Vietnam

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Hey again everyone, time for another blog: This time, Vietnam.

So our adventures in Vietnam started in Hanoi, the capital city. We decided to stay in the Old Quarter, which is where most backpackers seem to end up. The main focal point of the area is the Hiem Reap Lake, surrounded by fresh boulevards and more traditional narrow lanes filled with many shops and eateries. The first challenge when arriving in Hanoi was managing to cross the road, as traffic laws were non existent and mopeds took up every square inch of the pavements. As you can imagine this made life extremely difficult, especially as Jeni insisted on Rich holding her hand every time we attempted a crossing!

We were told that Cyclos were the best way to view the city's sights, and with so many to see we dove straight in. These included the Temple of Literature, Lennin Park, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex and St Joseph's Cathedral. Whilst enjoying our first Cyclo ride of the trip, Richard felt a strange sensation on the back of his head and assumed it was Jeni running her fingers through his locks. After a couple of minutes however, to his horror he noticed that Jeni's hands were otherwise occupied reading the Lonely Planet; he turned round to see a particularly smiley Cyclo driver! As you can imagine, we didn't tip.

While we were there we decided to book a trip to Halong Bay, as we'd been advised this was the cheapest and easiest way to do it. It gave us the chance to sleep on a boat, see some more amazing sights and meet lots of fellow backpackers, including some interesting characters to say the least. One in particular who stood out for us was John from Limerick. He was a constant source of entertainment, and a quote that really sticks in our memory is (while being accused of being drunk by our bus driver) he replied "I've been drunk since 1982 brother." We believe him! One of the many sights on this tour was Cat Ba National Park; due to some of our fellow passengers being OAP's we assumed it would just be a leisurely stroll in the countryside (a geriaTREK you might say!) and a chance to take in some of the island's wildlife. We soon realised that it was going to be no walk in the park, as due to heavy rainfall it was more like Everest and a Slip n Slide combined, not helped by the fact we were attacked by an army of bugs the size of tennis balls. Although many of our group fell at the first hurdle, we overcame these challenges and managed to summit.

The rest of the cruise was far more relaxed, we spent our time playing cards, chatting to other travelers and checking out the amazing scenery. Our fun abruptly came to an end on the final morning when Richard managed to snap off our cabin's door handle- which was weaker than Richard's brother's ( Andrew) biceps. We actually thought we'd got away with it, until the captain noticed and decided to hold our passports hostage until we paid for the damage. We appreciated the fact that some of our fellow passengers refused to pay their bill until our passports were returned; after a hairy few hours, it was only resolved when we threatened to get the police involved.

After Halong we headed back to hanoi and then straight to Sapa- a must on anyone's travel itinerary in Vietnam. We chose to get a hard sleeper train which certainly delivered on one of the advertised premises, and had about as much head room as a coffin. Sapa is a hill station built by the French, set in spectacular mountain scenery. When we first arrived the whole mountain was shrouded by mist, but during our first trek in the afternoon this dispersed and revealed an incredible landscape. On the trek we were taken down the meandering hillside paths to Cat Cat village. On the way, our guide kept quizzing us on the local flora- urging us to try and not eat. Jeni ate! We really enjoyed the afternoon, learned lots and took some great snaps, however the way back up the hill did not seem quite so appealing so we hopped on the back of two mopeds which enabled us to reach the hotel without breaking a sweat. Although we had planned to do another full day trek the following day, the consequences of Jeni eating the unripe fruit meant that leaving the hotel for more than 10 minutes at a time was out of the question! Plus at this time Rich was coming down with a rubbish cold too, so we made the joint decision to opt out on this occasion. Despite this, the last day in Sapa was really pleasant; we checked out the local market, bought some more tat and strolled around the lake.

After another sleeper train we were soon back in Hanoi for our final day there. It was a perfect opportunity to catch a Water Puppetry show which we were told is the best in the world. This traditional music mixed with some incredible puppetry would put the Muppets to shame. We also had time to visit every girl's dream: Shoe street. (it does exactly what it says on the tin!) Shortly after that it was time to leave Hanoi and head down to Hui on a sleeper bus. Having been on one of these before we thought we knew what to expect, but having boarded the bus Rich immediately got it wrong. When the bus driver held out a plastic bag to use merely as a container for our shoes, Rich went a step to far and decided to put his entire foot straight into it. this was met with an angry glare and shake of the head by the bus driver! Inside the bus it was every man for himself in finding a seat; we thought we'd bagged a couple of half decent ones but it seemed jeni was too hasty, managing to pick the only bed with a tv inches from her face (which unfortunately for her was not turned off all night). Mums always say that sitting too close to the tv gives us square eyes, we can now confirm this is true.

We managed to cram lots into our 2 days in Hue. On our first day we strolled along the river to find the Citidel and Forbidden Purple City. They were massive monuments and definitely some of the greatest architectural achievements in Vietnam. The second day we chose to do a dragon boat city tour which enabled us to see the tombs of Tu Duc, Minh Mang and Khai Pinh, along with the Thien Mu Pagoda. The highlight for us however was the Kungfu Show we experienced at one of the nearby villages.

Our next stop in Vietnam was Hoi An, a charming riverside town with bags of character and endless amounts of souvenirs and tailoring. Although there are not any major sights in Hoi An, we were happy to spend our days wandering through the cobbled streets in the Old Town, necking pints of local fresh beer; at 15p a pint it would've been rude not to. It was here in fact that Rich got his first taste of Cobra Blood Vodka- the taste was just about barable, but the hangover in the morning really had some venom! After a few really enjoyable days in Hoi An we hopped onto a bus to Mui Ne, a quiet beach side resort renowned for its kite surfing and sand dunes. It was here we took the opportunity to hire a moped as the roads were a lot less hectic. This gave us the chance to see a bit more of the surrounding area and do a spot of sand boarding. While in Mue Ne we ate some delicious local food and chillaxed a lot of the time which was just what we needed.

Last but not least (although we actually felt it was exactly that!) on our trip to Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City. We only stayed there a couple of days as by now we were itching to get to Cambodia- but saw a lot in that time. We went on a tour of the Mekong Delta which is highly recommended when visiting the city; it actually had a very similar itinerary to the one we did in Kerala during our time in India- with the addition of a horse and cart ride, bees and snakes but the exception of south Indian Thali! On our last day we visited the War Remnants Museum which was extremely interesting but shocking at the same time. We also checked out the Binh Thai Market where Rich aimed to find a replacement bag. It should be noted that prior to this his bags have been spontaneously falling to pieces on a regular basis; Richard thought he'd found the perfect replacement but needless to say it has now fallen to pieces! The person who makes these really should be sacked. On our last night in Vietnam we went out for a nice meal in order to spend some of our remaining Dong.. We were enjoying our grub as always, when suddenly out of nowhere a man viciously attacked Richard from behind. This could only be described as a savage beating, but he insisted it was merely a massage.

As we write this we are now in Cambodia, while loving our time here already we look back on Vietnam fondly.

Love to all xx

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Comments

[fiona and john]

Looks like you really enjoyed Vietnam and went to many of the same places as we did, and we have a lot of similar photos including the water puppetry. How dare you cast aspersions on your brothers biceps. Hope you enjoy Cambodia but I am still wondering what you are going to do after, as it is not safe to go to Thailand at the moment. Anyway you both look fit and well. Take care. Love mum and dad