Vietnam

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Day 37

We got up early to catch the 8am bus to Hanoi, it was a very long ride: 3.5 hours to the Vietnamese border and then another 4 hours on the capital Hanoi. Following the previous ride, where we had almost been left at the service station we decided to stock up with all kinds of bread, fruit & crisps for the journey, most of which turned out to be pretty bad anyway.

The border crossing itself was very chaotic. First of all the coach has to remain on Chinese soil so everybody gets off the coach, collects their luggage and is then taken the remaining distance to the border crossing on a golf cart. Once through Chinese immigration you take another golf cart to the Vietnamese immigration, which has to be one the most disorganised places we have been to yet. It is essentially a long room with 3 different serving windows. Now logically you would assume you could pick up all the forms you need at the first window and then hand them in with your passport at windows 2 & 3, this is not the Vietnamese way. In Vietnam you need to heave your way through the crowd blocking the entrance at the first window to collect your forms, which when completed you hand in at the first window once you have managed to hold firm and make your way to the front of the crowd.

We booked into the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, which is full of young travellers and has a great atmosphere. We spent the night in the local bars chatting to people about Vietnam and the trips that they would recommend taking. We'd been told that Hanoi operates under a strict curfew policy and all bars should close at midnight, unless they have a special licenses, but we were still a little shocked when some very serious looking policemen turned up on the stroke of 12 and told us all to finish our drinks and go home immediately.

Day 38

We spent the day wandering around Hanoi and getting a feel for the city, we even managed to make our way back to the hostel when we lost our map so we were very pleased with ourselves. We visited the Military museum, which was interesting as it has a large collection of tanks & planes from the 'American War', however the exhibits inside the museum all seemed to have a rather biased narrative. There was plenty of stories of Vietnamese victory over the French, Americans, Chinese and any other country with which there has been conflict, yet there are no references to a single defeat anywhere. In the afternoon, as the sun was out, we made our way to a local outdoor swimming pool to cool down.

Walking round the city and trying to cross roads is really daunting at first as there are so many motorbikes, literally hundreds at some junctions! It sounds really daft but the best way to cross the road is to do so slowly and purposefully, without looking at them too much and then they know that they need to navigate around you. It took a while before we could stop clinging onto each other every time we need to cross a road but we are slowly getting more confident.


Day 39

We booked ourselves on a 2 day trip to Halong Bay, which is about 3 hours drive from Hanoi. The minibus left the hostel at 8am so we were boarding our boat by lunchtime. The trip was aranged through the hostel, it was one of the more expensive Halong bay trips on offer but it meant that we had a really good quality boat, plenty of food and most importantly there was likely to be a good crowd of people and we certainly weren't disappointed.

There were probably about 20 people that made the trip from the hostel and everybody got on really well. The boat itself was really nice, compared to the others in the harbor and we were treated to a huge buffet lunch as soon as we were on board. The sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly so we all were literally jumping at the chance to go swimming when the boat anchored itself among the beautiful limestone cliffs of the bay. It is an absolutely stunning place, with around 1600 limestone rocks emerging from the water, making a series of secluded coves & bays. After we had all cooled off we got into our kyaks and went for a 3 hour tour of the bay, stopping to play some games along the way. We returned to the boat for some much deserved sunbathing and then watch a memorable sunset from the deck before sitting down to another huge dinner. The evening itself was great fun, everyone had a few drinks, we all laughed at Nigel the Irish lad who invariably had drunk more than everyone else, but was very entertaining none the less and as one of the lads from Brasil had brought his guitar we capped the evening off singing under the stars.

Day 40

We enjoyed another morning swimming in the sea before returning back to Hanoi. As we returned it felt that the temperature had risen in the city and it was absolutely sweltering, as soon as you step out of the shower you already find you are sweating again.

We found the evening too hot to remain indoors in any of the bars so we spent the night wandering street markets looking for a fan and some cooler vests for Joe.

Day 41

We checked out of the hostel in the morning and headed straight to the train station to try and buy tickets for the overnight train to Sapa, in the mountains. Unfortunately all the sleeper seats had been taken, so we booked soft sleeper tickets for tomorrow (which were cheaper than we were expecting) and checked back into the backpackers hostel again. This was probably our 3rd night in different rooms there.

As we wandered back from the station we found a lovely Vietnamese restaurant for lunch, where it looked like every table was eating something wonderful and delicious and we had the best spring rolls yet. We also stumbled across Hoa La prison, which had been built by the French to hold Vietnamese revolutionaries and was now preserved as a museum. In a similar fashion to the narrative at the army museum there was no reference to the fact that the Vietnamese had ever held or tortured prisoners there. Interestingly it didn't seem to be a very effective prison as there was one occasion when over 100 prisoners escaped in a night by running through the sewage tunnels.

In the evening we went with a bunch of friends to watch a British Lions rugby game on big screen tv in an ex-pat bar. It felt really surreal as it was probably the closest we had come to normality in ages. Unfortunately they didn't win but it was an entertaining match and hopefully showed the Canadians & the Germans we were with what the sport is all about.

Day 42

We were up early to check out of the hostel again and unfortunately Joe is starting to suffer with a cold that he's picked up from the air conditioning and the big swings in temperature aren't helping.

Again the heat in the city is really intense so when the culture vs. water park debate took place there was only ever really going to be one winner. We grabbed another 2 friends and jumped in the nearest taxi to the water park. Once there we were really dumbfounded when we realised that there were no sunloungers for us to base ourselves on and leave our towels etc. but of course, unlike Europeans, the Vietnamese actually don't want to lie out in the sun. We ended up claiming a little patch of grass and running off to throw ourselves in the water. There was a good collection of flumes & slides, and even a high diving board for the boys to show off their skills. Joe even got a cheer from the watching crowd for his last dive, though we're not entirely sure why.

In the evening we had an early dinner at the restaurant we found the previous day and then set off early to catch our night train to Sapa. The process is a lot better in Vietnam as the train was there and ready to board an hour before the scheduled departure time so we had plenty of time to locate our cabin, pacsafe our bags and store them on the prime overhead shelf at the end of our beds before the crowds arrived. Although this was when we realised why the tickets we had bought were actually cheaper than we had expected – they were hard sleepers, not the soft ones we had asked for. As the train's are older here we had been told that a soft sleeper would be the equivalent of a Chinese hard sleeper so given that Joe wasn't feeling too well we were a bit annoyed but there wasn't too much that we could do The beds themselves were ok, but had very thin mattresses and the sheets didn't look as clean as we would have liked; at one point it seemed that about 6 other people were all going to share our 6 birth cabin but thankfully some of the family must have had beds elsewhere as they eventually wandered off, much to our relief.

Day 43

The train arrived in Lao Cai at 5am in the morning, from there we had to jump on a minibus up the mountain to Sapa and we finally arrived about 6.30 am. Joe stopped in a cafe to look after the bags while Tracy ran around to look at some of the guest houses. We settled on The Queens hotel, which for £5 a night for a room had a stunning mountain view out of the window.

Joe was still feeling full of cold so we went for a hot curry for lunch to try and flush it out. We're not feeling too rushed at the moment so thought it would be a good day to take a day off from adventures so Joe could have a lie down and feel better while Tracy downloaded movies and updated the blog in an internet cafe. In the afternoon we went out for a Curry which was delicious, but other than that we stayed in the hotel making sure Joe felt better.

It was about 6:00 that the lightning started. We've never seen lightning like this in all our lives, not because of any ferocity, but the lack of any sound. There was incredible fork lightning coming over the mountains and creating the most spectacular flashes that would light up the whole village for a split second. Yet with all this, there was not the accompanying sound of thunder you expect, especially from lightning so close.

In the evening we could not resist the temptation to go to the English pub which was only three doors down from the hotel. As the lightning got a little closer as well it started causing balckouts and all the electricity would go for the whole village. During the blackouts the villagers didn't get agitated and simply put out candles and waited for the lights to turn back on, which they did after about twenty minutes. In the English pub we met a nice American couple and had some good old English food. We retired not long after to Make sure that Joe got over his cold and we could be productive the next day.

Day 44

As the previous day was a bit of a write-off we decided to go for a small hike and also book another longer hike for the next two days. The first hike we went on was to CatCat village which is about an hour from the main village of Sapa and was a lovely walk. It was all downhill to start with so unfortunately that meant we would be walking back uphill after to get back to the hotel.

We had a rough map to help us on our journey when we started and there were some signposts and we didn't really know what was there apart from a waterfall. The views were lovely and the people were really friendly (mainly because they wanted to sell you things). Rice fields decorated the hills and the sun was shining down, which made for a lovely day.

When we got to CatCat we found the waterfall which was lovely with butterflies flying everywhere and the sun still beating down on us. We sat by the waterfall for a while and took some pictures before heading back up to the Sapa and the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel we booked a two day hike with a homestay (sleep in a local village families house) for the following day so we were glad to only do a short trek on that day. There were also other people on the trip as well so it was likely we'd have some fun.

That evening we walked all around Sapa to find a restaurant. We must have visited about eight before we found one called Sapa II which was the right price and thee food was lovely. Again, we decided not to have a big night out as we had to go trekking the next day.

Day 45

We woke and packed our bags to leave at reception (we were only going to take day packs) and waited for the guide to turn up. We also found out that the other people on the trek had canceled, this could have been due to the heavy rain at night, but also, they might have never existed and was a simple ploy to get us on the trip as we also wanted to meet other people.

Finally our guide turned up and we jumped in an old jeep and drove for about 15 minutes along some old mountain road till we arrived at our first village which would mark the start of the trek. We jumped out and immediately started walking through lush bamboo forest, rice terraces and little villages. The views in Sapa were amazing and it was hard not to stop and take soome photos or just admire the view.

Our guide was Tom, who was a local to the area and spoke with broken English. We payed a really good price for the trip and maybe some more money would have got a guide with a more rounded grasp of English but we didn't mind. Another aspect of the trip was that all food was included so we didn't have to pay for anything.

One thing to note is the local women. When tourists start their trips the local women, dressed in local cultural clothes, follow the trekkers until they give them some money. This felt a little strange as there were three random women following us on our tour who were trying to make friends with you. We finally paid them off for their helpfulness, because they were helping Tracy across some of the trick bits and they actually really came in handy. After most of the day walking 60p each was enough to send them back to their village. We've heard stories about them coming out with lines like “I need money to feed my babies” and the true classic “Open your heart, open your wallet!”. The cheek, none of them seemed that impoverished when we were walking around.

At the end of the first day trekking we stayed in our homestay, which unlike what you might think, which would be sleeping in a bed right next to someone in their house is thankfully designed especially to accommodate people with separate bedrooms and western toilets so it is cheating a little, but it otherwise is a welcome sight after a day of travelling.

We ate with the family that night and had some lovely food, after which the father of the house say and 'forced' us to drink shots of a home made rice wine which was lovely. Then we were stuck really for some other people to talk to, but thankfully we had noticed some other homestays in the area and decided to investigate if there was anyone else in the area. We started our search with by hearing load laughter from a large group of people, so we headed in that direction and stumbled across a big group of Australian kids playing drinking games, but ironically without the drinks, instead they were scraping the bottom of their finger on the underside of a frying pan then using the blackened finger, proceeded to wipe mustaches, glasses, lines and dots on each other faces as punishment for losing. They even gave their teacher 'go faster stripes' on his bald head. Apparently some of them had gotten very drunk on the sleeper train so as a punishment they were all not allowed to drink. This was a funny predicament to be in and Tracy ended up with numerous lines all over her face by the end and Joe had, you guessed it, none.

We decided to head off from this group and find some of the other hikers we met on the trip and we stumbled across the other homestay they were staying in, only to find our guide already there. We sat and chatted for a while before heading back to the homestay to get a well deserved nights sleep.

Day 46

now there is a point that I must mention now. Tracy awoke to around 60 mosquito bites in the morning, now we're not sure if it was the trek or the sleep that did it, but she was not very happy at this. Joe had, you guessed it, none.

After a lovely breakfast we headed off to go and see a waterfall that we could swim in. We climbed over some precarious rocks to get there and it really wasn't that great and the water was not that clean so we decided against it in the end. Then we headed back to the point the jeep was going to come and pick us up which was up a series of large ridges and involved quite and ascent.

When we got to the meeting place we were absolutely drenched in sweat, it was the most humid day and all the walking really did take it out of us. Once there though it was simply a matter of jumping on the jeep and they would take us back to the hotel in Sapa.

Once back in the hotel they gave us a room to wash in and change our clothes and then we went out to eat before catching the Train back to Hanoi so we could get the plane to Hoy An to the south of Hanoi on the coast. We had a soft sleeper on the train which is like first class and we had an OK nights sleep considering we knew we were going to get up at 5:30.

Day 47

As we arrived in Hanoi at 5.00am and knew that we had an early start the next morning we decided to treat ourselves to a nicer hotel room, rather than risk Joe getting ill at the backpackers again. We were going to head to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, as this is a very important place to the Vietnamese people, however we it turned out to be closed on Fridays. Instead we took a walk around his old house and the presedential palace, if you believe the exhibit Uncle Ho did live a very simple life indeed in his old stilted house – we couldn't even find a toilet!

We then took a stroll through the old town and Joe used his bargaining skills to buy more vests. He talked one opportunist down from 210,000 dong down to 60 dong in front of all her friends, who found it quite hilarious. We then stopped for lunch in a cafe by the lake, where we had a great view of one of the main road junctions so we spent some time watching for crazy moped moments. Then the heavens opened and we saw one of our first really tropical downpours, thankfully we could hide in the cafe until it was over. We also met some English girls hiding there who were working for 6 weeks on a volunteer construction project for a small village in the mountains, it was really interesting to hear about there experiences of living with local tribes people, who apparently still find something comical about the foreigners everyday.

Interesting Fact


Day 48

We had an early morning flight to Hoi An so left the hotel early at about 5am. Though we thought we had left plenty of time, considering how early it was and having studied the airports location on a map, we were a bit panicked when the receptionist said he thought it would take well over an hour to get to the airport. Fortunately this turned out to be a trick to justify the $15 taxi fare, as we rocked up 40 mins later with plenty of time to check in for our flight.

We actually flew into a place called Danang, which we then had to catch the public bus to the beach town of Hoi An. We thought we'd done well scoring the seats at the back of the bus with lots of leg room, but then found ourselves sandwiched behind about 10 bikes as people kept hopping on the bus with them. Also boarding and alighting from this bus seems to be an art form in itself, the bus never actually stopped for anyone, it just slowed down enough for people to jump on from the side of the road. If you were getting off they would hold you at the bottom of the stairs and then wait till the bus was slow enough so they could just push you off!

When we arrived in Hoi An we went looking for the hotel we had chosen in the guide book but with dodgey directions and a bad map we couldn't find the hotel in the scorching heat for about an hour. Vietnam also had a tendency to rename roads at will which we've found in our travels. Then we found some western looking people and decided to stay where we were. After dropping the bags off at a cafe with Joe and then Tracy going around and scouring the hotels in the area to find the best value. When Tracy got back and commenting on the hotels we bumped into a couple of guys we met at Halong Bay and they said showed us the hotel they were staying at with a great pool and nice rooms (plus it was cheap!!). Needless to say, we stayed there.

Then we went off to get some clothes made, Joe decided to get a suit and a couple of shirts to send back to England and Tracy was deciding what to get. Hoi An is a famous place for tailors and they are everywhere, littering the streets.

After the tailors, there was a monumental occasion! This was the first time in our entire trip that we were going to be able to get to a beach!! Luckily for us the weather was fantastic and we hopped in a taxi and headed down to a lovely beach and rented some sunbeds for 50p each with the white sand, palm tree lined and warm beautiful water beach. Needless to say, we decided to stay here for a few days and enjoy the sun, sea, sand and the chance to read some books. We stayed here for the whole day and relaxed.

That night we went to meet a nice couple from England but we couldn't find the restaurant they mentioned. Once we had eaten we met them finally, where they were eating and found out the beers there were 12p a pint and it was lovely beer. We then moved on to another bar which was playing Michael Jackson tribute songs all night long.

Interesting fact no. 48

Day 49

After going for final fittings and picking up all our new tailor made clothes we decided to head down to the beach again. Not surprisingly there were a lot of women walking up and down the beach, who were constantly trying to sell you souveniers, and we were actually cracking up with laughter as one lady said to us “open your heart, open your wallet”.

In the evening we met up with our friends Olly & Rachael again, along with 2 sunburned lads from Stoke and returned to the open air restaurant market place. We had delicious Beef & Prawns that had been cooked in banana leaf and lots of 12p beers, between us all we had about 7 main courses, rice & beer etc and the whole bill came in under £15.

Interesting fact

Day 50

As we had managed to accumulate lots new clothing we decided it was time to post some packages home and we couldn't believe the efficient service of the post office. The hotel receptionist rang them up and 10 minutes later a girl arrived on a moped who then weighed, boxed & packaged everything for us.

We decided to visit the beach again, for a lovely lunch looking out over the sea and a few more hours sunbathing as Joe's chest is stubbornly refusing to tan. We then returned to the hotel pool to clean up and then dry off before our bus ride to Nha Trang.

Originally we had tried to book a sleeper bus to Nha Trang, but as Hoi An university had just broken up for the holidays most modes of transport had sold out. So this meant we found ourselves on our first sleeper bus. First of all we were picked up at 6pm from our hotel by taxi and driven to a travel agents office down the road, where we waited along with 15 or so other travellers for the bus to turn up. One and a half hours later the bus pulled up but to our dismay it was already full of Vietnamese people. There were no seat reservations so it was a case of first come, first served and all the good beds had been taken. We found ourselves on the upper bunks on the backrow, which was 5 beds in a line, with no dividers, it was a very cosy way to get to know your neighbour! Then the bus driver seemed to think he was some sort of racing driver as he sped through the roads, it was so bumpy that we actually caught air on a couple of occasions!

Day 51

Thanks to the erratic, speedy driving we arrived in Nha Trang 2 hours ahead of schedule, which would usually be a bonus except that it was actually 4am and everywhere was shut. We soon established the bus had dropped us miles from the centre of town, outside the 1 conveniently open hotel, who was no doubt affiliated with the same tour company. We shared at taxi with another couple and headed towards the cheap hotel streets, where we had to knock loudly on the doors to ask if we could come in and see a room.

After a quick nap to recover from the pretty much sleepless bus journey we went for a wander around the town. Joe had been needing a hair cut for a while so when we saw an empty hairdressers we thought here was just as safe as anywhere else. However when the lady had to dig out and dust off her clippers we weren't so sure. She seemed scared off cutting too much, so Joe had to show her himself how it's done. Then she got a little carried away and there was a definite 5 min period where we both considered the thought that Joe may need to shave his head, however with a lot of touching up and smoothing the edges it was all fine in the end.

We spent the rest of the day at a beach bar called the Louisianne Brewhouse, which had it's own swimming pool & lots of comfy sunloungers next to the beach. We also met a couple of friends from New Zealand that we had met on the night bus from Hoi An and shared some cocktails and tried the bar's own beers that they brewed on site. We then all headed out for a meal in Nha Trang town which turned out to be quite comical as Ben was trying to teach the restaurant how to cook & open oysters properly. It turned out to be a very funny meal and we had all the restaurant staff laughing and joking with us by the end of it.

Day 52

We returned again to the Louisianne brewhouse as it had such a nice atmosphere and spent most of the day lost in our books. Ben, from the previous day, had given Joe a book on a drug smugler who was caught & jailed in Thailand and it was proving to be a bit addictive.

In the evening we enjoyed a couple of beers and now we have met so many people along the way we keep enjoying bumping into them at various different stops. We met about 4 different friends we'd met in Halong Bay and decided to go out to some of the local nightspots. We had a great night and we had booked a boat tour earlier around the islands surrounding Na Trang in the morning.

Day 53

We had to check out of our hotel in Na Trang because we were leaving that night and waited for the bus to take us on the Island tour which promised snorkeling and other activities.

On the Island tour, the first stop was the snorkeling, but this was not great although we did see a few fish. Joe had a better time jumping off the boat than snorkeling.

Then we had some food and the tour guides put on a music show for us which was interesting in a strange way. They sang songs in different languages and used different instruments but by the end we couldn't wait for it to be over.

Finally after a couple of uneventful stops we stopped at an aquarium that was shaped like a pirate ship. It didn't show us anything we'd not seen before elsewhere but it was fun to look in the natural pool full of fish and turtles outside.

That night when we got back from the boat tour we had to get the night bus to Saigon, which like all night buses turned out to be not very nice and we hardly slept.

Day 54

When we got to Saigon Joe walked around for a while early in the morning looking to find the best hostels while Tracy stayed with the bags in a cafe. We found a nice place with a big room and wifi so we slept a little after having none the night before.

That day we went to a cathedral in the middle of Saigon and then got lost trying to find a chinese buddhist temple. When we had finally admitted defeat and were walking back to the hostel we stumbled across the temple and had a nice time walking around with the incense burning and people praying.

Once back at the hostel things really started to rain heavily and we would have had to walk somewhere so we decided to watch a movie for a while and wait for the weather to clear up. The weather in asia changes faster than in England and after the movie the weather was better again.

That night Andy Murray (the most boring sports star on the planet) was playing Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon semi-final so we decided to watch him get beat.

Day 55

Siagon in a really pretty city with parks and impressive buildings. There is a real energy about the city as well and everyone either seems to be really busy, or doing next to nothing,

We decided to do some touristy things this day so we went to the reunification palace which is a museum now, but was once the headquarters of the Southern American backed Vietnamese government. It was the house of the president with some real opulence, like, a casino, movie theater, helicopter pad and lots of expensive furniture. It was strange to see with the small tiny houses around the rest of siagon and shows that the government at the time might have been really quite out of touch with the rest of the country. We went in the airbunker in the cellar with maps of Vietnam everywhere and walked around it Art-Deco hallways.

When we were in the unification it started to rain really really heavily so we made a dash for some shop and got soaked and decided to get a taxi back to the hostel and grab something to eat in the shelter so we didnt waste time.

Then because the rain didnt stop Tracy had a rest and Joe watched a movie. That night we had some amazing pizza and a quick drink before going to bed.

Day 56

The day before we had booked a tour to go and see the Cu Chi tunnels which were the amazing series of tunnels dug by the Viet Cong during the war to hide from the Americans. This place became one of the most bombed places in the whole world and there were craters everywhere around the tunnels.

When we got there we were shown the different traps that the were left for the Americans and
we watched a very biased video that “praised the American killers! And power to the opressed people of Vietnam”.

Then we went onto the tunnels and there were a few small sections where you were allows in. Joe went first in the whole group but didnt really enjoy it so he came out at the first entrance and Tracy continued to the end. The tunnels were really very small and you had to either crawl or walk hunched to get through. It was amazing that people lived down there for months and had to sleep in hammocks because of the vibrations from the bombs.

There was an opportunity to shoot some guns after this and Joe decided to see what it would be like to shoot an M16. He went down to the range that was very secure and safe and had a few goes shooting on a range with an M16. Having no aspiration to shoot guns before, he did it just to see what it was like.

When we got back from the tunnels we went shopping in the market for a top for Tracy and walked around for a while before heading back to the hostel.

That night we watched the Wimbledon final and saw Federer beat Pete Sampras' all time record of grand slam finals which was an amazing match. Then we headed off to bed.

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