Vietnam at last.

its 18.31 and I'm already snuggly aboard the top bunk of my sleeper to Da Nang. It leaves at 19.00 and won't arrive till midday tomorrow. I've been dreading this journey, it's my second train journey in Vietnam - the first was awful! I got ripped off when buying my ticket from the Tourist Information place. I was sleeping 8 foot off the ground on what felt like a plank of wood literally a foot and a half from the ceiling. This time I booked my ticket myself for this one, no service charge and i'm in first class sleeper with a duvet. I've got my rations; a pack of biscuits, some sugary doughballs, a baguette ( I also have a 500ml bottle of pepsi that's been refilled with delicious honey). I have my Ipod, a book I'm reading on the Vietnam War (or American War as they call it here), and a special issue of the National Geographic on China that someone gave me.

It's tempting to write backward and talk about the last few days and Halong Bay but I'll get round to that. First though I want to say how much I enjoyed China! last time I wrote here, I was just about to trek Tiger Leaping Gorge. I've done that and it was incredible! I couldn't have been luckier with the weather - I picked up a bit of sun and the path was in fantastic condition. was prepared for trekking on my own which wouldn't have bothered me too much, but it was such a bonus to meet some fantastic folks along the way, there ended up being a big group of us!

After TLG I went back down to Kunming to pick up my passport and organise onward travel to Vietnam. I was really looking forward to chilling out and watching some films, it all went wrong though. I had a really bad stomach bug the morning of my last day in China, tried everything but to no avail. I managed to spend all my remaining currency and just had enough to get me to the station. When I got to the station for my overnight bus, I couldn't find my ticket and they wouldn't accept card so I had to run to a cash machine and take out some money frantically before the bus was due to leave. The ended up holding the bus for me, and when I eventually got on I had the worst seat on the bus! Right at the back where you can feel every bump. There was a mattress the width of the bus with 4 other people on it already - I was in the middle, not a very nice journey! Anyway yeh horrible experience but the next day was fantastic, had a really easy border crossing into 'Nam and met a Canadian couple who had a pill which sorted my stomach out right away!

After China starting to get a bit cooler, I was ready to leave for tropical Vietnam. So far I've spent 8 days here. I've been trekking in Sapa which was great. The first tour I'd been on and we were so lucky. Only 4 of us - myself, the Canadian couple and Rad who we met in Sapa also. We had a great time, our guide was superb and on the first night of the trek, the owner of our homestay invited us to a wedding ceremony which was to be held in the village. So we went and they were so hospitable. We drank a lot of rice wine and a pig was slaughtered for the occasion. I had liver, intestine and seasoned (but still raw and uncooked) pigs blood! It was actually ok till you got bits of bone you had to spit out!

Hanoi I enjoyed. The French quarter was lovely, really cool buildings and lots of great coffee (yeh I know I only seem to drink coffee when I'm travelling for some reason!) loads of street food and the beers at night are so cheap - 12p!! I saw the communist leader Ho Chi Minh's body preserved in the mausoleum (despite the fact he asked to be cremated in his will!). The thing that really annoyed me about Hanoi though was the thousands of motorbikes! and people constantly hassling you - especially motorbike drivers. "Hello Moto" is shouted constantly, even if your standing at a bus stop they'll come up and hassle you! To buy anything, you have to haggle, it wares you down so much - people in Hanoi are ruthless hagglers. In China you can pay the same as a local at many places if you haggle well or if you see someone paying for something. Not the case in Vietnam, even if you see someone paying 500 (Dong) for something your not going to get it for less than 2000 no matter how much you haggle (even the old walking away trick doesn't work). Me and Rad looked into loads of Halong Bay tours and you had to haggle with everyone, after about 2 hours I was so tired that I was almost going to just forget it and just go straight to Hoi An.

I'm glad I didn't though! We just booked one up and took our chances. The people were absolute scam artists, charging you for bringing any drinks onto the boat (for a 3 day cruise, everyone had drinks with them!) They have your passport, so there's not much you can do but pay up. Saying that though It was a great experience. The second day (18th) was incredible we went trekking in the morning. In the afternoon we went off ourselves and hired some kayaks, it was cool, exploring beaches and caves around Cat Ba island. In the early evening we went swimming and believe it or not I came up with the idea of jumping off the top of our boat. Wow! it was incredible, the time between jumping and hitting the water felt like forever!

anyway I've probably written enough for just now.

But thanks to everyone who's been sending me emails! Hope your all well back home and it isn't raining to much!

Take Care

X

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