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Published: January 1st 2007
Well you're in for it now...I'm typing this and its bound to drift off topic, so apologies!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all. May 2007 be a great year for health,happiness and prosperity for us all. I would especially like to wish health to Ron, who has just had a very minor ( NOT!! ) operation, and even though I'm miles away, enjoying Ba Ba Ba ( no rude jokes you lot, my Mum's on here!!! ) beer ( thats 333 for the uneducated, non vietnamese speaking of you ) in moments of sobriety I hope that all is going well.
Ok....Mrs Pitman has returned....and so will normality.....BYE!!
I will try and make this quick but you know what I am like! I can type as well as talk for England!!
I don't think that we have updated for a few days and we last left you when we were in Sapa. Our last day in Sapa was Friday and it was a bit of a washout, but a very welcome one. Thursday night we were totally pooped so we went to bed at 6.30pm!! We woke the next morning feeling very refreshed, but, boy had the fog come down.....It was 10 times worse than Heathrow. We had found a lovely little cafe the day before called Viet Emotion and there was an open fire at the back, so we headed for there as nowhere in Sapa has central heating and it was damn cold. Well, we got into Emotion at 10.30am and finally left at 4.00pm!! We spent the whole time yacking to Canadian, Austrialian, Polish and American travellers. We swappped travel stories, itineraries and life stories whilst we burnt almost a whole rain forest in the fire! And our bill for 5 1/2 hours of drinking hot chocolate and lunch was a measly £10! Simon was bouncing off the walls most of the night after all of the hot chocolate ;-)
We made our way down to the train station and we had a good journey back, we both managed to get quite a bit of sleep and arrived in Hanoi at 5am. Our driver took us back to the Zephyr Hotel so that we could shower and grab a bite to eat before we went on a tour of the Thay Pagoda. I am not sure if it was because we were tired or just 'Pagoda'd' out but it did not really float our boat. This is quite sacraligious as the Thay Pagoda is one of the most reverent ones in Vietnam, we felt quite bad but we think that our guide understood that we were just tired. Mind you it is also quite hard to take your guide seriously when he is a cross between Borat and Mr Bean!! We made our way back to the hotel in Hanoi and just chilled for the afternoon with a little bit of shopping. Simon bought me a new camera as I had been having a bit of camera rage with mine and it is amazing. I spent the whole afternoon clicking away at anything that moved.....or didn't move for that matter!!!
We made our way to the train station last night and settled into our cabin for the 13 hour train journey to Hue. We sent lots of texts to you all but I am not sure what got through and what didn't so if you didn't get a text you were meant to :-) and if you got it twice it doesn't mean that we like you more than anyone else!!! We went to sleep fairly quickly on the train, that was until the party started outside our cabin door at midnight, now I know that makes us sound like kill joys but we have got an intense itinerary and we are trying to be sensible and get as much sleep as possible so that we can enjoy our days. Me being the calm, sensible one, waited a few minutes to see if the noise subsided and when it didn't I threw my clothes on in a huff and opened the cabin door to ask if they could move down the train a bit. I was confronted with about 40 people crammed into the corridor, so I decided just to pop to the bathroom and hope they ran out of steam quickly, which they did! When breakfast was delivered at 6am this morning, a nice hot and spicy vietnamese Pot Noodle (sounds yuck but was really nice!) we were not the hung over, feeling sorry for ourselves, green looking party goers!!
We were glad that we got a fairly decent sleep last night as today has been the best day of our trip so far, it truly has been the best start to 2007.
We were met at the train station by our guide and driver and brought straight to our hotel, The Huong Giang in Hue. The hotel Manager opened the car door for me and presented me with a beautiful bouqet of flowers whilst a photographer clicked away at us all. He then whisked Simon and I into the hotel lobby (which is amazing) we were sat down on throne like chairs and given some freshly squeezed orange juice. We were asked where we came from, how we had to to the hotel and what we had done on our trip so far. All this time the photographer carried on taking pictures. The Manager then told us that we were very special guests as we were the first guests of 2007 and therefore wanted to present us with a gift. We were given a lovely plate each of the hotel and we toasted to each other wishing a Happy New Year and a Healthy and Happy 2007. He then told us that we had been upgraded to their finest room as an additional present!! We were taken upstairs to an amazing suite, the bathroom is bigger than our lounge and Simon just loves the shower, it was jets coming at you from all directions, steam jets and a radio, you can just imagine the state of the bathroom by the time he had his shower!!!! We have a choice of 3 balcanies to go on and the lounge is wonderful. There are fresh flowers everywhere, 2 tv's, 2 fridges, 2 air con units and we feel like a King and Queen :-) In fact Simon has been on his throne quite a bit today!
Our driver collected us about an hour later and we went to the Perfume river for a ride in a Dragon boat to Thein Mu Pagoda, Hue's oldest and most beautiful. Unfortunatley it had started to rain so we had to don our waterproof Peter Storms. When we were making our way to the gardens the paths is quite muddy and because of the rain was also quite slippery. This is where I took a tumble, not just a little one, oh no, a great big flat on my face in the middle of a huge muddy puddle tumble! I was covered from head to toe in bright yellow mud. Simon and Dung (pronounces Young!) scooped me up and Dung said not to worry we would go and see the Monks and get me sorted out. We arrived next to a well for want of a better word, where they proceeded to fill up a bamboo bucket and literally threw it at me! This was done several times until I was no longer yellow, it did the trick and I soon dried out.
Next we were off to the Citidal - WOW WOW WOW, what a fantastic day, we could of spent hours there, it was so so beautiful. My mouth was open most of the day in awe, every direction you looked in there was something more amazing than the last. We will put some pictures up in the next day or two so that you can see for yourselves what we saw.
On the way to lunch to went to Dong Ba Market which makes the January Sales in Next look like an afternoons stroll window shopping. This place sold everything that you can think of and there were at least 2 stalls selling them. Until now we had not seen a supermarket and could not understand how the Vietnamese shopped. Not everyone has a fridge and it is common place that you shop daily, when you see such a wide variety of so fresh fruit and vegatables you can understand why no one would use a supermarket, even if it did exist.
We had lunch at a very nice local restaurant and were recommended the Hue Pancakes as a starter which are a local speciality and were delicious. On this theme Simon also tried one of the other local dishes, Steamed Pork with Shrimp Paste & Pickled Beansprouts....... for those that have experienced Simon's vast range of uncomplimentary phrases, pick one at random and it is bound to do this dish justice!!! I hasten to add that I shared my lunch with Si!!!
After lunch we went to the tombs of the 4th Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty, Tu Duc and the second last Emperor, Khai Dinh. These were superb and so tranquil we did not want to leave. Again photos will put into words what we can't.
Apparently we have to pay for this internet access and having just spent nearly 100,000 vnd we are off for a ba ba ba or two!!
Love to you all and hope that you are enjoying sharing our blog with us
Lots of Love
Nikola and Simon xxxx
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Steve Ann & Alex
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Not sure what was funnier, Simon bouncing of the walls after oding on hot chocolate or buckets of water being thrown at a mud splattered Nikola. You are obviously having a great time - keep 'em coming. LOL Steve, Ann and Alex