11. 26- 31st August . The DMZ and then the awesome 2000 Islands of Halong Bay!!

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26/08/07
Today started of as a special day as the bus was the first bus so far to be on time. We arrived at Hue for 11.30am and we booked into a very posh guest house for $12 between us. Nothing but the best for us backpackers. We walked to the Imperial City where we it felt like we were geting the wrong directions by all the locals inside. The place itself was huge and without a map you might as well be walking around a maze. Being prepared we had...no map. So by the time we got there we were drenched with sweat and i know that sounds sexy but we did not look that great! We walked around till 4pm till we could not stand anymore more so we headed back to try and book a bus up to the DMZ for tomorrow morning. We managed to do so through our hotel and to save a day we were able to organise the bus to drop us half way back so we could catch the next bus to Hanoi without wasting a day. Walking back from the Imperial City was interesting as there were stalls lined up next to the river selling items obviously taken from the DMZ as their were soldiers dog tags, medals, helmets etc for sale. A bit disturbing but the people here have to make money some how I suppose. Andy and I also decided to collect playing cards that we found on lying around since we both agreed that buying a deck would be to easy. We found 6 on our travel back to our hostel...yes we are sad!!

27/08/07
Not being use to having the luxury of air con we managed to set the air con wrong and woke up shivering. It felt like we woke up in a giant fridge and I felt like I had the beginning of a cold or man flu which is ten times worse! We drove around the DMZ looking at different American bases or to put it better where they were as they were all destroyed and the materials were used to build houses etc. We visited a small museum where one base used to be and towards the end of the trip we went to the Vinh Moc Tunnels. These tunels were alot bigger than the previous ones I visited to walk in as they were built by the villagers for the villagers. I could stand straight at some points and Andy being around 5ft 6" had no problems durind most parts of the tunel. Infact I joked that I had two shirts fitted for me but he won as he had a hole tunnel system fitted for him! There was one bloke who struggled since he must of been around 6ft 8" so I had to dust of his back when he came out the other side which was funny. We got back on the bus and headed back. Our tour guide got off early and just told Andy and I that we were getting off at a local restaraunt where we would catch the next bus at 7pm. Further down the road in this middle of nowhere town the driver stopped outside this creepy looking restauraunt and told us (by pointing because he could not speak any English) to get out. Everyone else on the bus was telling us not to get out since this couldn't be right but I just told them that if they heard about an Englishman and an Autralian going missing on the news in Vietnam that it would be us but not to worry otherwise! We stepped of the bus with all our fingers and toes crossed. It turned out to be perfectly fine but when the bus finally arrived at 7.30pm we had major trouble getting on. After a few phone calls and a few words from Andy and I we were allowed on. During our wait for the bus I had gone out to find a shop for a few bits. I found a local supermarket where this local lad in his 20's approached me. After talking to him about football, home, family and stuff we swapped e-mails addresses and I went to shake his hand to realise that he had no right hand. One of the many victims of post war problems they have in their country I assume. Anyway i shook his other hand, wished him the best and headed back. Andy and I both managed to get two seats to ourselves on the bus which was heaven...short lived however! I had been in a deep sleep for about an hour when I felt a tapping on my shoulder. This local lad was standing over me blabbering on in his native tongue and bearing in mind I had just woken up I didnt have a clue what was going on! After about 2mins of pure confusion I realised that he was asking me to wake up Andy and sit next to him so his father and him could sit where I was. I done so but only after confusing the hell out of Andy who asked why he had to hold my bags while I was handing them to him. It was only 10pm so I knew it was going to be a long night especially since the father of the bloke that woke me up kept staring at me which made me feel a bit insecure to say the least!

28/08/07
Arrived in Hanoi at 7am after only having about 2hrs sleep so not suprisingly we accepted the first bloke who approached us about his guest house, Red River 1 for $10 between us. Andy who slept well on the bus persuaded me to go out an explore the city and for some reason I obliged. Andy was in charge of the map and off we went at 8am. We visited a Pagoda in the middle of a lake and I decided it was time for me to but my next camera with the hope of keeping this one! I bought a 7.2meg Sony camera and a 2m memory card for 120pounds which i was pleased with. We stumbled across the War Museum but before entering we decided to reward ourselves with a cup of tea and some carrot cake...how very English of me! The museum was once again, as all museums should be, full of interesting facts. It was no suprise again to find a museum so extremely one sided. We tried to find the Ho Chi Minhs Mausoleum after the museum with no joy. It was only after alot of head scatching from Andy (the map reader!) he figured out that he had been reading the map for the last 4hours upside down! When we finally got to the Mausoleum it was closed and since I was on the verge of sleep walking we decided to call it a day for our site seeing. It took us 4 hours to get there and only 30mins to get back...its amazing how maps actually work when you hold them the right way up hay Andy!ha We got back at 6pm and I slept a few hours before dinner. We met two Irish blokes called Niall and Colin and another couple from OZ. Colin metioned that he recognised me from somewhere but didn't know where. It was a couple of minutes later while I was eating that he said "your the one who searched my bag on the bus when your camera got stolen!" and to that I almost spat out my food!! We laughed about the whole thing and I just thanked him for not hitting me while I was doing it! The six of us went to a pub where we took over the room at the back with a pool table and table football. We were joined later by a Vietnamese Lady and we all had a really good night till they shut dead on 12pm and turned off the lights ti the point that we could not see the pint in our hand. We took the hint and headed to our guest houses...or thats what Andy and I had intended. We got so lost as all the streets look axactly the same and was asking all the locals we met where our guest house was. Most of them seemed to point in the same direction which we took as a good sign so we headed in that direction getting more and more lost. We decided to find a motorbike taxi and cheat by getting a lift there. He pointed back the way we came from and he seemed very confident about the whole thing so not beeing able to get any more lost we jumped on. At this point I would just like to say for the record that Andy and I had a slight disagreement about the name of our guest house. I thought it was Red River 1 but Andy assured me it was Red River 2 not 1. So we were asking for Red River 2 the entire night and the taxi did manage to get us back to our guest house but only because he was the worst taxi driver ever and dropped us off at Red River 1 not 2! Well done Andy to a great day full of fantastic navigation skills!!ha

29/08/07
Today we set off early for a two day tour around Halong Bay. Halong Bay has 2000 islands and the cruise involved kayaking, going in caves and sleeping on the boat for one night. We were sat beside a bloke called Stephen from Reading who we thought we would be with for the next few days but as it turned out we were put on the wrong bus! The guide grabbed our attention when he was talking to the people on the bus and said it was ashame that we couldn't do the tour over two days as one day really isnt enough time. At this point Andy and I just looked at each other with the same confused face and I raised my hand like a kid in infant school wanting to go to the toilet. Everything was sorted out at the other end and we met our new fellow passengers. A bit suprisingly though since I managed to call the guide on the bus Rabbit instead of his nickname Ducky by accident!! Whoops!!! As you step onto the old fashioned trading boat and look around it really does hit you how many islands there are. As far as the eye can see there is amazing island after amazing island. We sailed off, had seafood lunch and visited this huge cave. I must say that even though the cave was really impressive one thing stood out above everything...the odd, out of place looking penguin bins?!!! Our next stop was a small floating fishing village where we saw some small sharks and other sea creatures they had caught. It was here where we got in our two person kayaks and Andy and I got a bit carried away and visited some distant island. It took us 20mins to get back but we were the only ones there so for a short while we were able to escape all the other tourists and discover things for ourselves without having a tour guide speaking what some times sounds like English. Bearing in mind we just saw some sharks the boat anchored up after a short while and we had the chance to go for a swim. Everyone jumped at the chance and Andy and I attemted backflips of the back of the boat. My attempts were not that convincing but Andys attempt was hilarious. He just span round to the side and landed on his face! Everyone on our boat were great. We sat with an Australian called Simon and his Japanese girlfriend each time we ate and come night time all 15 of us sat on the top of the boat on bedchairs enjoying the night sky. We had the full moon and stars on show and I even saw a shooting star ( i would tell you what i wished for but it wont come true and plus it was very rude!ha). The icing on the cake though was that there was a lightning storm rolling in over the surrounding islands which was awesome!! We were all in bed by 9pm. Hardcore!!ha

30/08/07
Being that our room was right next to the kitchen we were lucky enough to get woken up by the sound of them making breakfast at around 7.30am. We docked at an island to let the people off that were doing the three day tour and it was here that I saw Matt and Amy. We made arrangments to meet later on in Hanoi by shouting from one boat to another. I also managed to squeeze in another conversation with the Irish lad Colin whos boat was docked next to ours for a short while. We had a slow cruise back to the mainland and we were back in Hanoi by 4pm. Andy and I stayed at a place called Central Stars Hotel for $10 which was ideally placed so we could not get lost! Met up with Matt and Amy for dinner and spent the rest of the night sat on small plastic seats on the side of the road drinking the 3000 dong local beer (there is 33000 dong to the pound!!). Jan and his girlfriend Simone from our boat joined us in our drinking the night away who were from Chech Republic. A very good chilled out night and was looking forward to my first sleep in for weeks as we had nothing planned for the next day apart from a bit of shopping.

31/08/07
Of all days someone knocked on our door at 7.30am! It was a wake up call that was meant for someone else but I still managed to chill out till 10am on my bed listening to music. Went on the internet for a while then Andy and I headed off to spend some dong in the shops as it was our last day and you cant exchange dong anywhere in Thailand. I bought a new day bag which I could fit my "man bag" in and a few other bits and pieces which meant more room for clothes in my main bag...so i bought another pair of long shorts. We found ourselves at the same place as last night sat with about 8 people from our boat which was awesome. There was no Matt and Amy to be seen which was a slight worry since I wanted to comfirm plans for the taxi etc for the morning since we were flying to Bangkok. Anyway knowing how organised they are I checked my e mails when I got back ands sure enough they had e mailed me the details and told me to be at their hotel for 6.30am and that Andy has a card from their hotel with the address. Sounded easy and I was sure everything was going to go smoothly..........who was I kidding!!!ha

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Comments

[Mum]

Meeting Matt and Amy
I am worried that you did not get the taxi with Matt and Amy to fly out to Thailand as your comment in the blog sounded suspect that you actually made it to their hotel. Are you therefore still in Vietnam? Is Andy with you or have you parted company? See I am still worrying about you!! Mum XX