Vietnam

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Vietnam had its ups and downs. Its ups were when I realised that you never forget how to ride a bicycle, the downs were when a "Laundry' service was spraying my clothes with febreeze, then trying to over charge me for it. Anyway, Vietnam started with the Ho Chi Minh City - the city of motorbikes. There are so many, its so dangerous to cross the road - so I just followed a local, and they showed the way. In Ho Chi Minh, we did an excursion to the Cu Chi tunnels, which were the trenches the Vietnamese built during the war, that and the war museum were very much propaganda, i.e the Vietnamese did no wrong during the war, and all thg problems were that of the Americans. At Ho Chi Minh, we bought an open bus ticket, which took us to Nha trang, then Hoi an, to Hue and finally to Hanoi, all on the one ticket, seemed like a bargain at the time. So the next stop was Nha trang, which was good as we were next to the beach, and spent and afternoon there. I lost my sunglasses on in the sea, so bought another pair for 40,000 dong, about 1.33 pounds - they broke in my bag, so I bought another pair in Hue - they haven't broken yet. Anyway, Nha trang was good because we went scuba diving. We got to a depth of 10 meters, I didn't feel like I descended that deeply, but it was a lot of fun. Hoi an was where I realised I could ride a bike again - after 11 years. We cycle around this small town, and again, spent the day at the beach. It was about 5km away, but it was fun cycling there. Hoi an is famous for its tailored clothes - so I got one done! Now I'm going to have to carry it all the way home! After Hoi an, things got a little frustrating. Hue was where we got scammed, as they made us pay an extra 80,000 dong, $4 to get to Hanoi, even though we bought an open bus ticket. The people here were less friendly, and a lot less co operative. More hassle from people who want to sell things. It didn't changed much in Hanoi, as our clothes got febreezed and the museums were closed - taxi driver failed to mention this when he dropped us off. But we did spend 2 days on a boat in Halong bay, which was really good. We went into some caves and went Kayaking before spendiung the night on the boat. From Hanoi, we got a bus to Laos, where our trip is nearly coming to an end.

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