"Vietnam, You don't know man... You weren't there"

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Part One - 2nd November

Hey All,

It's 7.30am and I've just waded through the flood water that comes up to my shin to the tourist office to see if our bus is heading for Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) today. It's not; I knew that would be the case. Mat and I are desperately trying to get to HCMC to get to the British Consulate so we can sort out emergency travel documents as our passports have been stolen. Looks like we will be stuck in Nha Trang for at least three days. I understand that for those who aren't in the know this is probably a bit of a shock but hopefully rumour has spread throughout our friends and family and most of you know that I was robbed.

Now, I don't want anyone to worry and I certainly don't want everyone to think that we are not enjoying ourselves. As much as we miss you all we still wouldn't swap this for the world. We are currently experiencing what my dad has termed a "clusterfuck!" - This is essentially where numerous things keep going wrong one after another. He is certainly right, but as I have been told you have to take the highs with the lows and even though things aren't going quite as we expected we have still had many highs. I will start from where we left you, in Hanoi, the capital city that numbed, excited and encapsulated us.

After three days in Hanoi we decided to move on to "Ha Long Bay". This should have taken three hours on a bus and the same on a ferry. It took us two days. This was the beginning of the clusterfuck! We decided to take a bit of adventure and use public transport; Our aim was to jump on a public bus from Hanoi, and at Ha Long City jump on a public ferry. Our public bus took five hours and dropped us off at the side of a motorway and the public ferry was, apparently, nowhere to be seen. We spent the night in the most awful hotel we have witnessed yet and had no choice but to jump on the tourist boat the next day (we were trying to avoid all things touristy, particularly the booze cruise around Ha Long Bay, we wanted to experience the beauty of the place by ourselves). We spent the evening watching the new In Betweeners as Dan had it on his netbook so all was not lost! When I speak of "we", I am not just referring to Mat and myself as since our 24 hour bus journey from Laos to Vietnam, we have been traveling with two other couples. Although, as you will find out, not much has gone our way post Hanoi, but we have had such a wicked time traveling with Seb, Kate, Dan and Laura. I have never laughed so much and i'm sure they will all be friends for life. We cannot thank them enough for introducing us to to the "throw your pants up at the fan and see where they land in the room" game. This provided us with much entertainment. Laura and Kate were my crutches when I was robbed (this I will come to soon) and whilst my hands shook and my brain wouldn't focus they thought rationally for me.

Ha Long Bay consists of 1,960 limestone islets only one of which is inhabited, Cat Ba island, and after two days we finally arrived! Our last hurdle was trying to get from the boat port to the inhabited part of the island which was a bit of a struggle as the tourist guide on the boat refused to let us on the bus! We had to plead with a taxi driver to take us who finally agreed at triple the price of the bus. Cat Ba Island completely wasn't what we expected at all; It just screamed tourism. Nonetheless we were overjoyed to have arrived at our destination. We arranged to take Kayaks out the next day and complete our own little Top Gear bar search around the islets (see attached video, and yes, it really is as beautiful as that). Unfortunately the weather wasn't great so we decided to take bikes out instead and perhaps kayak in the afternoon. All six of us set off to find the hospital cave and eventually our mission was accomplished. The cave was incredible and completely ingenious - Completely inconspicuous to Americans flying overhead during the war but inside was a seventeen-room hospital for injured soldiers. We have heard that the Vietnamese were clever fighters and took the Americans by surprise and after witnessing the hospital cave we could see why. However, post cave we started to experience a problem with our bike. Quite a big problem. Within half an hour our back tire was completely flat and we decided to turn back rather than explore some more. I jumped on Seb and Kate's bike (they had a dodgy petrol gauge) whilst we all very slowly followed Mat back. Dan and Laura's bike backfired or "farted" (this was the only word Mat could use to explain what backfiring meant) all the way home. Mat did such an amazing job riding the bike back. Once more, we had a bit of a nightmare! We also had to decide against kayaking (which devastated the boys) because it was just a little bit too cold. We didn't have much time allocated for Cat Ba so we booked a bus & boat for the next morning to Hai Phong.

Ten minutes before our bus was due to leave the following morning we spontaneously decided to stay another day, the sun was peering through the clouds and this was enough to give us hope. And what a decision we made! We kayaked around the islets, but admittedly, we were looking for the bar that Clarkson and Co ended up in but we couldn't find it and therefore concluded that it was definitely set up for Top Gear. We did however kayak through the fishing villages, into caves and found our own secluded beach. The first beach we've been on since we started traveling! Things were looking up. Until, that is, we got back to the harbour and had to witness the most awful thing I have ever seen. This, for me, was worse than being robbed. We had been warned about the "Mafia" and the heroin addicts out here but we were told by the guy who wouldn't let us on his bus so we kind of shunned him off. At the pier we saw a man, whose face was covered, extremely aggressively beating up this poor woman. I do not lie when I say his whole body left the ground as he launched blows to her head. It was harrowing. I have never been in such a moral dilemma, my heart was telling me to do something to make it stop but my head was telling me to keep away. I'm not sure if our presence made it come to a stop any sooner because suddenly he was on the back of a motorbike and gone. I wanted to go after the girl but she covered her head with a jumper, as if ashamed. I would give the rest of the belongings I have (the ones that haven't been nicked!) to see the woman get her revenge on that evil *bleeeep*. My helplessness brought me to tears and I had some time alone on the pier, trying to digest what I had seen.

Eventful is one word you could use to explain our travels since Hanoi! I do want you all to remember that Mat and I have had, and are having, an amazing time. Our patience is definitely being tested but what doesn't kill you will make you stronger and I think we have still been through harder times than this.

A little sidenote quickly: I just had a quick break from the blog and we headed to 'Rainbows', the scuba diving cafe-come-bar across from our hotel. We had HEINZ beans, (not any old beans!) on toast with bacon, egg and the works and my first cup of proper tea in SIX weeks. Tea has never tasted so good! Not only that but we had fresh milk - Not the condensed stuff they use out here that is thicker than custard. Oh tea, how I have missed you!

Anywho, the day after the kayaking we got a boat over to Hai Phong. We had planned to say here for the day whilst Seb went back to Hanoi to collect his laptop (which he had left in our dorm and the hotel were keeping safe for him!) and on his return we would travel south to Hue. Seb was on his way to Hanoi; Mat, Dan and Laura were guarding our luggage at a coffee shop and Kate and I set off on a fifteen minute walk to the bus station to book our bus tickets for that evening. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing, and, in hindsight, as Mat explained, two girls should not have been walking alone. However, we were, and this is when I was robbed. We were quite clearly being followed from the moment we left the coffee shop and in hindsight should have returned. But we didn't. We stopped for a few seconds to get our bearings on a our map and two men on a moped whizzed up behind us. Initially, I thought I was caught on their bike, but within seconds they had cut my bag off me (I cant think how else they would have got it off me) and were gone. I didn't see their faces or catch what bike they were riding. The bag contained everything of value to Mat and I but most importantly our passports. The police were suprisingly helpful as I was under the impression I would have to bribe them in order to gain a police report, and the lady from the coffee shop was an absolute god send. It's really unfortunate that I was robbed but if they were carrying a sharp implement (which I don't doubt they were) I could have been seriously hurt. Mat and I kept it together pretty well - I had a bit of a moment when, after waiting for an hour at the police station for a translator, they told us we wouldn't be able to get the overnight bus to Hue that evening. Mat was very together and rational; I shouted and cried and told them I refused to stay in the thier town that evening. It worked! They hurried along the investigation and the leader of the investigation even gave us a lift to the bus station in his swanky car. I was amazed that the police were on our side. We were told that theft like this happens every day in Hai Phong and that women are particularly targetted. We were so happy to see Kate, Laura and Dan on the bus. We had made it!

Mat and I made the conscious decision to go to the British consulate in the south (HCMC) rather than go back to Hanoi. I was robbed on the Friday and the Consulate was closed over the weekend so we could still do the route we had planned Hue - Hoi An - Nha Trang - Mue Ne - HCMC. That way those *bleeeeps* who robbed me wouldn't have ruined my trip. And they still wont; It's not really their fault we are stranded (more to come on this in a minute!). Nha Trang (11 hours from HCMC) and Mue Ne (3 hours from HCMC) are beach towns and we had planned to bypass them to go straight to HCMC and then go back on ourselves whilst we waited for a week for our passports/visas and chill out on the beach for a week. We arrived in Nha Trang yesterday morning, ate, and were back on the bus an hour later. We have never seen such torrential rain as we have seen in the last two days (see video below of flooding). Two hours into our trip to HCMC we had to return, the flooding had caused a bridge to collapse. As it stands, we are not sure how long we will be stranded here for. We have been told that there is no transport out of here - No buses, trains or planes (not that flying would be any use to us!) for at least three days. How long we will be stuck here for we are not sure. But, once again, please do not worry! We are on the second floor of a pretty sturdy hotel! If you check the news in curiousity I will tell you now that these floods have so far killed four people (one baby and the rest elderly), all locals. We are safe. And besides the fact that the rain is destroying livelihoods and homes which is completely devastating, we are actually quite enjoying experiencing such torrential rain.

Now, we are going to float around the corner to a local cafe (apparently they do the best burgers in Nha Trang) to watch the 1pm showing of the first SATC movie (so I can pretend I'm in NYC) with a large mug of proper tea.

Part Two - 3rd November

Whilst watching SATC, we ummed 'n' arred over whether we should travel to HCMC that evening. Some bus companies were making it, and others weren't - Basically a pot luck scenario. Although Mat was quite sceptical about travelling in the floods (and rightly so), my gut instinct was telling me to go for it. So we did. And here we are. In Ho Chi Minh City!! Not only that - We have spent all morning at the British Consulate sorting out our Emergency Travel Documents, which will be ready tomorrow morning. Yippee!! Huge apologies to our parents who were woken at the crack of dawn, particularly Phil Gornall Snr who was awoken at 5am by accident (Sorry pal!). We keep changing timezones and it gets confusing! We finally felt safe when we saw the British Flag flying high, and Mat invested in a Poppy which will be proudly pinned to his chest for the next couple of weeks. The weather is scorchio here, and we are looking forward to planning adventures for the next 5 days whilst we wait for our Exit Visas.

It's amazing what 24 hours can do....


Love to all,

Amber and Mat

xXx

Top Gear Special Vietnam Part 7
Top Gear Special Vietnam Part 8

**PHOTOS UP - VIDEO TO FOLLOW**

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Photos

Kate and Seb...
...Mapping our Top Gear route out

Flooding...
...Yes, it really was that bad.

Comments

[rena]

i've been to 'Nam......nottinam!
Hey you two, what an amazing adventure im only glad i didn't know about it at the time!! Amber your bit about seeing the woman beaten brought me to tears and im afraid i may have had to chin him.......i cant imagine ever doing that in real life!! im so proud of what your doing i know i keep saying this but WOW! Enjoy your rest on the beach, im loving hearing about your journey. love you lots little one and you Matt, take care of each other. xxxxxxxx