It was evening, but all the Vietnamese people were out preparing for the new year’s celebration. The family who owned the restaurant was there watching TV in their living room which was next to the tables where I ate. There was a mom, dad, grandma, and 2 young kids.

I ate beef phở and then went to pay. I asked the price and the lady said 30,000 dong. I asked if she could reduce the price to 25,000. One lesson for anyone traveling in Asia is always, always, always find out the price before you eat something. She said no to 25,000 so I paid 30,000. I said “chuc mung nam moi” (Happy New Year). As I was walking out, the father said “Ly xi!” (Lucky money). There is a tradition in Vietnam that during the new years holiday, adults give children “lucky money”. This equates roughly to giving Christmas presents. A few guidelines are that the money should be new bills, not dirty or wrinkled and the amount should be higher if you are a close friend or if the child is older (10-14 years old).

Before the trip I had prepared for this custom. I went to a bank in Hanoi and asked for 500 and 5,000 dong bills. I asked for new bills, but since they were in high demand, I didn’t get new bills. I had given lucky money on 2 separate occasions in Phong Nha. I gave 500 dong to a little boy and later to a little girl. Both kids were too young to know the difference between big money and small money and they were overjoyed by the gesture. They were positive experiences but in Da Nang it wasn’t so.

I went to my backpack and got two 500 dong notes. One of the kids was an infant and the other was around 2 years old, so I didn’t think they needed 5,000 dong notes. I thought that the amount shouldn’t matter. I went to the dad and gave him the money. He shook his head, scowled, and said “No no no!” He took out his wallet and pulled out a 100,000 and a 50,000 dong. He shook them in front of me and said indicated “This is lucky money!” I put my money on the table and said “xin loi” (I’m sorry/ excuse me) and backed out of the restaurant. The man jumped up and ran after me. I was at my motorbike when he grabbed my hand and slapped a 1,000 dong note into my hand to pay me back for what I had offered. Basicaly saying, “We refuse to accept that money.” His demeanor was insulting. I got onto my bike and rode away with a bad feeling about the whole scenario.

I went to a party at Paul’s house for his New Year’s party. There were about 20 people there. We were all sitting around a campfire chatting. Then I got the guitar. The front porch was set up with stage lighting and speakers. I played for about 2 hours and everyone seemed to like it.

After 11pm, we went to watch fireworks. A group from the party headed to the Han River to watch fireworks. There were a lot of Vietnamese people at the river to watch the fireworks. Everyone was happy and excited. I bought some cotton candy and enjoyed the fireworks at midnight. Then we went to Bamboo Bar and I made friends with a group of American English teachers who were working in Haiphong.

It was around 4am when I left the bar and I went to sleep in a hotel.