Vietnam - Part 2

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Wow, time is flying - it’s three weeks today since we got married and our time in Vietnam has already come to an end. It has been a whistle stop tour starting in Hoi Chi Minh City and ended in the capital Hanoi, via the beautiful towns of Hoi An and Hué. Fortunately this week we have avoided long bus journeys by cheating and flying, however, the one bus we did catch from Hoi An to Hué ended up taking twice as long due to a puncture. Flying has also proved to be a learning experience here: The first flight we caught we queued at check-in like good British citizens, but by the fourth flight we had mastered the ‘art’ of the odd elbow or shove Vietnamese style.

During the last two days we have been cruising around the picturesque islands in Halong Bay on a ‘Junk’ boat. This is basically a passenger cruise boat which sleeps around thirty people. Halong Bay is made up of over 3,000 islands off the Gulf of Tonkin. Ha Laong means ‘where the dragon descends into the sea’ and legend has it that Halong Bay was created by a great dragon that lived in the mountains. Highlights included kayaking and visiting the Sung Sot cave which opened up into three incredible chambers. Despite the cave not having the shiny stalagmites/stalactites of previous caves we have visited, nothing has compared to the sheer magnitude which can only be described as stunning.

We were also treated to some fantastic Vietnamese food onboard and managed to keep up conversation up with a French couple for the entire evening with only the help of a French dictionary as neither couple were able to speak the other language. Needless to say our Franglais improved significantly with the amount vin and biere consumed and I was convinced I was fluent by the end of the evening. It turns out at breakfast the next day I wasn’t.

We ran out of time to see much of Hanoi and relaxation quickly disappeared when we arrived back from Halong Bay and had no running water. Despite the hotel staff promising water in five minutes, two hours passed and there was still no sign of a drip. The hotel managed to find us alternative accommodation and moved us to their 3 star (luxury for backpackers) sister hotel round the corner. Beccy got her shower and I got to watch sport on the satellite TV - everybody was happy.

Before arriving in Hanoi we had travelled from Hoi An to Hué and we had what is known as an ‘Andy day’ (also known as a ‘rainy day’). Due to the weather we had no choice but to spend the day in a bar eating, drinking and playing pool. We also met a couple of guys from Manchester who looked and had accents like the Gallagher brothers and Craig from Australia. Naturally I spent the obligatory hour diagnosing how England beat Australia in the Ashes with Craig.

As I write we are on a plane to Luang Prabang in Northern Laos which will be home for the next few days. In total we have just over a week in Laos and Vang Vieng and the capital Vientiane are our next stops. We have been told that Laos is even more poverty stricken than Cambodia and the Lonely Planet puts this down to the locals not taking life seriously and preferring fun than work. It’s going to be a tough week...

Love Andy & Beccy

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Photos

The Pheonix
The 'Junk' boat we stayed on and sailed round the islands of Halong Bay

Sung Sot
One of the huge chambers in the cave

Comments

[anonymous]

I am pleasantly surprised to discover AB to be the author of this blog - 'sheer magnitude' is such a Bex term!! hahaha. Miss you LOADS xx

[Kate]

Sounds like your having a fantastic time!! Im extremely pleased England won the ashes too- I like to remind Ben alot! hehe. See you in a few weeks in Australia xxx