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Published: April 7th 2006
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Vietnam
We have been in Vietnam for a month now, although we have seen a good few things we've really liked we are ready to move on. Vietnam is very westernised and didn't appeal to us unlike the other South East Asian countries we've been through. Part of this could be due to looking forward to Borneo, meeting up with friends from home, and South Africa before we get home in a month!!!
We started our trip in Ho Chi Minh City, where I dont think we did it justice, but we chilled out for a few days and caught up with Carole and Marie, (friends we'd previously met in Laos) and saw some of the horrors of Agent Orange in the war remnants museum. We also saw the internationally recognised photograph named "The Girl in the Photo" showing a young naked girl running down the road with horrific burns following a USA bombing spree.
We purchased the western way to travel, hop on hop off bus ticket to take us from HCM City to Hanoi for $16 US and set off to Muine, a coastal town where we were left behind by the aforementiond bus,
and had to catch up to the bus when the company realised their mistake on our favourite mode of transport moped!! Luckily this time with no scrapes and bruises!
In Nha Trang we entered into the spirit of our island hopping tour with our resident multi-lingual,had to many e-numbers, karaoke singing tour guide Tam. The boat was half westerners half holidaying Vietmanese who were amazed at the sight of all the westerners floating in rubber rings with their feet hooked under the floating bar whilst local wine was poored down our throats by Tam!! We also enjoyed snorkelling, lazing on the beach and seeing giant turtles in the aquarium!
From Nha Trang we went to our favourite town Hoi An, its a UNESCO site in its own right with the old town being especially beautiful and full of character. We also ate the best Red Snapper wrapped in banana leaf with garlic, lemongrass, spring onion and ginger to add flavour!mmm mmmm. In Hoi An it is a must to get tailored clothes made for you, we managed to get, two suits for Ben, a dress with wrap for Ali, a winter coat each, two pairs of shoes, and
two handbags, plus the airmail home in ten days for 120 quid!!! Bargain. Near Hoi An is another UNESCO site called My Son full off Hindu temple remains as well as a dance troup of Champa people who were pretty amazing.
Further north (after our first overnight bus journey) we stopped in Hue to see more UNESCO sites of the citadel, which houses the Purple City of their old emporer and again lots of temples, plus we visited the tombs of the Ngyuen Dynasty Emporers which were very elegant and full of statues, and bonzai trees. The boat trip to them annoyed us we were happy to pay for it and entry into the tombs but they were trying to scam us with the motorbike men on the island by telling us the tombs were too far to walk and we had to pay for motorbikes to get us there with extortionate prices. We refused and a neaby lady selling water told us it was less than a km away and how to walk there!
We stayed in the capital Hanoi on and off for about a week, its hectic soooo much lawless traffic diving any direction at
all times with more mopeds than you can imagine, to cross the road you just have to walk and they swerve to avoid you!!! In Hanoi we saw the excellent traditional water puppets, a few museums, Ho Chi Minhs mauseleum and our favourite Vietmanese temple called The Temple of Literature. Lastly we found an all you can eat pizza, pasta and salad buffet for 55 000 dong or 1 pound each, how good that!
From Hanoi we organised a few excursions the first for two days one night on a junk boat to the stunning Halong Bay, a bay of 3000 thousand limestone karst islands, with grotos used in James Bond films and caves with huge stalligmites and stalligtites. The second to Sapa where we stayed in the most awesome hotel, the Royal View Hotel, with amazing views of the mountains and organised a personal trip with the managers friend to an area that the main tours don't go. We went in a Russian jeep, to the highly proclaimed Silver waterfall the Tran Ton pass, and then through the pass to the ethnic minority villages where they still farm of the land using primative means, wearing traditional dress. The children were amazed by the digital camera and loved looking at themselves on the screen after a photo was taken, it was a nice day and we didnt see another westener the whole time.
So we heading into our last month and will send one more travel blog with the last recap once we're home.
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