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Published: November 25th 2006
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At last I finally found time to begin this travel blog. It's been 3 weeks since I began the trip, so I'll just give a short summary about what I've been up to so far, and will attempt to update this regularly from now on. I'm currently on a 3-week group tour in Vietnam, so it's been a little hard to dedicate time to this as it has involved lots of early starts and group activities.
The story so far...
Week 1: Hong Kong The first week I flew from London Heathrow to Hong Kong. The first few days were pretty relaxed getting over the long flight and as I'd visited twice before I decided to just chill out initially - I visited the 10,000 Buddhas temple, walked around Wan Chai, Kowloon, and Mong Kok districts and generally drank lots of beer (this has become quite a theme on this trip). A friend from work, Simon, joined me a few days later, and we visited the main tourist sites and did activities such as ride the Star Ferry, Victoria Peak, eat Dim Sum, Central, Wan Chai etc. We also managed to visit the south side of Hong Kong island (by public
bus, though the driver had a death-wish!) to Stanley which was a welcome reprieve and antidote to the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong - we basically sat in an Irish bar all day and strolled around the market. In the evenings we ate great food in local restaurants and visited the bars in Wan Chai, Lan Kwai Fong and SoHo.
Week 2: Vietnam - Hanoi and Sapa. After a particularly heavy session on Thursday night I bid Simon farewall and arrived at Hong Kong airport. However, I was rather the worse for wear (quite an understatement) and unfortunately after checking in and passing the security gates managed to lose my passport (doh!). Starting to panic, I stumbled upon the airline help-desk who made a quick phone call and discovered that my passport had been found and was waiting for me at the gate! I can't express what a relief that was, having averted a disaster like that!
Anyway on with the update....I arrived in Hanoi a few hours later and spent the weekend on my own, staying in a great hostel (I had a double private room however). The city is buzzing and the first thing that strikes
you are the motorbikes
everywhere. Crossing the road takes some practice - you have to walk slowly so the bikes can avoid you. Monday evening, I met the group that I was to spend the next 3 weeks with in Vietnam (on the Vietnam Basix tour, run by Intrepid). In the group there are 2 English guys (me, and Dan), 2 Americans (Sandi and Bill), 2 Norwegians (Trond and Pev), 1 English lady (though living in Oz) called Deborah, and 5 great Australian girls (Lou, Karen, Zoey, Anita, and Talia). Our tour guide is a local Vietnamese guy called Huang - he is a first class guide and tells some particularly good jokes when he's had a few rice wines!
First stop was a quick tour of Hanoi such as the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, followed by a trip to the spectacular Halong bay - where there are beautiful limestone rocks jutting out of the sea and floating villages nestling between them whose inhabitants catch and farm fish. We hired a boat for the day and also kayaked for a couple of hours.....for the next few days we headed to the mountainous Sapa region in the north west on the
overnight train (Sapa is very close to the border with China) where thankfully the weather was much cooler (as it's been extremely humid and it's taking some time to acclimatise). Myself, Dan, Pev and Trond hired 100 cc mopeds and drove in and around Sapa town. However as this was the first time I'd driven a bike I fell off within 5 minutes (as did Pev), and again later when I started the bike and forgot not to twist the throttle when using the brake. After several hours riding however I was fairly proficient and we enjoyed a 20 kilometre trip through twisting mountain roads. Hiring a bike is inbcredibly cheap - only 5$ a day, and the guy didn't even need to see our passports, driving license or take a deposit - we could have just driven off and kept them!!! another highlight of Sapa was a trek to a homestay village, where we stayed with a local family and drank rice wine into the small hours. Alcohol is very cheap in Vietnam - around 50 pence for a bottled beer in cities and it can be as low as 2000 dong (about 8 pence) for a pint of
locally made
bia hoi (fresh beer) which is home made fresh beer served on street corners. After Sapa we boarded the overnight train back to Hanoi - this time we had more time to spend doing activities such as Tai Chi, eating Vietnamese noodles from street vendors (delicious beef noodle soup is around 30 pence or 10,000 dong) and drinking Beer Hoi at 9.30 am, in addition seeing the impressive water puppet theatre. Everything is now measured in multiples of Beer Hoi - e.g. a 50,000 dong museum trip is 25 bia hoi's!! Also worth a mention is the Museum of Ethnology which gave a great insight into the different cultures and tribes in Vietnam in addition to some fabulously re-created houses used by the different tribes (such as a bamboo longhouse).
Week 3: Hue and Hoi An. Leaving Hanoi we boarded another overnight train to Hue, located in the central region, where the highlight was a full day's motorbike tour (on the back on this occasion, as I was rather hung over and still nursing grazes and bruises from the first accident) through the backroads visiting several historical sites on the way (I can't remember the names, I need
to look in the guidebook!). Today we headed by bus to Hoi An, which is a Unesco heritage town, so there should be plenty to do over the next few days. Now that I've started the blog I'll attempt to update it every few days with more detail so watch this space...
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Whats the score?
Hey dude - hows things in the far east (which is east of Heathrow to me)? You missing your Honda Type-R yet? Looks like a bloody nice time being had; I'm sure "your objectives" are being met judging by the photos. Steady as she goes fella...