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June 2nd 2013

Published: June 4th 2013

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Boom On Tour

Mystical Halong Bay

The beautiful and magaical bay, looking out from the caves

So the eagle has landed REPEAT the eagle has landed! My friend Kate has joined me in Hanoi, after being delayed for 6 hours she finally landed and made her way to the hostel! It is so nice to see a friendly face and to begin sharing all the experiences with someone.

I showed Kate around Hanoi and had a bit of a lazy one as we were heading to Halong Bay the next day, a trip we had both been looking forward to as we are desperate to get to the beach. After nealy 2 months I have not yet been to the beach...

So we booked out tour, 3 days and 2 nights of paradise, Halong Bay, Monkey Island, Cat Ba Island 1 night on the boat and 1 night in a bungalow on the beach. It well and truly lived up to my expections, the bay itself has something like 996 islands so it is huge, I also think it is where that episode of Top Gear was filmed. We watched from the top deck as we sailed out, taking in all the sights, spectaculary beautiful. We stopped at the surprising caves to wander around, we

The Amazing Caves

The phallic features in the caves

saw some interesting shaped caves and rocks, some exteemely phallic! The trip included some activities such as kayaking so we took out a kayak and discovered more the the rocks and islands around us. We also spent quite a bit of time sunbathing on the top deck! The night on the boat was pretty comfortable, dinner was lush actually all the food was really good and all included in the price. After dinner the karaoke came out...as always! We listened to the Vietnamese having their sing song and then it was our turn. By the time we had finished our last song there was no one to be seen, we had cleared the place out!!

After a surprising, comfortable nights sleep on the boat we had breakfast and then sailed onto our next stop in Halong Bay, Cat Ba Island. The bay is so pretty with so many islands, you kind of get a bit lost. We had to change to a smaller boat to get to the island we were sleeping at, as the bigger boats are not allowed there, so we joined more people, another tour and headed to paradise! When we arrived Kate and I couldn't

Sunset in Hoi An

Sunset in the sea

believe we were staying here, in our own beach bungalow, it was incredible, like a postcard. Idyllic. We had lunch then had a free afternoon to relax, sunbathe and swim, this was the first time I had put on my bikini since I have started traveling!! We had the most amazing view from our bungalow, this was just the start of views to come. The Vietnamese started a bonfire on the beach and we had Kate's iPod playing it was so chilled, then we all got in the water and star gazed!

The next day we spent most of our time traveling back to land and eating! On the boat we learnt how to make Vietnamese spring rolls, something I will share with you all when I am home...

Once we got back to Hanoi we decided that we would make a move to the next destination, Hue (whey) that night! So it was mad dash rush to see how we could get there, the bus we could get left in half hour or we could get the might train..after some seriousl deliberation of whether we could be ready in 30 minutes we decided to get the night

Hoi An Beach

Just chilling with the locals on the beach, as you can see most if them are dressed!

train. Because I had booked both my trips with the same place they offered us a free nights accommodation, which we took but just used the room to shower and charge everything before our 13 hour journey.

The journey wasn't too bad, it was Kate's first time with a hard sleeper train sharing the cabin with the Vietnamese, it was interesting to say the least. There was a guy who all night was coughing, spluttering and spitting, by now I am used to this, however Kate was not. But we still managed to catch some zzzzz's and shared a cab with a couple of dutch guys to our hostel, so all in all not a bad journey.

We had one day in Hue and we wanted to make the most of it, it was a stifling hot day so we headed down to the river to take a boat across to the Citedel and go get some Vietnamese culture. However once you got to the river you get hassled by all the people trying to get you on to their boat, so we took cover in a bar for 1 beer...and then stayed there all afternoon, oopsie! So

Kate and Naomi enjoying the Mud

Sunshine and mud!

the sightseeing did not happen but hey ho!

We have been moving south pretty quickly, next stop being Hoi an, known for the beach and getting clothes tailor made. I couldn't wait to get here! After a sweaty 4 hour bus ride we arrived in Hoi An, we were staying at the Sunflower Hotel, possibly the bigger backpackers there, it has a pool, lounge area and massive breakfast buffet, we ended up staying on longer as we were enjoying it so much plus we were looking for somewhere with good nightlife to celebrate Kate's birthday! You can hire pedal bikes for $1 a day so we did that and cycled around the city, Kate had a dress tailor made so we had to go back a few times for fittings. I was very close to getting one made but I couldn't decide on a fabric and the price was a bit steep for me at $45 not like my usual "no more than £5!" The city is nice to take in by bike as it is a lot less hectic than Hanoi, less traffic, beeping and general lack of consideration for pedestrians! A lot of tourists hire bikes(cyclos or

Enjoying the waterfall

After a mud bath and a mineral soak, whats better than to jump in a waterfall!

mopeds) to get around, especially to the beach which is around 4km away, too hot to walk that far so Kate and I cycled down to the beach late in the afternoon, big mistake as it was full of locals, it was rammed! They could not stop staring at us, possibly because we were in bikinis and they were all fully clothed! We really enjoyed Hoi An it was so relaxing, beaching, lazing by the pool we stayed longer as it was so nice. We are starting to bump into lots of people that are heading the same away as us, down south so its quite nice see friendly faces each time you rock up somewhere new.

Next stop was Nha Trang, known for the beautiful beaches. We struggled at first to find a hostel that has room and good reviews and were slightly dubious about the choice we had made, however it was the best choice we could have made. The hostel staff are super friendly and helpful, I needed to extend my visa here and they organised it all for me, everyday they ask where we are going, give advise, waved us out, it's brilliant! We arrived

Sitting Buddha

Nha Trang had some fantastic buddhas to see!

early morning from a very bumpy ride. It was Kate's first nightbus experience, it is really hard to know what to expect when you travel through Asia as the bus could be described in luxury, when it is not, they say it will take 6 hours, that could mean 9, it leaves at 6pm, that means 7pm...I could go on! So it is funny to see how someone else see's things as I am quite used to it all now, especially the lack of etiquette. So we survived the 12 hour bus journey and arrived in Nha Trang at 6.30am, we were not able to check in till 2pm so we decided to go to the mud baths, a few people had told us about it and after the journey we needed some pampering. So off we went to get slathered in mud and I tell you what it was pretty good, for around £4 we got to bathe in mud, wash in mineral showers, take a mineral bath, take photos in waterfalls, then swim and lounge around in mineral swimming pools for as long as we liked, not bad going see back home that may just get you through

Big Buddha in Nha Trang

Beautiful marble buddha statue

the swimming pool entrance..

As I said Nha Trang is known for its beaches and islands and what glorious beaches they are, the sea reminds me of the Mediterranean, so clear and cool. We spent the day on the beach with a load of other backpackers which was fun, sharing stories and just having a laugh, it reminded me of being younger and heading down to Bournemouth for the day!!

There is an island called Vinpearl across from Nha Trang to get there you take a acble car across the water, it is the worlds longest over sea cable car! Which of course was broken and had been since we arrived 😞 the island is a hot spot to see and do because of the water park, aquarium and amusement arcade it has over there which of course we went to! With the group from the beach 4 of us went for the day only to bump into more people we knew there, we had to take the ferry over because of the faulty cable car, now I don't normally suffer with sea sickness but this ferry ride was very choppy and I felt a little peaky...nothing that

Getting into the bell

What an experience to be sat in the bell whilst the monk was chanting and hitting the bell with a massive plank of wood. Quite a spiritual experience.

some french fries and an ice cream couldn't sort out!! We were like big kids in a candy store one we got started, the first ride of he day was a DIY toboggan which was hilarious, Kate was in charged we were doomed! You had control of the breaks and a lot of it was downhill so we went flying at some parts, almost crashing into others as they were going to slow for us. We took so many photos and videos which were prohibited on the safety video..but there is no such thing as safety in Vietnam! The whole day was brilliant, we had such a laugh like I said it was as if 4 kids had entered a candy store 3 English and one Spanish, myself, Kate, Henry and Teo had an absolute blast, went all on the water rides, amusements, dodgems, arcades. We stayed there untill around 7.30pm to watch the light and water and got the ferry back to the mainland and we were lucky enough to have our own private room as I was extending my visa and there were no room in the dorms so we had a night of luxury, double beds, tv

On our way to VinPearl

Teo, Henry and Kate raring to go and play!

own bathroom, it was so good! We were so exhausted from the day out that we crashed and burned watching movies in the room. It was some well needed R&R.

We hired mopeds and went sightseeing as there were some cool buddhas, towers and temples to see. It was such a hot day and it was so nice cruising around and sightseeing, it was about time we did something cultural!

One evening we met a French guy who was the head chef at the Louisiane Brewhouse, we were chatting to him about his career and where he had travelled/worked, it was all very interesting, he invited us for lunch at the brewery the following day, on him! So we went along as we were already planning to check it out as the brew all different kind of beers including Passion fruit beer! It reminded me very much of the Mildura Brewery in Australia (fair few know where I'm talking about!) So we met Olliver (head chef) had a lovely lunch of vegetable lasagne for me and a steak sandwich for Kate...what a treat, along with a few of the different beers off the menu, and then we were

Found Nemo

able to relax in the resorts pool for the afternoon, all thanks to Olliver, what a champ!

In Asia full moon parties are huge, they happen ince a month and the main one is in Thailand, however other spots do their own version too, we celebrated the fullness of the moon on the beach with a live band and then live dj, not quite the extent of an official Full Moon Party but it was a pretty good night!

Its not unusual to see 4 or 5 people on a motorcycle over here, whole families and I am talking new born babies, it is crazy, the H&S over here is non existent! I have seen motorcycles carying whole skinned pigs on the back of their bikes, which totally freaked me out but this is Asia, it is how they roll.

I am enjoying the street food however as we are hiting the coast it is very Westernised and sometimes all we want is a toasted sandwich or a pizza but we are loving the Vietnamese food and all the fresh fruit, I am going to miss spring rolls. So many varieties of spring rolls; fresh, fried, rice paper, rice nodles...it is crazy, but so good.

At the moment it feels like we are on holiday not backpacking as the places we have been staying have been really nice, especially the beach resorts, plus getting used to eating out 3 times a day, most of the time breakfast is included which is fab as it means you don't have to go hunting for it but we're getting used to deciding where to eat for lunch & dinner and what's within our budget. Most times we eat dinner for under £5 for both of us! We really enjoyed Nha Trang, even though it is quite built up, very touristy and you get hassled a lot, the beach is paradise, the food was great I would recommend that you don't miss out.