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Published: November 17th 2005
King Liam and Queen Laura
Traditional Vietnamese royal performance costumes at a tomb in HueHey everyone,
Our trip to Vietnam has been great. We arrived in Hanoi and decided to get the night train all the way to Saigon. The trip should take 30 hours but the train kept breaking down! We ended up getting off the train halfway there in a place called Danang. From here we travelled to our first destination, the beautiful town of Hoi An. Hoi An is so pretty and charming. We stayed in a really nice hotel, with hot watter, hurray! In Hoi An every second shop is a tailors. The clothes are very cheap to get made, I got a really nice jacket made and Liam even got a pair of Puma runners made! We rented bicycles and took a trip to the beach. The cycle there was lovely, really scenic. On the way back we got caugh in a Vietnam style traffic jam! There were no cars involved just motorbikes and bicycles taking up the whole road collecting kids from school, we were stuck in the middle of it! The traffic here is crazy, there is no correct side of the road to be on, people just beep to get whatevers infront of them to move!
Laura's new hat!
Laura trying to fit in with the locals After a slightly nerve racking bus journey we arrived at our next stop, Hue. This city is full of war history. On our first day we took a cyclo trip (see photos) and visited a citadel and the pagoda. The citadel is a sort of mini city that a King built himself years ago and the pagoda was a really nice temple like thing (we didn't know what either of them were before visiting them!). At the pagoda we were chatting to a friendly monk who thought Liam's hair cut was similar to his! On our second day we did a tour of a Demilitarized Zone that was very interesting. The best part were the tunnels. People actually lived in the tunnels for 6 years during the war, and we complained about some of the places we've been staying in!!! The next day we did another tour called the Perfume River Cruise. We travelled along the river in Hue on a boat and then visited some tombs. We didn't like this tour so much because we felt everything was too rushed and there were a lot of hidden extras but it passed the day I suppose!
From Hue we travelled
Laura in a few years!!!
Woman trying to sell us food on the beach! to Nihn Bihn. Here we rented a motorbike (very brave I know!) and travelled to the National Park there. The trip there was amazing. Once we got out of the city the countryside was so beautiful. Rice paddies everywhere and people wearing those funny Vietnamese hats, they all had a good laugh at my dangermouse glasses though! The National Park was great. We went to an endangered primate rescue center where we got to see monkeys that had been rescued from either poachers or people who were going to sell them for medicine! They were so cute! After that we did a trek in the park to a 1000 year old tree and had a picnic. We visited the Cave of Prehistoric Man which was brilliant to see. Prehistoric tools and bodies of cavemen were actually found there when the cave was excavated. The tools are now in a museum in Hanoi. It was strange to see how far we have come since then! The cave is in the middle of the jungle and hard to get to, it was crazy standing in there and thinking that cavemen actually lived there!
We went from Nihn Bihn back to Hanoi as
The Beach in Hoi An
Nice beach on Hoi An we were flying back to Bangkok from there. We spent the day wandering around the Old Quarter, I got my hair done! We had a bit of trouble with the hotel manager where we were staying though but that's another story! Now we're off to Bangkok again for a day or 2 and travelling to an island in Thailand called Ko Chang then for some much needed rest and relaxation after the hectic 12 days in Vietnam!
Take care,
Talk soon,
Lots of love,
Laura and Liam xxx
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