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Published: November 28th 2009
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Apologies for lateness in blogging (again). We are now in Vietnam and are now in our 3rd destination, so I will write about the first 2:
We flew to Hanoi from Hong Kong, I thought it was a hangover that I had on that day, but we later realised that Im not taking to well to the anti malarial tablets and was sick for the first few days. Im not too bad now, I just take them on a night instead of a morning so we dont waste the day. Craig is fine with his.
Our hostel in Hanoi was ok, apart from it was full of ants, but was in a good location. We done the normal wander around when we got there, and then got lost, we were looking for the lake, and had walked around it about twice without realising!
The roads here are absolutely crazy! You dont know the meaning of crazy roads until you come here!! There are so many bikes. Apparently most families in Hanoi have 2 or 3. You do get used to it after a while though, there is never a gap in the road so you can cross like there would
be at home, you just have to walk and the bikes dodge you. You would actually probably be ok if you closed your eyes and just walked (although we are not confident enough to try this experiment!).
The weather here is not great, its coming to the winter now so has cooled down alot. But its still been bright and not too dull and miserable.
In Hanoi we went to see some water puppets, which werent that impressive but quite funny and cost pence to see. We also went to the temple in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake which has a stuffed turtle in, which was apparently found in the lake. It was 2.1m long, and there are still turtles in there, it is meant to be good luck if you see one, but unfortunately we only seen the stuffed one.
We also took a trip to the war museum to get swotted up on the wars. We got a cyclo there (which is a bike with a carriage on the front), and he took us to the wrong place and asked us for more money...the cheek!!
We booked a trip to Halong Bay, which was our favourite
part of our Hanoi trip. It took us about 3 hours to get there with our group of 10 people, and we boarded our boat for 2 days 1 night. Our tour guide was called Tuoy and he was funny. Our group was nice and we all got on pretty well. We stopped off at a floating fishing house on the boat, then anchored down for the night. It was pretty chilly but it was clear so we had great views of the thousands of islands. We all sat and drank beer on the top deck, and watched the sun go down. Some of us went in the water even though it was cold! Craig jumped off the top deck...I didnt dare, I thought that way I will end up going deep and you dont know whats down there! Yes I am a puff, but I did jump off the bottom deck! It doesnt matter where you go, someone is always tring to sell you something, we were in the water and this woman came over in her boat saying "you wana buy somesing", she was selling drinks and snacks! I dont know how she expected us to pay from
the water, she wouldnt leave us alone!
We had food included on the boat which was ok. We sat up till late playing cards with the tour group. We learnt a new card game...shithead.
We decided to head down south to Ho Chi Minh City, as it was getting very cold, and we (probably preamaturely) sent our winter clothes home fom Hong Kong. We missed out central Vietnam because of torrential rains but we might come back to it later in our trip.
We flew on Sat 21st nov to HCMC, and were put on the earlier flight which was a bit of good luck! When we arrived there we seen 2 rats and about 10 geckos in the first 5 mins.
We stayed in the nicest guesthouse there (Ngoc Taou), it was actually someones house, and you walked through the living and dining room when you go in. The people were really nice.
We didnt think much of HCMC compared to Hanoi. We stayed in a very touristy part, and there was probably more westerners than Vietnamese, and the nightlife was busy if you like that kind of thing, but we werent that bothered, as we would end
up missing a full day with a hangover. We felt like we could have been in Spain or anywhere. We met a nice Vietnamese guy called Andy who we talked to in the park. He sells postcards, so we bought some of them (only about 15p for 5). He wants to be a tour guide, but cant go to college because its too expensive. He used to earn about £60 per month in a factory making venetian blinds. He was very nice and we exchanged email addresses, and I suggested he becomes a personal tour guide and charge a few US dollars a day. (In Vietnam they use both US dollars and Vietnamese dong).
Our favourite part of the HCMC trip was going to the Cu Chi tunnels. Our tour guide was called John Wayne. These were what they dug in the war, they go for about 250 km, and they are tiny. There are 3 levels and the top is the biggest. Its about 1m high by about 70cm wide. Craig went in but I didnt becaue Im chlostrophobic and probably would have passed out! It was a good day though. We also seen some of the traps
they used in the jungle to capture thte Americans. The highlight was that we got to use real guns! We both had a go on M-18 Carbine and AK-47. It as so loud, we had earphones on but they just felt as good a music earphones, they did nothing. Craig thought it was funny watching me fire a gun. I thought his face was funny when he fired a gun...it flicnched every time! Craig hit the target once...I was nowhere near. I dont think the guns were lined up properly!
We have decided to head for a beach as we are desperate too relax and get a bit of good weather. We are going to Mui Ne to do nothing for a week!!
Miss you all loads xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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kat
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wow really nice pix this time. and lol @ the man's face when jenny's pointing the gun?! u both looked well funny in that tunnel-thingy! bless yas haha x