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Published: December 30th 2006
Hello there guys,
Well Christmas is over for yet another year and it has certainly been an alternative one for me, but I will start at the beginning (or at least where I last left off) and fill you in with what I have been up to for the last couple of weeks.
Right, the last time I wrote this I had just arrived in Hue and as far as I can remember it was absolutly belting down with rain and due to this we weren't really in the exploring mood and spent most our time playing Jenga and chilling out at the cafe on the door step of our guest house. Not ones to let the damp weather dampen our high spirts though we booked ourselves on a tour of the city on the back of motorbikes from the cafe (it was recommended in our guide book) as the woman who ran the company assured us that there was only a 30% chance of rain the following day.
Yeah right..... we woke the following day to find that once again it was raining cats and dogs and we had to make a sharpish decision whether we wanted
Seeing the sites of Hue
Soaking wet but having fun!to risk life and limb being driven around the city by some Vietnamese randomers in slippery conditions wearing nothing but a rain mac and no crash helmet...... hell yes we did!!!!
It turned out to be a fantastic day (apart from the rain) and the drivers were excelent (except mine was a bit of a speed demon and always felt the need to over take the rest of the gang - show off!). The guide we had for the day 'Minh' was a top bloke and during the day we went to some war bunkers which were used by the French in the 'American War' (thats what it is referred to over here), a Vietnamese King's Tomb (where Emily & I dressed up in traditional clothing - see pictures!), loads of Pagoda's including one called the 'Thien Mu Pagoda' which is one of the most famous structures in Vietnam and was home to the Monk Thich Quang Duc, who publicly burned himself to death in 1963 to protest against the policies of President Ngo Dinh Diem (the original picture of him on fire is at the Pagoda too which is a bit strange as he is sat there like
Seeing the sites of Hue
Monks on their way to temple he is meditating whilst being burnt to death).
That day we also visited Hue's Citadel which is an imperial city that was heavily bombed by the American's in the war along with another Pagoda where our guide knew what time the Monk's would be coming out to go to prayer so we were lucky enough to be able to stand in line (felt like I was back in school) and have about 80 Monk's walk past us in formation on their way to the temple.
Since entering Asia we have noticed that Monks wear different robes and have different haircuts and our guide was able to explain the reason behind this which included whether they lived within the Pagoda, their age etc... and then told us about the lifestyles that they lead.... he then went on to explain that he could never have been a Monk because he liked Tiger Beer and Bob Marley too much!
After a few days in this city we decided to make a move down the coast and chase the sun (we were told there was some in Vietnam somewhere) and made our way by coach to Hoi An (which turned our
Seeing the sites of Hue
This shot was taken from one of the war bunkers we visited on the Perfume River. 20K behind the hill on the left hand side is where the infamous battle of Hamburger Hill took place. to be peeing down too!)..... or what is better known as shoppers paradise!!!!
Basically tailor made clothing is one of Hoi An's best trades and there are over 200 tailors in town which can make you pretty much any item of clothing you want for the following day for peanuts, so as you can imagine we were in our element after spending SIX WEEKS wearing our now very skanky, slightly tatty wardrobes, so the next three days were spent being husstled by traders, getting measured up and picking out what we wanted making for us.
Although I could have gone nuts and bought every item I laid my eyes on I held back and used my sensible head and came away with five purchases which included a pair of linen trousers, a dress, two skirts and a top (all for about $50! - bargain!). Unfortunately I am now struggling to close my back back and I think I am going to have to send some of my clothes back home or dump some of the tattier items at some point.
Since being in Vietnam we have noticed that the Vietnamese are always quick to make a deal
Seeing the sites of Hue
Conical hat making. It takes a whole day just to make one hat. and are there are hundreds of touts roaming the streets trying to make friends with you only for them to slip into the conversation that their family have an excellent shop which makes the best clothes in town and luckily for you it's happy hour and everything has 50% off or similar (do I have mug tatooed my head???).
On one particular day when it had been belting down (rain, Vietnam, surely not I hear you say?!?!!?) and we had been approached by one too many people trying to get you to look at their shop, Kelly decided that she would play them at their own game and when approached by yet another woman asking if we wanted to go to their shop, she asked them if they would go to her shop as she had a good offer on shoes at the moment. Well a small Vietnamese woman (who I affectionatly named Yoda) clocked onto what Kelly was saying and found this hillarious and decided that she was now going to follow us around for the next x2 hours, taking an instant liking to me stroking my hair at every oppurtunity and even giving me a massage when
Seeing the sites of Hue
Emily & I dressed up in traditional clothing in the King's Tomb! I sat down! Obviously she was trying to sell something herslef and because she gave such a good back rub I decided to go along with her to her shop which was a beauty salon and get my legs 'threaded' which involved two pieces of cotton being rubbed together, plucking out each individual hair by the root! Muchos painful I hear you say and yes you would be right - nothing that I would suggest anyone ever attempting to have done to themselves ever! Anyway, it only cost $2 and I was starting to resemble sasquatch so I guess the old dear did me a favour really.
As it was starting to near Christmas we thought it best to make a move to our yule tide destination of Nha Trang and although the coach journey ahead of us was a long one of 12 hours, we thought that we had the choice whether to have a day or a night journey, of which were going to book the day time one as they have turned out to the be the better of the trips we have encountered so far.
Unfortunately we misread the ticket times and the only
Seeing the sites of Hue
Original photograph of the Monk protesting by setting himself on fire. option was the night journey (1800-0600!) so we asked the bloke at the ticket office if there were any flights available for the next day (lazy little backpackers) but alas he said that all of the seats had been booked (boo). That evening on the way back to our hotel after a long converstion about how hideous the coach would be the following day, Emily suggested half joking, that we went into another tour agency which we had just passed to see if there were any seats available......... and there were!!!! So no sooner than you could say master card we had whipped out our cash and paid for a flight leaving the following afternoon and would only take 75minutes instead of the 12 hours we would have had to endure (happy days).
Unfortunately Tina being the more thrifty one out of the four of us decided that she would get the coach and meet us at the next destination (it was only $41- you know it made sense!) but good for her for sticking to the rules of our budget and not spending more that 20 pounds a day (early Christmas present to myself; the only one I
Hoi An
Getting my legs 'threaded' by Yoda - the expression on my face is not for the camera, it really was that painful! had; ahhh bring out the violins!!!)
Anyway, we were surprised to find that the weather was good as we exited the plane and we quickly jumped in a taxi at the airport and made ourway into the City of Nha Trang which turned our to be a nice holiday resort with a beautiful beach and weather much better than any other part of Vietnam that we had visited so far.
Over the Christmas period we just generally took it easy in between going out and joining in the festivities (On Christmas Eve we went to a mud bath and a mineral spa) and because we all decided that having nothing to open would be pretty misserable we all bought each other gifts. I received a small bunch of bananas, a note pad, some lego, a nutty type of biscuit, an i pod case, some guilian chocolates and three lighters (ah, you guys!) and I bought amongst other things for the gals, some smokers toothpaste for Kelly and Emily, mouthwash for Tina, a pack of knickers, some sunblock and some aftersun (the chioce of presents to buy were a little limited as i'm sure you can tell!)
Christmas
Hoi An
Although I did want to kick her in the face from the pain we made up in the end day was spent on the beach for the first part and then in the afternoon we decided that a Turkey dinner was on cards and we went on a misson to find one, which didn't turn out to be a hard task at all (even though I still chose to eat bangers and mash!). Christmas day pretty much imalgamated into Boxing day as we found ourselves watching the sunrise on the beach which was awesome.
In Nha Trang when the bars close, there are street vendors on most corners selling hot food along with beer and these usually end up becoming hang out spots for the party goers who are not quite ready to call an end to the night. One particular one which we frequented on a few occasions was more or less ran by a 12 year old girl called 'Wing' (when she told us her name she said 'like chicken wing!) and althought her mother and aunt were there she was the husstler and drew the punters in for the food (kind of like a kebab shop on the way home from the boozer!).
Anyway, on every occasion we visited the stall, Wing had always
Hoi An
Beautiful old town - probabally my favourite place in Vietnam so far drummed it into us that we had to be very careful with our bags and to be wary of people getting too close to you as they would try and swipe your money and on our last night out in Nha Trang we experienced this first hand as we got hasstled by a bloke on a motorbike asking us if we wanted a ride anywhere (this is a common thing in Vietnam and for the most part there is nothing dodgy about it as they are used as taxis) but this bloke was definately being shifty so we sped up our pace only to be greeted by about half a dozen motorbikes with two people on each circling round us as we walked around the corner of the street to our guest house.
The usual scam here is for woman to then surround you and prettend that they are putting their arm around you whilst frisking you, finding out where your cash is and then nicking it off you, but luckily as the first woman went to approach Emily, I screamed at her to back off which seemed to work and she hopped on the back of the bike
Hoi An
Two on the back of a taxi motorbike! and sped off. A pretty lucky escape I reckon as over the few days that we were there we heard stories of middle aged blokes being pounced on by girls and chased for their money. (we met a bloke called Bill who was in his 50's and as he was concerned for us walking to one club so he walked with us. We found out the next day that he got mobbed on the way home and he said that he could have done with our protection!)
Anyway, all's well that ends well so none of you get worrying now (yeah, especially you Mom!)
Two days ago we caught a 5.5 hour bus journey down the coast yet again to a small beach resort called Mui Ne which is where I am currently writing from. Since arriving here we have done nothing that sit on the beach and attempt to get a tan for New Year's Eve (I burnt my nose today so I am getting there!)
We are stopping in a small chalett on a complex right on the beach and luckily for us our room is the closest one to the sand which is literally
Hoi An
The lady in the picture was serving us in our restaurant & after our meal asked us if we could go back to her house to meet her children which we did. Very nice family! on our door step (I woke up at 0930 yesterday morning and was laid on my lounger by 0945 - now that's what i'm talking about!)
With New Year's Eve being tomorrow we are now moving to the capital Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) this afternoon on a four hour bus journey which should be a great place to see in the new year (7hours ahead of the UK so think of me singing Auld Langs Ein at 1700 on Sunday afternoon!)
I hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoy your celebrations on Sunday.
Happy New Year Y'all!
PS. I have added quite a few photos to this blog. To see them all use the 'next' button at the bottom of the page.
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Nikola Simon
Nikola & Simon
Thank Goodness You have found the sun!
We are in Sapa at the moment freezing our wotsits off! We are making our way down south tomorrow so we hope to get some rays too. Lets hope that the rain has gone from Hue, although I somehow doubt it! Sounds like your all having a great time. Happy New Year