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Published: November 11th 2007
So, Vietnam.... We love it!
We arrived at Ho Chi Minh, aka Saigon, airport on the 10th of October (yes we're a tad behind on the blog updates) and stepped out of the airport to find our transport to Phan Ngu Lao St., the main backpacker area. Immediately we were swamped by a hoard of taxi drivers all saying that the buses had finished for the night and that it would cost 120,000 Dong (4GBP), which was about twice what we were expecting by taxi. We got talking to a french couple, Matt & Pascal, who were in the same situation and decided to sit out the persistant taxi drivers and wait for a bus as it was still only 7pm. The smugness on our faces when a bus turned up soon disappeared when the bus driver confirmed that they had indeed finished for the night! Well all was not lost, one of the taxi guys finally offered a meter which would be considerably cheaper and the other guys soon dropped their prices to 70,000 Dong - aah memories of India! Accommodation wise though, far from it. For $15 a night we had A/C, fan, TV, minibar, hot water, free
Chow time in a Saigon market
Once again Ruth chose best. I ended up with pork gristle soup!internet and breakfast! If this is Vietnam, this is going to be a breeze.
We spent our first 4 days in Saigon. It's the first time we've hit somwhere that is obviously backpacker central. Makes everything real easy; drinking, eating, finding accommodation, booking buses, trains and drinking. We saw the few major attractions on the list in Saigon in our usual swift manner; Reunification Hall, Notra Dam, the city centre and the river - not pretty. Getting around is interesting. It's not the biggest city and can be done on foot, but the traffic is crazy and crossing the road requires some nerve. You quickly learn that you just have to casually start crossing and let the hundreds of mopeds, cars etc avoid you. We found after one little surprise that they tend to drive on the wrong side of the road too........alot! The majority of the food was great and we loved the local pho bo (beef noodle soup), but when faced with a menu of scorpions, rat, goats penis etc we opted for a safe but delicious beef BBQ on our table! The exchange rate is about 33,000 Vietnamese Dong to the Pound and beer is now
between 8,000 to 20,000 Dong (0.25-0.60p). During our stay in Saigon we went on a day trip to the impressive Cao Dai Great Temple, a really colourful temple where the monks dress in red, blue and yellow robes to signify Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. This is a new religion and they have taken bits from all these different religions and called it Cao Dai. Tomorrow I am starting Beerism, who's with me?! After Cao Dai it was off to the Cu Chi Tunnels which were built and used by the Viet Cong during the fighting with American soldiers. It was really interesting and we got to walk through one tunnel, although they have now been made wider for fat tourists to get through!! An uncomfortable yet slightly funny part was during a video introduction where on numerous occassions the killing of many Americans was praised with clips of several herioc soildiers mentioning how many Americans they'd killed. Just when you thought 'that's got to be it surely', no, no.......now the footage of their most herioc female front line soldier - a 12 year old girl - who killed loads apparently. Felt a tad sorry for the group of Americans next
to us. This day was made even better when at 2am we woke to watch England beat France in the semis.
We left Saigon behind for now and followed our plan to catch the sleeper train from HCMC up to Danang, about half way up the country. From Danang we spent 2 nights in Hoi An, a lovely old town heavily influenced by the Chinese and famous for it's silk and tailors. The main thing to do here is visit the Old Houses, Assembly halls, Japanese covered bridge and nice beaches. It rained so much while we were there that the beach visits were cancelled and as the river rose, the streets nearest it steadily disappeared. Didn't spoil it for us though and the pool in our hotel made up for the lack of sea - still $15. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Nearly forgot to mention that on one night walking through a really nice bar in Hoi An I managed to tred on a rat making it's way to the bar for what I can only assume was his round.
Next part of the journey was again on a sleeper train from Danang to
capital, Hanoi, in the north. After the last sleeper train and the knowledge that the first stretch of this journey was along the dramatic coastline up to Hue, we were looking forward to it. We were a bit surprised when we walked into our 4 berth cabin and found a family consisting of 3 adults and 2 children! We checked our tickets and spent most of the next 20 hours perched on our upper bunks building character. I finally cracked at about 2am that morning, once my nose had become accustomed to the smell of baby sick, when the mother decided to make a phone call on her mobile. No joke, it was like having the Vietnamese Dom Jolly in the cabin! After I gestured to her by drawing my finger across my throat, to stop the call not slit her throat.... although on second thoughts, she hung up. Despite this, we survived and the views from the train were cracking.
We arrived in Hanoi and thanks to Jill & Bushy, had our best room so far; A/C, fan, TV, hot water, breakfast, minibar, free internet in the room and very swanky at that! This was going to be
our base to do the Ha Long Bay boat trip and Sa Pa trekking in the mountains, both absolutely fab experiences. Hanoi is the capital and much like Saigon in that the traffic is crazy, especially on the weekends when it seems that everyone has nothing better to do than endlessly cruise around the lake on their mopeds (sometimes 4 per bike), making not only me but themselves dizzy too. There's not a huge amount to see in Hanoi, so you tend to just wonder through the many streets around the lake stopping for coffee or lunch and there's plenty of choices for dinner too.
From here we went on our trip to Ha Long Bay where we would be sailing out into the bay to stay on a junk boat for the night. We found out on the boat that passports are required for overnight stays in the South China sea, ours were 3hours away in the Cambodian Embassy for visas. So after a last minute boat change where they didn't know we didn't have our passports, we sat down to lunch with our shipmates for the next 2 days; 13 Malaysian teachers and 1 French guy. Sounds
Cao Dai temple
my beer temple will look nothing like this like a tough crowd, but minutes into lunch Ruth, Ludovic and I we were made to feel really welcome by the teachers, especially considering they were told they'd have the boat to themselves (thanks guys). Alex was the main joker, but there were wise cracks coming from all over the place. After lunch, which comprised of fried fish, spring rolls, rice, veg, some greasy tofu thing washed down with the local beer, it was off Ha Long Bay. This was the first, but not last, time on this trip that we would hear the question, 'do you mind if I have the fish head?'. On our first day we went to the caves (where Alex and Co. made rude comments about the look of some of the stalegmites - why weren't our teachers like that?!), visited the floating houses and went kayaking around hundreds of islets in the bay too. Before dinner that night, 19th Oct, Ludovic and I became jump buddies jumping off the top of our boat into the clear yet sometimes littered waters in the bay - good on you Ludovic! After sitting down to dinner on the boat we retired to the roof top seating/jumping area
for a few chilled ones. Later, Alex brought up a MANLY bottle of Baileys from his cabin and we all toasted our honeymoon, my birthday and great days at sea surrounded by the Islets. This was another one of our weddings gifts so we have to thank Sue & Tony for this one, thanks again for an excellent trip - another trip of a lifetime.
The next day after breakfast and a gorgeous sunrise we set off back to the mainland. Before we all went our seperate ways, Ludovic wished us luck for the World Cup final, but alas my birthday wish didn't come true. Back in Hanoi with a bit of money left over from Jill & Bushy's present and a little bonus birthday pressie from the in-laws, we went out for a budget busting dinner at 69 (no jokes pls). Afterwards while killing time waiting for kick off at 2am we finally stopped off for a beer at one of the street bars. These bars, serving their own home brew, are found in the backpacker part of town. Everyone sits on the paths and streets on children's plastic stools drinking beer after beer at about 6p a glass!
That's gotta hurt
one of the many traps used by the VC against the US So all in all, apart from the rugby result, a cracking birthday!
Second half of Vietnam coming....
Take care, the Millsys
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George Michael
Hee Golden Balls, Great stories man! The time of your life!! Add a few pounds and you could be the newest member for Bear Force 1! ;)) Grtz Sjuul