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Published: December 7th 2006
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Cath with the Mask
very clever things the surgical masks for moto-ing as you realise how many bugs there are in Hanoi when you are cruising at 30kmph. You can get them to match everything as well! We've been flat out for the last week, lots to tell but will try and keep it short! We finished up at clinic last Thurs, the staff were all really sad to see us go (no seriously, they were). They put each of us on the back of their motorbikes and took us on a 45minute tour of the city, then out for lunch. The menu was just pictures, and we jokingly pointed to snails and shrimp. unfortunately, Vietnamese people have zero capacity for sarcasm, and 5 minutes later 3 BUCKETS of snails came out. Not like a French restaurant where you might get 5 or 6 snails beautifully arranged and covered in butter and garlic, these were massive buckets full of garden snails. We had to eat them as we felt incredibly rude sitting there squirming, but I was feeling pretty crook after 10 or so. How disgusting is that.
Matt arrived on Friday and adapted very quickly to Vietnam, however I think its taking him a bit longer to get used to hanging around 5 girls all the time! We spent Friday and Saturday taking him on a walking/eating tour of Hanoi, not letting him choose any food
Lucch with the physios
mmmm snails! very tasty. so that he could try all the staple dishes of Hanoi. Massive effort, I think he has definetely put on any weight he lost whilst pulling long days at the office to be able to come over!
We all left for Halong Bay on Sunday morning. After 3 hours on a bumpy mini-bus we were rewarded with beautiful weather and a day-night cruise on a Junk Boat. It was thought it would be a clever idea to jump off the top of the two storey boat into the water (about 8metres high), however no one told Matt to remember to point his toes, and he managed to enter with his size 13 feet flat to the water...ouch! The water was amazing, very cool being in a little cove surrounded by limestone islands in the middle of no-where! so quiet and peaceful.
We had a busy couple of days caving, rock-climbing and a little bit of trekking, but mainly swimming, and bombing off the boat. Had an awesome group on our tour, mainly 25-30 year old couples, all with great travel advice and hilarious stories that kept us amused as we sailed. If you ever get the chance you have
ali and Mrs Hoan
Mrs Hoan was lovely, she even took us out after we finished clinic to her favourite foot massage place and sorted out a sweet deal for us! to try sleeping on the roof of a Junk boat and watching the sunrise...magic.
The second night we stayed in Cat Ba Island, and had the most amazing seafood dinner I have ever eaten. Never been so full in my life, so much so that when we woke up the next morning we literally couldn't stomach a hing. We ahd plates of crab spring rolls, whole fish with a chilli and tomato sauce (amazing!) and plates of shrimp with garlic and lemongrass. SO delicous, and all for under $7 each, including beers!
After returning to Hanoi we also welcomed back our appetites, and headed directly out for "All you can eat Fannys". Not joking. Matt was in heaven. Luckily it was Cath's 21st birthday so we had an excuse to gorge ourselves on Fannys for 2 hours. I had several helpings myself, never enjoyed fannys more than that night (to clarigy, Fannys is a French Ice-Cream Shop that does the most amazing sorbert and icecream, making amazing concotions and serving all you can eat on the first tuesday of the month).
We finally said goodbye to Hanoi on Tuesday night and took the overnight train to Danang,
then a bus to Hoi An. This is one place where it really must suck to be a guy hanging out with 5 chicks. There are more tailors here than restaurants, and they can make anything. We have spent the morning perusing shops, and I am too embarrased to tell you how much I've had made. Its really cheap, but the quality is great.
Our hotel is awesome, for $10 per night we get a room with pool view, motorbike hire and free unlimited cocktails every night by the pool! what more could you want? We just finished a cooking course this afternoon. For $7 we cooked 5 courses, and ate them along the way. So much fun, would have loved to have done one in Hanoi to learn some of the dishes that we loved there. Today we cooked spring rolls, a noodle soupy thing, salad (very challenging!), white rose dumplings with shrimp filling and the amazing tuna steaks cooked in banana leaf. It was really simple, but very satisfying because it tasted like at the restaurants (yum!) and we could easily do it at home.
Better head off, we are waking up at 4.30am tomorrow for
Dead Britney
Now, we all know that Britney Spears music career is dead, but was it really necessary to put her on a gravestone? a sunrise tour of My Son, a temple city about 45min away, definetely need to hit the sack!
Claire xoxo
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antoniele
Jade Maravillas
hi! how much was the overnight trip on ha long bay? :) im going in early april. thanks!