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I arrived in Hoi An early in the morning, after taking a nightbus from Na Trang. Hoi An turned out to be my favourite place in Vietnam. It's a smallish town with great character. Close to the beach, riverside cafe's, and generally had a nice feel about it. Hoi An is also famous for it's tailors, cheap cheap. I'd heard from several other travellers that they had suits and clothing tailor made, and they do it within 24 hours. Since some day I will also have to return to the real world and find a job, I had a suit & some shirts made. Great bargain!
Hoi An is also famous for the My Son, an ancient Hindu temple complex, just outside town. Most of it was destroyed during the Vietnam war, as the VC used it as a base, but a few temples are still standing. The rubble of the bombed temples are all around, as well as huge bomb craters.
Hoi An also has a quite a nice beach (probably the best in Vietnam that I saw), and I spent an afternoon relaxing there, until a rainstorm interrupted my strenuous suntanning.
My next stop was the
town of Hue. Not a particularly nice town, but they run tours to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from there, which contains many famous sites of the Vietnam War (the Vietnames call it the American War). The tour took a full day, including many historic sites such as the Rockpile, Khe Sanh Combat Base, Con Thien Firebase, memorials and the Vinh Moc Tunnels.
It was time to make my up north again, so it was another nightbus for me, this time to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Our bus arrived at the outskirts of Hanoi at 5.30am, a time when you would expect most of the city to be sound asleep. The streets where fairly busy though, with locals playing badminton or doing Tai Chi in the streets. I guess the early mornings and evenings are the only time they can excercise, as during the day it's just far too hot.
Hanoi is smaller than Ho Chi Minh City, but just as busy with street vendors abounding. I booked into the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, and immediately met quite a few fellow travellers. the first Day I visited the Hoa Lao Prison, first used by the french during colonial times,
later used by the Vietnames to imprison American POW's, the most famous of them being Senator John McCain (see pictures to see the flighsuit he wore when shot down and caught). The prison became known as the 'Hanoi Hilton'. Now only a small section of the prison remains, and now serves as a museum.
The following day I joined a tour to Halong Bay organised by the Hostel. Halong Bay is a UNESCO Heritage site for good reason. The bay is filled by thousands of limestone karst islands. The scenery is stunning, but slightly marred by the polluted waters. In many places you see rubbish floating around. It would be a pity if they don't get their act together and stop throwing all the rubbish into the water.
The first afternoon in Halong Bay we spent kayaking amoungst the islands, and even through some natural tunnels leading to hidden bays. All amoungs spectacular scenery. We spent the night on a boat in the bay.
The second day was the highlight of Halong for me. We went rockclimbing on the cliffs on one of the islands. We started off on some easier cliffs, and worked our way up
to some tougher climbs. Not to worry, the climbing was organised by professionals, and we where secured by ropes at all times. It was still pretty tough though, especially when you're clinging to the cliff face, not sure where the next hand of foothold is. The highest climb I did was 19m. We all survived day without major injuries (just a few scratches here and there). We spent the evening on Cat Ba island, before taking a boat back to the mainland and a bus on to Hanoi the next day.
I spent my final day in Hanoi doing some sightseeing. First stop was Ho chi Minh's mausoleum, which unfortunately we could only see from the outside as it is closed on fridays. We did go to the Ho Chi Minh Museum though, which chronicled his life and was fairly interesting. We also visited the Temple of Literature, which used to be the first university in Vietnam, and now houses relics of that time, as well as temples and gardens. In the heat of Hanoi visiting 2 sites was enough for one day, so we retired back to the hostel to relax and catch up on some internet time!
As at the moment it's nearly impossible to get Visa's for China, which I was intending to visit after Vietnam, I had to change my travel plans, so the next stop on my travels will be Laos.
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