The 'Moonshine Experience'

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I am finally in Vietnam, after all the times I wanted to come here in Japan but never quite made it!

I am in Hanoi, the capital, at the moment. It is absolutely baking hot so I am dying to head to the beach right now. The city is really nice though with little winding streets, lakes and pagodas everywhere. Went to see the embalmed corpse of Ho Chi Minh this morning, so with Mao in Beijing, I almost have the set - just need Stalin and Lenin now!

I had planned to walk to see Ho Chi Minh, but a motorbike tempted me to be lazy and get a ride - bad mistake. I honestly thought I was going to die. The drivers here are even more crazy than those in China and the rest of Asia, and even South America. I was clinging on for dear life as he negotiated the busy streets, squeezing into the tiniest gaps between oncoming cars. Needless-to-say, I decided to stop being lazy, and walked back home!

Tomorrow I am going to Perfume Pagoda for the day, which I am told is pretty stunning, On Tuesday I am heading for the beach on Cat Ba Island.

Update and 'The Moonshine Experience'

I spent the first week of three in Hanoi, and lazing on a gorgeous beach on Cat Ba Island, Halong Bay. From there I had planned to work down the coast to Siagon, doing a dive course in Nha Trang. Because I spent so long at Cat Ba though (couldn't pull myself away from the beach) I decided I didn't really have time, and due to several negative reports about Nha Trang, decided to stay in the north and travel around with an aussie guy I met called Charlie.

The north was pretty much untouched by tourism, which meant it was more difficult to travel, but more fun too! Took several long bumpy bus rides at ridiculously early times in the morning,and ate some pretty wierd food including cat stew ( I didn't know at the time!) and cool fruit that was bright neon pink (immediatly called 'girlie fruit'!) At one place we stayed, we had a gruesome alarm call at 6 am every morning - the sounds of a squealing pig being slaughtered right under our bedroom window! Upon going to the market to buy our bread and bananas for breakfast a few hours later, we could see the poor beast split into bits and spread across several market stalls! It has certainly put me off bacon and, along with certain gruesome sightings in China, has made me resolve to become vegetarian again as soon as I finish travelling!

One very strange day was when we decided to go to a waterfall right on the border to China. We sat on a bumpy bus for five hours going through gorgeous mountain and rice-paddy scenery, and finally arrived at Ban Doc, where the waterfall was. The bus stopped at a police check on the side of the road and Charlie and A (being the only foreigners) were beckoned off and asked for our permit -- oops! We had read about it, but ithad somehow slipped our minds with all the hassle of getting bus times etc. They tried to tell us we had to go all the way back to Cao Bang to get the permit (5 hours away) and then come back. After 40 minutes of trying to communicate with the phrase book, and several meetings with various uniformed officials, theyagreed to let us go past on condition that we left our possports with them, and went back on the 5 o-clock bu - done deal!

The bus was finally on it's way to the relief of all the other passengers, and within about 10 minutes we turned yet another hairpin bend in the road to see the waterfall. It was absolutely gorgeous, and backed by steep mountains, just like something from a fairy tale. After dropping our big backpacks off at yet another police-check office, we went off to see the waterfall. Two hours later we returned to get the 5pm bus back to Cao Bang. Somehow we had got our wires crossed - the bus actually left at 5am next morning! Whoops! Across the river on the Chinese side there were hotels and souvenir stalls - no good to us without passports. However, there was absolutely nothing on the Vietnamese side - no hotel, no restaurants, no vendors selling tack.... it seemed like it was going to be a long mosquito- filled night!

Luckily the two borde police said we could crash at their office until the 5am bus, and they even offered to feed us --- cool! They laid out a reed mat on the grass and we all feasted on rice, veges,and some kind of boney meat stew (the one which Charlie told me later was cat! ) The worst bit was the moonshine (rice whiskey) that they insisted we drank by the gallon. We kept trying to refuse, but they kept insisting. In the end, I refused more strongly and they made poor Charlie drink all my share! Needless to say, the 5am bus was a bit of a struggle, and we spent the entire day when we got back sleeping off a hangover! Stuck firmly to beer after that! Damn police!

Now I am back in Thailand, the land of elephants and banana pancakes!is pretty stunning, and then on Tuesday I am heading for the beach on Cat Ba Island.

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Photos

The Waterfall
Finally made it here!