Hello Vietnam

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Across the border into Vietnam and you are met with another one horse dusty town. The one and only bus leaves at 2.00pm to Thanh Hoa and everyone knows there's a westerner in town. The bus driver, passengers and by all accounts the towns occupants are all in on the act and YOU WILL get fleeced for your tickets and pay well over the odds. We stood our ground and let the bus drive off (if it had been left to me I would have gone back to Laos). It was all a game of who would give in first, but they know they have a captive market with us and finally a deal was brokered - still not to our benefit I hasten to add. The bus was the oldest most uncomfortable to date. The aisle was packed full of sacks and you had to walk over them to get anywhere. The driver wanted his money first, but got told we needed an atm. Surprisingly he knew what that meant! We then had one very hot and dusty six hour trip, but through spectacular scenery once more!

We reached Than Hoa and decided to decamp to a hotel for the night instead of moving on. We had a veritable palace for a room. A fan, air con, tv and wow ... wait for it .... hot water .......Heaven!!!! After freshning up we headed out for something to eat. The roads and pavements are wide. There are a myriad of street cafes all serving noodles and rice dishes. We decamped one and had some soup and then returned to our hotel. There was a cafe close to the hotel and we decided to stop there. On one table was a group of young men, who quickly greeted us and bought us drinks. There we were football players - two of them playing for the national team! Lots of questions were asked and we began to have a high old time. The menu appeared and they helped us choose a dish or rice, duck and vegetables, which was lovely and tasty. I had thought Chien on the menu was dog, but it is actually potato!! I do know what dog is now, so we can avoid that treat! Lots of talk,photos taken and suddenly they were gone -perhaps the coach was coming to check on them! Anyway a nice comfy bed was calling us!

Next day saw us heading on a bus to Haiphong. A four hour trip played out to loud Vietnamese pop music and the constant- and I mean constant - blaring of the buses horn. Note to self - sit at back of bus with earplugs in future! Pardon the pun - but it drove us mad! We got to Haiphong to late to get a ferry over to Cat Ba Island, despite the best efforts of an offical trying to squeeze us on a Korean sight seeing trip. Anyway we got there the next day.

So this is where we are at the moment - although we depart for Hue tomorrow. We have had a few days here and yesterday we took a boat trip around some of the many islands. Cat Ba Town is a tiny harbour and our hotel overlooks it. At night the boats are lit up and tiny floating villages have little flashing green and red lights dancing across the water. After about 11.00pm the only lights left on, are those of the floating villages, which makes for very ethereal sight.

The boat trip was excellent. We had no desire to see the limestone cave or monkey island so just enjoyed sailing around some of the islands. There are over 3000 of these islands of differing shapes and sizes. All are virtually covered fauna and large birds or prey wheel above your heads. The sea is emerald green, clear, warm and very inviting. David took the plunge from the boat at lunchtime and enjoyed the waters - me - I never thought to pack the old swimming kit - ho hum - I couldn't even dangle my feet! Various trips can be done from Halong or Haiphong, but it's good to get over here away from some of the hustle and bustle of the mainland.

So that's it for now, all about upto date. One little bit of info for you. We have become aware of the situ in Thailand and had been planning to return, but have decided to go for the safer option and are flying from Cambodia to Kuala Lumpar to avoid any problems!

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