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Published: March 1st 2010
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We made the most of our last day in scorching Nha Trang by visiting nearby 17th Century brick Cham towers, pretty Long Sun pagoda and the giant white buddah on the hill. We relaxed on the beach with a beer from the Louisiane Brew House microbrewery. Good times.
We caught the night bus (a coach with 3 rows of narrow bunkbeds rather than seats) to Hue at about 7pm and had an interesting nights sleep listening to Vietnamese pop music and people snoring. Our original plan had been to visit Hoi An but our schedule had been disrupted by Tet so we sadly made the desicion to miss it out to make up some time. We arrived in Hue (prenounced Hwey!) 16 hours later and we were glad to check into the first hotel we found and have a shower! We were thrilled to find post-Tet prices finally!!
We walked into the antient city centre, over the Perfume River and saw the huge flag post (tallest in Vietnam!) and walled citadel. The weather was cool and very overcast so the city looked impressive but a bit grim. We wandered around the historic citadel, temples and Forbidden Purple City (what
was left of it anyway). A lot of the buildings were being renovated but the finished ones were very nice. That night we ate Hue specialities at a local restaurant of Banh Khoai (fried rice pancakes filled with prawns), Meat rolls (pork on sticks of lemongrass wrapped in lettuce and rice paper and dipped in a satay sauce) and a seafood hotpot. Yum. We browsed the shops filled with very bad plastic fake designed shoes and got an early night.
Next day we hired a scooter and went to check out Minh Mang's Mausoleum (this area is famous for impressive tombs of emperors), a very magestic and symetrical place with Chinese-style temples, moats and lilly covered lakes. We visited pretty Thien Mu and Tu Hien pagodas and had lunch at the local market. Thien Mu Pagoda is famous for housing the austin car used by monk Thich Quang Duc to drive himself to Saigon, where he set himself on fire in protest of the Government at the time. Interesting to learn the story behind such a famous image (that we own in our CD collection!). We liked Hue, but were glad we'd only spent one night and 2 days
there.
Then we prepared ourselves for another night bus, this time to Hanoi. We had beds at the back near the toilet (gross) and were entertained with Vietnamese musical pantomime on the TV, loud. We arrived in Hanoi 14 hours later at 8am in the morning and went, bleary eyed, to look for a place to crash in the Old Quarter. We bumped into our friends Miguel, Dino and Reto (from BKK/Goa) and went to an Aussie cafe for lunch with them before going shopping for new skate shoes and contact lenses. Dee bought a fab pair of bumblebee Nike Air Jordan Ones for 15 quid!!
We had temple fatigue after Hue, so amused ourselves in Hanoi with shopping and visiting the Fine Art Museum (gorgeous silk and lacquer paintings) instead. Dee found a great skate spot at the Lenin Monument (also used for break and ball room dancing practise!) and met up with loads of locals. We spent an evening enjoying Bia Hoi, home brewed beer, sitting on plastic stools on the pavement with the locals for 3000 vnd per glass (which is 10p!!).
Next day we joined an organised overnight tour to famous Ha Long
Bay. After a 3 hour minibus ride we arrived at the wharf in Halong Bay City and boarded our junk. There were 15 of us on the tour, a nice size group and everyone was lovely. We cruised around the bay and around the huge and amazing limestone karsts that stick out of the water. The weather was breezy and overcast and there was an eerie mist over the rocky outcrops in the distance. We stopped off at a gigantic cave (lit with pretty coloured lights and filled with massive stalactites and stalagmites) and popular viewing point for the bay (the money shot!). The cave and this part of the bay was heaving with boats and tourists. Next we went to do some kayaking. We got the kayaks and equipment from a nearby floating village but this area was very popular with boats so it was like trying to kayak in Portsmouth Harbour or something. We did nearly come a cropper when a boat pulling empty kayaks drove into us and we quickly got tangled in neck height ropes. Bit dangerous really. We were disapointed how dirty the water is considering it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Such a shame
the local people throw their rubbish in the water. We paddled away from the busy area and found some empty coves, a cave and an island with monkeys living there (which we suspect were planted there rather than naturally found there!). That night, moored in the bay, some people dived off the boat and swam (Dee, of course!), we dined on yummy seafood and sat drinking beers and chatting on the top deck. Just as we were about to go to bed we spotted a fire on a nearby tourist boat. We watched as the passengers were evacuated, the crew lobbed anything flammable into the sea and the fire spread quickly through the boat until is was a huge ball of fire. Pretty scary really. We didn't sleep that soundly after witnessing that!! We spent the next morning cruising through more of the bay before finally getting back to Hanoi late afternoon after having a very nice time.
We spent our last evening in Hanoi at a yummy fish restaurant called Cha Ca La Vong, Holly had seen Rick Stein visit on the TV back home. We ate srumptious buttery fish and veggies cooked at our table with noodles
and herbs! Best food we'd eaten in Vietnam. With our tummies full and our visas about to expire, we got the night train to Sapa in the mountains up north..........
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