Vietnam Contd

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From HCMC we travelled for two days into the Mekong Delta, with a group and our guide 'Dong' (which is the same name as the currency before you get any funny ideas) staying one night in Can Tho. We booked the tour with Bao from Welcome Travel, but everything was pretty much the same thing wherever you went in the backpacking district. A good two days, the Mekong Delta looks pretty picturesque in the photos, but it's serious river life, the difference between this place and further north will become clear in the photos we'll upload. We passed a huge bridge that had fallen into the water, quite a scary job to have to put that lot back together. We took a ferry across the bay to Can Tho which was an experience in itself, people jumping off before the boat had completely docked actually made sense as it meant you avoided the torrent of mopeds that came afterwards!

We headed back to the brothel for one night (loved it so much, seemed silly to go elsewhere) and went out to a great place for a beef bbq session with Chris and Katie, the name of the open air place escapes me but it was right next to the Blue Gecko bar for anyone heading HCMC way. Next morning, escape from HCMC and on an open tour bus to Mui Ne, pictures of which are in the last blog.

Chilled out in Mui Ne for a couple of nights, went to Nina's Spa for a massage both together on a huge bed, great fun, although opening my eyes at one moment to see a small lady walking on John's back was an interesting one! Then on to Dalat in the hills, frustratingly we stopped 1 hour away for 'lunch' for 40 minutes, something the bus drivers have a habit of doing on the open tour. Dalat's great, not to be missed, cheesy, but endearing, could have stayed longer. Met a lovely Chinese girl called Amy who talked me through the Dragon Pagoda, lucky she was there as the guide was pretty useless. Lots of strawberry growing going on there, and the hills are covered in plastic covered green houses as far as the eye can see to protect them from the cold nights.

From Dalat to Nha Trang and the A Dong hotel (Dong seems to be a permanent fixture for some reason). Lovely people, who brought us breakfast in bed every day. Shame about the cockroach on the second night, but he didn't bother us and we didn't bother him....went out on Mama Linh's party boat for the day which was fun, ended up singing Yellow Submarine with the band on behalf of the British nation. What is it with that song? Took me back to days in France with Laura, Pat, and a barge in Abbeville...

In Nha Trang the street food is amazing, they are cracking open lobsters and grilling them up before your very eyes, yum!

Now an admission, we coped out on the night bus to Hoi An, and bought two plane tickets to get there instead, sorry Defra & DfT, our offsetting is going to backrupt us! Hoi An is fantastic, John had four shirts and two pairs of trousers made, me, two pairs of shoes (gecko specials!), one coat, one dress and one pair of trousers. Shame it cost us three times the cost of the items to send them home. Hoping Fedex doesn't let us down. We adopted Tam Tams as our cafe of choice, great choco/coconut tarts to be had there.

We also went on the Redbridge cookery course while we were in Hoi An, brilliant day despite the rain and the freezing boat trip! Met a great crowd of people, including Aidin & Andrea who we met up with later for large amounts of fresh beer, no preservatives and made daily, this stuff is too drinkable and costs about 5p a pint. 20 odd beers later, one bottle of Dalat wine (don't knock it till you've tried it!) and a large amount of food later we paid the hefty bill of ten pounds and staggered into the night. Love Hoi An.

One thing about Hoi An, don't bother going to My Son, especially if you have been/are going to Siem Reap, it pales in comparison.

From Hoi An we flew to Hanoi (sorry again), our last stop in Vietnam, more madness, similar too HCMC, but the roads are smaller, so less space in between the 100s of mopeds! Had a great room at the Viet Anh in the old quarter, computers with internet in all the rooms. Had a great (but expensive) meal at the Cafe des Arts, but the highlight has to be our trip to Halong Bay on the amazing Emeraude. We paid through the nose for it, but it was worth it. Designed in the style of an old 1930s steamer, we ate beautiful seafood and spent the cruise with a great group of French tourists and a German couple Marilyn & Hans Jurgen (a film maker who climbed over the Berlin Wall when the East wouldn't let him show his films). The night ended on the top deck surrounded by the shadows of Halong Bay watching 'Indochine' with Catherine Deneuve, absolute perfection.

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