V is for Vietnam!

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Life in Vietnam is an endurance test. After the 24 hour bus ride we finally arrived in Hanoi! The journey wasnt too bad considering the time it took! We drove through Laos until we reached the Vietnam border at 1.30am. We slept here until 7am when we had to get off the bus and get an exit stamp. This was a bit of a stampede with the Laos people and it was raining to make matters worse! They kept pointing at our flip flops and laughing saying that we must be cold! Yes, yes, we were cold and wet, but we hadnt expected or known it was going to be raining!! The landscape here is paddy fields and mass building sights! There seems to be so much construction going on. Finally our bus arrived at 7pm where we negotiated a taxi to take us into the central old quater of the city. Hanoi was a bit of a shock to the senses- i have never seen so many scooters in my life and there seems to be no rules to the roads! They drive straight at you down pavements and never look when they pull out- needless to say we saw a few bumps! Once checked into a hotel (Hanoi Municipal Hotel $12 a night) we discovered that 2 lovely cockroaches had enjoyed a ride from Laos to Vietnam in Dannys bag when we opened it!!

During the 3 days we spent here we visited the night market, the very old single pagoda and walked around the lake and bustling streets. You have to be so carefull with your things here- Danny caught a guy with his hand in someones backpack! There is a strong chinese influence, along with a common theme of ripping off tourists! They constantly hassle you and say one price then demand another! Its amazing how the price of 15,000 dong can suddenly turn to 50,000!! It was freezing cold so i ended up buying a hat and thermal tights!

After discovering the "Fanny ice cream" restaurant we had a good laugh, especially as its all you can eat on a friday night! The museum of ethnology was pretty good- lots of information about the hilltribes and videos about their daily life and rituals. In the grounds of the museum they have replica buildings to show where they live etc. We managed to take a local bus there and back with no problems which was amazing!

One afternoon we went to a water puppet show- famous in Vietnam! There was a lot of weird shouting and singing during the 45 minute perfomance- to be honest we didnt have a clue what was going on but was still enjoyable!

We couldnt go to northern Vietnam without a trip to Halong Bay. We negotiated a good price with the hotel- $50 each for one night on the midrange Dugong Sail "junk" boat. Some people on our trip had paid 65 or 75 dollars each so we were glad to hear we hadnt been completley ripped off!! The bus took about 4 hours and once we arrived we climbed on board to check into our room. There was a couple from England, an Oz family, an Oz couple, Dutch Granparents with their Grandson and 2 American guys on our boat. We all got along pretty well and the couple from England gave us loads of great advice of places for our onward travels! After having lunch and sailing through the islands for a while we visited the "Suprise Caves". These were really good- but very touristy! They had lit the place up with lots of lights, the stalagmites were pretty amazing though. Our guide told us some of the folk law stories about the caves. His english was ok, but he was very nervous when he spoke! Back on board again we cruised to a floating fish village. This is also where they filmed one of the bond films- i forget which one! I was sceptical about whether these people actually live on the floating platforms, but was interesting anyway!

In the evening we had another lovely dinner, including sea food. Danny tried his luck fishing for squid from the back of the boat- but had no luck as it was apparently too cold for them! We all got an early night after spending a few hours chatting about our travelling experiences.

Breakfast was at 7.30am the next day- fried egg, bread and bananas. Its all they seem to eat here for breakfast other than noodle soup!! We carried on our tour through the islands. It was beautiful and the water did look a lovely emerald colour. Unfortunaley, it was too misty to really see everything- and i was freezing!! There was a chance to do canoeing, we decided against it as it was so cold and we had no change of warm clothes if we got wet! Some of the others went for a paddle around though!! We had lunch before getting off the boat and back onto the bus back to Hanoi. One of the american guys fell for a $1 shoe shine scam at the dock. Somehow they started claiming he owed them $10 after they ripped his inner soles out and spread glue over his trainers! These people are unbelievable!

We returned to the same hotel in Hanoi and stayed for another 2 nights before booking a bus ticket to Hue.

This next journey was a nightmare!! We were picked up at 6pm and taken to the bus. These buses have 3 lines of double decker beds. They played loud Vietnamese music videos all evening which was awful! The bus drove through the night and sure enough, at 6.30am they turned on the loud music again! A short while later we were pulled over on the side of the road for about half an hour- didnt really know what was going on, I just prayed that the bus wasnt broken down. We set off again and before we knew it we had parked at...the police station. They started unloading all the boxes from under the bus and opening them up. We had no idea what was going on and spent 3 hours just sat there! Eventually we arrived in Hue at lunchtime. How had a 12 hour journey turned into 20 hours!! To top things off when we got off the bus one of the guys realised his ipod had been stolen by the Vietnamese girl in front of him. She just smiled when he accused her and there was nothing we could do!

We found the first room we came across ($8 a night) and went for a nice dinner as a treat at DMZ Bar- we were starving and not in the best of moods by that point! It was raining here too- I was feeling so so so miserable. We even talked about the idea of leaving Vietnam asap as we had had enough already! But after some sleep we felt a bit better about things and spent the day sight seeing. It was funny seeing the scooter drivers wearing big macks that covered their bikes too! We did the walking tour around the area as suggested in the Mandarin cafe. We stopped in a great coffee place called Coffee Kick and chatted with some of the local young Vietnamese guys.

We are currently in Hoi An. Our journey here was only 4 hours by bus so no problems! This place is really pretty and very French, with a river and bridges in the center. We have spent the last 2 days walking through the streets, watching the ladies in conical hats wobbling around with baskets dangling from poles on their shoulders. The market here is busy, the smell of the meat made me really wretch though. The sights here are enough to make me turn veggie! You buy chickens and ducks live and we have seen scooters with pigs in cages strapped to them!

The food here isnt as good as Laos, and is more expensive, but we have tried their famous local dish of "Cau Lao"- flat dough noodles with salad and pork. Actually very tasty! We have also had some fresh wrap and roll spring rolls which were good! At night everywhere becomes lit up with amazing lanterns which makes it very atmospheric. There are loads of places to get cheap tailored clothes made, but we have resisted as there is no way i want to carry anything else in my backpack!

Tonight we leave on another 12 hour night bus to Nha Trang. Lets hope its better than our last journey!! Vietnam is not my favourite place- I really hope things improve further south! It should be sunnier there at least! :-) The people are so grumpy in the north and they dont seem to like tourists which makes things hard work!

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