Hanoi

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From Da Lat we caught the bus down to Nha Trang for a couple of days on the beach.. forgetting about the perpetual rain that seems to follow us. We took shelter in a restaurant and had lovely noodles. Half way through our meal there was a huge bang and all the electricity went out. A transformer had blown across the road and caught fire, we were safe in the restaurant and had a lovely candle lit dinner watching screaming people run from their rooms on the other side of the street. The rain put out the fire very quickly and the firemen turned up and seemed to poke it with a stick so alls well.

The next day was glorious and we spent it on a boat tour of the nearby islands and snorkelling sites. The snorkelling was fantastic as the coral was all really close and colourful, we met some wonderful people and had great free food. It was such a good day! Joe spent a lot of time jumping and flipping off the top deck of the boat into the sea with some Germans. I managed to jump off it once after much persuasion (and watching some 5 year old kids do it first..).

Our luck with the weather had ran out by the next day and after a nice morning on the beach we were faced with a rainy afternoon waiting for our bus. We spontaneously decided to go for a massage. However, all was not as it seemed, and in a classic Inbetweeners-esqu fashion Joe ended up being propositioned by a small Vietnamese lady. Needless to say the second half of his massage was a tense and awkward affair. We escaped Nha Trang unsullied on the night bus to Hoi An.

Hoi An is a lovely little town - very different from anywhere we've been before. All the buildings are preserved from about 200 years ago so its like a 'living museum' (as Lonely Planet says) although its pretty touristy. We spent the first morning sightseeing and then, as the weather looked promising for once, hired bicyles and cycled to the nearby beach. We were overly optimisic and, after a couple of relaxing sunny hours (and delicious spring rolls), cycled back in torrential rain. But it was fine as it was warm. Plus we then found a great cheap restaurant with ridiculously cheap local beer.

The next day we went on a tour to the My Son ruins. They are these beautiful 1000 year old temple ruins in a gorgeous wooded valley. Unfortunately the Americans bombed them during the war (because the Viet Cong were hiding there) so only a few of the original structures are left standing but they were still pretty dramatic to walk around. We took a boat back to Hoi An stopping at a wood carving village. The boat broke down on the way back (we have such bad luck with transport) but we all piled into a neighbouring tour boat with no problems.

After Hoi An we took a short bus ride up to Hue. We got there about lunch time and went to look around the old citadel. Very nice and peaceful, especially after the hectic streets of Hue. Spent a good half hour watching other tourists get hassled by all cyclo touts from a safe vantage point. The highlight of the day, for both of us, was seeing Hue's claim to fame - the largest flagpole in Vietnam.. thrilling stuff.

Next day we hired a moped and went into the countryside exploring. We found an esplanade (?), an extremely peaceful Buddhist temple with huge Koi carp and turtles in its small lake and the tomb of "some emperor" (says Joe). Which were interesting. We felt like we'd sampled everything Hue had to offer so we got the night train up to Hanoi that night.

The train was everything I wanted it to be. We made friends with some friendly Vietnamese people in our cabin and learnt a couple of new card games as well as teaching them a few. As we went to find the canteen carriage we passed through the posh 'foreignors' carriage which was hilariously full of drunk middle aged French men singing 'Alluetta' incessantly. A haggard looking English man told us it had been going on an hour and a half. Sometimes I'm so glad we're poor!

We got into Hanoi yesterday and its been pretty good so far. The streets are crazy busy - I'm enjoying all the hundreds of little shops which all seem to just sell one thing (e.g. a safe shop, a paint shop, a fan shop, a chicken wire shop.. the list goes on). We went to a bar and watched the rugby with a room full of Aussies and a small minority of Kiwis and then drunkenly booked a three day cruise of Halong Bay which we're going on tomorrow morning (hopefully..)!

Today we went to the Temple of Literature and smugly read books and took pretentious photos. We spent the sunny (!!) afternoon by the lake in Lenin park. It was very peaceful apart from the unreasonably angry park ranger who kept yelling at people - though luckily not at us.

So we head off to Halong Bay tomorrow which looks amazing. Then we fly to Bangkok on Friday and off to Sydney on Saturday! Feeling pretty sad to leave Asia but excited about the rest of the trip.

xxxx

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