Vietnam Update

Firstly sorry about the spelling etc in this blog I have no spell check thing and am in a bit of a rush. Hope its not too long. Matt

On my second day in Hoi An we booked onto a cooking course. We each selected three meals from the menu and then under the direction of a vietnamsse women prepard each one in turn and were allowed to eat our efforts after each one was cooked. Cooking vietnamise style is really easy I think I may give it a go when I get home.

I then moved onto Hue arriving in the evening after getting some street food and visiting the a local Bia Hoi I then moved onto the DMZ bar with two Austalians I had met at dinner. The next day I cycled out to a Japanée bridge with Martin (a German I had met in Hoi An). the bridge itself wasn't that great but the cycle out there was fantastic. On the way back we unsuspectingly cycled into a road they were resurfacing and ended up ankle deep in concreate. A kind local let us hose dơưn our bikes and ourselves and we were on our way then Martin's pedal came off his bike so I had to push him the 2km back into town (I don't seem to be having a lot of luck with bikes this trip).

In the afternoon Sarah arrived and we all hired bikes and headed for a cycle around the Citideal and had a look at the museums. The following day I visited the De-Militarised Zone (DMZ) I booked with a local cafe which turned out to be a good move as our guide was an ex scout for the Americans for two years in the DMZ. Although there was not a lot left of the DMZ his storys made the visit very worth while and we got the opertunity to vistit the Vinh Moc tunnels which were used by the North Vietnamise Army to move supplys to the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the VC in the south.

The next day Sarah and I hired a moto which I thought was not the best idea. I had to do the driving in town so after a couple of practice laps of the block I was ready to take my passanger. We spent the day zipping around Hue and explored further out from the city. That evening we headed to the Citidal on some cyclos unfortunaly the lights at the citidal were not on so we headed back to the pub. The next day we headed for Hanoi when I arrived I thought I was back in london as the weather was pretty bad. However our friend had booked us on a tour that moring so we only spent an hour in Hanoi before heading to Ha Long Bay where we visited some impressive caves and did some Kayaking, treking and spent one night on the Island of Cat Ba. The second night was spent on the boat where all I could hear all night was the rats in the walls. Luckly none nibbled my toes or anything else for that matter.

After heading back to Hanoi we visited Uncle Ho which was quite bazar I half expected him to sit upright as we walked around. In the afteroon we visited the ethnology Museum which was intrested howere I was knackered so headed back to the hotel to catch some zzz's. The next day I headed to Sa Pa I had a crazy Chinse chick in my cabin who diddnt want to let me sleep and was either poking me or pulling the hairs out of my leg. I decided to play cards with her to shut her up and managed to get my head down for about 11. Ariving in Lao Chi at 5am I jumped on a minibus to Sa Pa on arriving we found our hotel and guide and headed off for a 12km trek to a homestay. The homestay was excellent and our Black Hmong guide (Dom- well thats what I called her anyway) was really friendly and told us a lot about living in the area. On the walk I made a deal that if I collected firewood for the homestay I could have free rice wine, so leaving the rest of the group at the homestay Dom and I headed further up the mountain and then on the way back down collected some wood. I thought I was doing really well until about 15m away from the homestay where I slipped and went man down on a rock which Dom and everyone else who saw found very funny. I diddnt care as I had a load of wood which equaled lots of free wine. The next day we trekked a further 8km and got a bus back to town where Sarah had changed plans and arrived in Sapa. That evening a group of us went with Dom into town for some more you guessed it rice wine! The third day I spent trekking in the morning and then looked around the city and then in the evening headed back to Hanoi.

My flight left the next day so I spent the day exploring Hanoi but unfortunaly couldn't get tickets for a puppet show I wanted to see as such I had some time to do these blogs, which I am now finishing off in Thailand. The night before leaving Hanoi I went out for a drink with Andy and co who I had origianally met in Phnom Penh and then again at Ha Long Bay. The next moring Sarah retured from Sa Pa so we caught some breakfast before I caught a minibus to the airport and then flew to Bangkok. (for note the people working in Hanoi airport are a bunch of rip off murchants - so if your going there watch out!)

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