The end of Vietnam... now onto Singapore!

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Hello all!



Well, seen as we’re currently killing 8 hours until we head to the airport for our Singapore flight, I thought I’d be productive with my time and bash out another blog. So I’m sure you’re all very impressed with the punctuality of this- it’s been 7 days to the hour that I last wrote!

So, this last week has definitely been the most exhausting, demanding but asbolutely amazing week we’ve had so far in our travels. Any challenging activity we thought we’d accomplished so far has been a delightful picnic in the park compared to what we’ve put ourselves through this week! Just to give you an idea- I’m currently sat in my pyjamas in a hostel we haven’t actually checked in to but are casually languishing in the common room, trying to look inconspicous! I haven’t had a proper shower in 4 days, we haven’t slept in an actual bed for 6 days, and almost every single item of clothing I own is caked in either sand, sea or mud. I’ve completely lost my voice and strained a muscle in my arm, and Michael is recovering from walking down an unbelievably muddy mountain without his contacts (and he is BLIND without them!) and a septic big toe which looks like we might have to amputate… OK, I exaggerate there, but seriously, we have never felt so stiff or tired EVER- but the last week has been so much fun as well!

So, just to quickly update you on our activities BEFORE this week of exuberance. Last time I wrote I was in Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam, and I believe I got up to our time in Nha Trang. So, after three nights trying to catch the sun in Nha Trang, we got a ridiculously comfy night bus (this is sarcasm, by the way) to Hoi An for three nights there. As I said last time, Hoi An, a world heritage site don’t you know, is a major competitor for our favourite place in Vietnam. It is an absolutely stunning little place- an amazingly well preserved Asian trading port with a history dating back to the 15^th century. It’s also so interesting as it has so many French and Chinese influences in architecture, so the town has a really unique beauty. We also had a really amazing time there. We ended up staying in the hostel with the two Dutch guys we made friends with- Lex and Paul- so had a really great night out round Hoi An with them and some more Dutch travellers (We’ve made friends with so many Hollanders in our time in Vietnam- they always turn out to be such fun and friendly people!) and we had a lovely day renting bikes and riding out to the beach with them all as well- amongst it’s other attributes, Hoi An has an immense beach. Over the three days Michael also got a made-to-measure three piece suit, 2 shirts, and a trench coat made. The outcome of which, I must say, he looks absolutely dashing in. The three-piece suit is 80%!c(MISSING)ashmere, made to measure, and only cost $200! We also had a hilarious tailor assistant- Tu Yang- who had a penchant for slapping Michael’s bum on a regular basis and demanding that we got married so she could come to the wedding! We ALSO (God, we did so much!) did a brilliant day’s Vietnamese cookery course, which was really interesting as we went to Hoi An market first and learnt about all the ingredients used in the cooking and what was best for what dishes, for freshness, etc, and then we did the actual cooking class where we learnt to make Vietnamese pancakes, spring rolls, clay pots and ‘food deco’- basically shaping tomatoes into roses which we were both absolutely terrible at! Surprisingly though mum, I was an excellent Vietnamese chef and my spring rolls looked amazing- I have to say, much better than how Michael’s turned out! Although his still tasted nice…

ANYWAY, after a brilliant 3 nights in Hoi An where we’d done so much and had so much fun, we got the bus to Hue, the ancient capital. Hue was most definitely average, at best. There didn’t really seem anything to do other than drive 30km out to see a few tombs. We walked to a castle-fort-type-thing (it wasn’t clear) and a big gate, but it wasn’t very impressive after what we’d seen before. (See our pics coming soon on facebook so see what I mean!) So on our second day we decided to sack sight-seeing and just go to the beach- which turned out to the be the worst beach in the history of the world! There was litter everywhere and no restaurants or bars but just horrible empty shacks with weird Vietnamese people staring at us. It looked like the place had burnt down. Still, the weather was glorious so we could work on our tans… subsequently I got burnt to a crisp...

So after one average night in Hue we moved on to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, where we met up with Lex and Paul again and a few other new friends. We were only spending one day there as we wanted to do a Halong Bay trip and a Sapa trip, so we all walked around Hanoi, went to the Hanoi old French colonial prison, saw a few monuments and had some and beer later on. Together, we then decided to book on to the famous Halong Bay cruise ‘Castaway’, which is basically an 18-30 party boat cruise around the bay with 2 nights on a private island. Despite mine and Michael's initial reservations that we may be a bit too old and a bit too coupled up for such a tour, we ended up having an absolutely blast on this trip. We all stayed in little huts (this is where our bed-less nights started!) on this private beach in the middle of Halong bay, and basically partied for 3 days straight! The group we were with were loads of fun and we made loads of friends, (mostly with yet more Dutch people!) and had a right laugh playing copious amounts of drinking games (which I turned out to be very poor at!) and ‘dancing the night away’ on the beach. In the day time we also got to do loads of fun-filled activities; we went kayaking round Halong Bay which was pretty beautiful, wake-boarding (which is where i sprained my arm trying to heave myself up- a pretty important aspect of wake-boarding that neither Michael or I could master!) swimming in the sea, rock-climbing and badminton! It was a really fun trip and I’m so glad we went for it.

However, by the time we got back from Halong Bay we were obviously very sore and very tired, but we’d booked our Sapa trip to be immediately after Halong Bay, so within hours of arriving back to Hanoi after Halong, we had to have quick showers, pack some hiking stuff, and get on a night train north to Sapa.

Ah.. Sapa. I’d say, THE highlight for both of us in Vietnam. For those who don’t know, it’s a mountain town almost on the border of China, and it’s very popular to visit because of its unbelievable, and I mean unbelievable scenery, trekking and its inhabitants of 6 or 7 different minority hill tribes, who have opened their villages for tourists to visit- mainly so they can con us out of our money, but they’re so fascinating. Originating from China, each tribe lives in virtual isolation of the modern world and all speak completely different languages, follow different traditions and sport different dress codes to signify their origins. We got to visit some of their homes and it was so strange- many live without electricity or running water on any mod cons we all totally take for granted, so their houses felt like stepping into a medieval era. We mainly spent time with the women of the ‘Black H’Mong’ tribe- who helped us climb the mountains in exchange for buying some jewellery or purses from them. We also bought some of their tribal wear head scarves- I can’t imagine that we’ll ever wear them again, but they’ll have good commemorative value and we looked WELL cool in them… (See pictures!)

Anyway, we arrived in Sapa at 5am on the first day and were out on our first 15km trek with our tour guide ‘MZ’ and the rest of the group (who were all really nice people- we’ve been so lucky with our groups so far!), oh- and load of Black H’Mong tribe women following us, by 9am. At first we couldn’t really see much as it was so foggy (and SO cold, we’d forgotten what it was like to have to wrap up in as many layers as possible and jog on the spot to keep warm!) but soon we went through the clouds and could see the amazing mountainous surrounds and miles and miles of rice paddies (which are like massive steps cut into the mountains by the villagers- see pictures for a better explanation!). We walked all day through the mountains, little forests and streams and stopped at most villages we came across to meet the different tribes people and see their homes; this was so interesting, to get a glimpse of this world that seems so far removed from the modern world and retains an almost ancient way of life. On the first night we stayed at a home-stay in one village, high up in the mountains, and had dinner with our host family and our guide, who then introduced us to the local home-grown ‘rice wine’ the locals have aptly named ‘happy water’- rather like drinking fly spray but it certainly warmed the old cockles! On our second day we continued trekking through a much more difficult route- it had been raining over night and the path was SO muddy and slippy- we had to recruit little tribe girls to help us down. As I've mentioned, Michael had forgotten his contact lenses and glasses, so had to fumble his way down really tricky paths with a bamboo stick he found, a pair of ill-fitting glasses one of our group lent him, and a tiny 4-year-old girl helping him along- despite my empathy at his difficult situation, him being helped along by his little helper and a bamboo stick was one of the funniest things I've EVER seen and I couldn't stop laughing all day! (That was, until I myself fell flat on my arse and nearly slid down the whole mountain. I've had to throw away my trainers and trousers, they are irreparable!) As the day went on the weather got much brighter and sunnier so we got chance to see the mountains in all their glory; the views were absolutely spectacular and pretty much the most beautiful natural scenery either of us have ever seen... It was such an amazing trip.

And that brings us to now! I actually didn't get chance to finish this blog yesterday so am sat in our hostel in Singapore now completing it! So this is a further update that we've arrived safely in Singapore and it's bloody gorgeous! (Although our hostel is like a prison cell...)



Will blog again soon. Hope everyone is well and enjoying the run up to Christmas (I must say, I really am missing the festive cheer of the run up to Christmas... Although getting glorious sunshine most days kind of makes up for it...) Thanks again for the messages and emails (this one goes out to you mum)- it's always so nice to hear from home!



Lots of love,



Carli and Michael x

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