A pirates life is the life for me..

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I write this entry on our last day in Vietnam. And what a journey its been. The past week we have been busy bees.


We left our swanky hotel back in Hue and boarded our hanh cafe night bus bound for Hanoi.
It was smaller than the previous sleeper bus we'd been on, we were the first ones on, followed by another white couple. We were promptly ushered to the back with the promise:

'Much room,big for legs,better for you.'


It seemed the rawest deal of the whole bus, sharing the top level with 2 others, with no legroom and the narrowest seats. We decided that we probably had paid 3 times as much as the locals and for a 13 hours journey - we deserved to be comfortable, so we moved further down to get separate seats.

Me being me assumed id fall straight asleep..not so! The road was SO bumpy it could've required a sports bra, if you were lucky enough to start falling asleep, the bus would suddenly stop and jolt you forward or throw you up in the air.

Its strange to think that 4 hours extra on that bus and we would've been on there for as long as our entire flight from home to the Philippines! I still would've preferred to be on that bus for an extra 4 hours than do that plane journey again though..regardless of the lack of sleep.Im glad i was awake for most of the journey though.

It was surreal listening to my MP3 and gazing out the window, the twinkling amber lights in the distance, i could be at home. But then i take a closer look at what's directly outside my window..the amber lights are being reflected by miles of glistening rice paddies - either side of the coach, which makes it feel like we are sailing through a lake. In intermittent patches in the paddies you would see a warm orange light appear and move slowly. Once you noticed one, you'd see them more and more often. Rice farmers tending to their paddies in the dark of night.

It put me right back to where i was, further from home than i'd ever been, even though if i squinted to just the distance, i could be on the M4 on the way to Newport like so many late night drives.

Hanoi

Arriving in Hanoi at 7.30 the next morning was a shock to the senses. It felt like i hadn't slept a wink. Driving through the city, you can immediately see the French influence. This certainly couldnt be confused with HCMC. There was a central 'river' of grey slush, clearly sewerage seeping from everywhere. Im just glad we were inside the bus, though walking around Hanoi the wafts of sewerage are almost as dizzying as the air horn type car horns they like to use in every opportunity out here..many just beeping as they go down an empty street with nothing in front of them!

In the taxi on the way to our hotel i WISH id taken a video. We passed a couple of stalls that i initially thought were selling spit roasted piglets- because of their colour and wriggly tails - this was distressing enough- until we passed a stall that had one all stiffly standing up..growling with teeth..this was no piglet. We were in dog-meat eating territory.
Further along our journey i saw a woman using a bike inner tube to hula hoop with..just casually on the street. We passed under a bridge, where there was a collection of sofas and a dressing table that a group of people clearly call home.

Hanoi is pleasantly cooler than HCMC..but it doesnt let off on the smog. I was so looking forward to getting to Halong Bay to be able to see in the horizon and breathe the air without feeling like i was sucking on an exhaust pipe.

By the wonders of technology last Tuesday i got to wake jennifer up on skype and sing her happy birthday and sit on the bed with the birthday ritual of undoing presents..felt like i hadnt left home.
The next day, jimi and i fought through all the travel agents in Hanoi to find a decent tour of Halong Bay (ok that was a MASSIVE exaggeration as to do that i think would take a life time) We eventually found one we liked (with kayaking and trekking) and that we could afford. Everyone had said you get what you pay for with Halong tours so we steered away from the ultra cheap ones and went with Posideion Junk, for 3 days 2 nights.


After booking the tour we ended up walking around and discovering lots of little side streets. In the end, we stumbled across the main lake in the city and one of the biggest tourist attractions- so we were very happy with ourselves. It was very tranquil and had a light mist though i suspect that was probably just smog. We walked across a little red bridge that led to a temple. Though because i had a vest top on, i felt too inappropriately dressed so we didnt go in.



We booked 2 tickets for the Water Puppet show in the evening - a traditional Vietnamese show that originated in the rice paddies during rainy season and first shown in Hanoi. A bit of culture..great! It was good fun, jimi and i have never been to a theatre together before so that was nice too. It was only 40 mins long but for £2 cant complain! There were some amazing sounding instruments being played. It told the story of the rice planting process and some old fables of Vietnam,it was intriguing to see these little puppets bop about in the water and although the narration was totally in Vietnamese it was a great show.

It has been quite cold in Hanoi the past week. Not unbearably so, but for me who only has a thin hoodie and one pair of warm socks it was a bit of a shock! Though i guess i have to put it in perspective..its 22 degrees..the hottest it gets at home in the summer sometimes and its snowing back in Eastbourne now so id be a block of ice if i were back home now!



After testing the air on Thursday and deciding it was def jumper wearing weather we went back to our hotel to layer up and sort out tickets to getting to Laos. It is so SO expensive - cheaper for us to fly to Malaysia and back than it is to pop over to Laos- the equivalent distance of going to France back home. There is a bus you can take but its around 30 hours and your usually crammed in with dead/live animals and have only 1 official stop (all the others are breakdowns.) SO we decided to skip Laos, as really the only thing we wanted to do there was tubing and go straight to Chaing Mai, Northern Thailand. The joys of having no restrictions and a whole world of places you can visit for cheap really is such an amazing feeling, if you dont like one place..move onto the next and if you've always fancied going there and trying that, then its easy as pie. Whilst we were booking our flights, a couple from Birmingham were in reception being touted by a tour guide. We mentioned our cruise in Halong Bay that we had booked for the next day and after talking to them for a while they decided to book the same tour.
It was lush hanging out with them for a few days and hearing stories of the places they've been and we are going to. Jo and Jay are on the same time scale as us, but have managed to cram so much in. Which inspired us to go a bit more further afield and the current plan is to make it to Bali, Indonesia after New Years and be back in time for Kirstys' greatly anticipated arrival in Feb.

Halong Bay

We got up early on Friday, met up with jo and jay in reception and boarded our bus to Halong Bay.
A very amusing and surreal 4 hour journey that was! Our very enthusiastic tour guide was telling us all about Vietnam, the bay, Vietnamese life and a bit about himself when he asks if we knew Micheal Jackson.
The bus nodded.
Out of no where he asked if he could sing us a song..confused at the randomness of the situation the bus didnt really have time to respond before he broke out into song in an overly serious rendition of 'lonely' power grab and thrusting stance included. Best thing ever though i wasnt quick enough to record it. He said it was written about him because he was 25 living alone and 'it gets very lonely'.

We eventually arrived onto our boat which was pretty plush and we excitedly checked in. We had a 6 course lunch - all seafood, which wasnt bad and had loads of stuff ive wanted to try for ages but too tight to order it in a restaurant incase i didnt like it. I was surprised how brave jimi and i were..jimi tried some prawns..though wasnt brave enough to de-shell them himself..i think the waitress took pity on him and offered to do it for him. We tried squid, which wasnt like how i expected it to taste atal but still wouldnt order it in a restaurant and crab too which was nice.


Halong Bay was covered in a blanket of mist on the first day, which really made it feel like we were part of a pirate tale..cruising unknown lands. The size of the limestone craggs is just jaw dropping..and the amount of them too! There is a story that a dragon had come to Halong Bay to protect Vietnam from Chinese invasion, by throwing his tail into some land, he created the thousands of islets that make up Halong Bay that would confuse and disorientate intruders to the land.

After Lunch we had cruised to 'Surprise Cave'..an intriguing name and i was looking forward to discovering what it meant. i was genuinely surprised by the cave, maybe that was the cause of the name, it was on a tiny little islet and i was expecting to just enter a little dimly lit cave with an interesting pool inside or something, instead the scale of the cave was just incredible. it went on and on and on and on and up and up. Ive never seen anything like it before. Or perhaps the 'surprising' factor was how many tourists you could fit inside of it.
It was by no means over crowded, but queuing to even get on the steps to ascend up to the entrance was reminiscent of a theme park.
Exiting the cave, we got into a duo kayak and paddled around the bay..something ive wanted to do for forever and although we couldnt stray too far, it was great to get up close to the islands and explore little crevices!



Another un-fulfilling fishy dinner later and jimi and i started on the bottle of Vietnamese vodka (which smells more like paint stripper than normal vodka does) that we smuggled onto the boat. Kareoke started and after the usual unwillingness to try to start with, jo jay jimi and i were the last ones standing at 1 when we called it a night!

Cruising through the misty coves is eerie and peaceful..it felt like they all hold some sort of secret..like there is so much history hiding here. I like the idea of a dragon creating the bay.

Saturday morning, after being sick in a bus station trench (oh yes,classy i am) due to hangover we got on a bus for Cat Ba National Park. What was ahead of us was a 2 hour trek up a mountain that required rock climbing and vine swinging..something i hadnt thought about when singing an awful rendition of 'ironic' whilst drinking my last glass of vodka the night before.

The trek was def worth it. we got to the top, after i was being over taken by golden oldies that appeared to simply skip up the mountain side. The view over the mountains was beautiful, when you could see it, unfortunately again, the amount of people trying to enjoy the view at once made it difficult to appreciate.

The way down was far more pleasant, and we got time to really appreciate the wildlife surrounding us. After yet another seafood lunch, we headed to 'Monkey Island'. Which i wasnt expecting to have actual monkeys on. (Like with most 'descriptive' names of places in Vietnam you are usually greatly disappointed) But it did. Lots of red faced cheeky things that after a while, begun to chase people around the beach so we kept our distance hehe. Sitting on the beach jimi and i spoke about how we missed the Philippines and decided on flying to Bali or Borneo after new years. Though our plans appear to change when the wind blows so watch this space!

After an exhausting day, we sat in Cat Ba harbour watching the most amazing and clearest sunset so far. just like something out of the Lion King.

Just a couple more days and we will be in Northern Thailand, maybe doing some helpxing work as there are lots of farmstay opportunities there.Looking forward to leaving Vietnam, its been a tough journey and probably a month is far too long! At the end,the chaotic traffic that once just made me laugh angers me, the amount of motorbikes it beyond ridiculous and dangerous,driving on pavements when there are traffic jams on the road, then beep at you and at times drive ON you to get out the way. But when there are bikes lining the pavements and jamming the roads,where do they expect you to go??

As this will be my last entry before leaving Vietnam, it seems appropriate to list a short summary of this strange but enchanting land..

Things to love and hate about Vietnam

• Ridiculous traffic and how there appears to be no rules what so ever
  
  
• Random stuff, in huge quantities carried precariously with one hand on a motorbike/bicycle
  
  
• Beautiful birds, in cages
  
  
• Shrines and the random offerings to the gods, best thing ive seen- beer
  
  
• Random face mask wearing by the locals..on the roads ok (its difficult to breathe at the best of times)but waiting in an airport?on a 4 hour bus journey?really?
  
  
• "Same,same"
  
  
• Amazing and shit quality fake books. Actually, pretty much fake everything
  
  
• Throwing rubbish- of all kinds- into the gutter for someone to come and sweep up
  
  
• Roadside bonfires at night
  
  
• "Where you from?Ah England!"
  
  
• Hailing down taxis like im in Sex and the City
  
  
• Cheap,cheap street food
  

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Photos

Butterfly
On the way down the mountain..

Happy Camper
Night Bus Hue-hanoi hour 1 of 13

Sunset
Cat Ba harbour

Comments

[Helen]

thanks
Abi, Just so enjoying your blog. and the photo's are great. So pleased you are getting in the swing of it and enjoying it. Keep up the blog. Thanks H