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Published: February 21st 2010
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So after spending the first few days in vietnam in bed and not seeing very much my ear started to get a little better thanks to some antibiotics and i managed to get out and about properly! Got some new people on our tour, including a funny german couple who quite clearly booked the wrong trip! They had their utility jackets on all day every day and never said a word to the rest of us but they provided us all with a couple of laughs!
We took our first night train from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang which was fine as we had our own little room with 2 other people from our group so no complaints there! Nha Trang is a beachy town and theres a cable car over to an island which has a tiny water/theme park on it! We went to the water park and it was completely dead all day so no queueing! The rides were a little dodge though and you had to watch you didnt smack your face off the flumes, Jason got a massive bruise on his leg but it was worth it! Went on a mental ride which turns
you upside down and holds you like that for what feels like forever, scary but fun! The next day we just chilled out, went to the luxury boat club for lunch which had ostrich burgers and wasnt as expensive as it sounds! Good view of the beach from there too.
Our next night train was to Hoi An and it was disgusting! we were in second class and were sharing with two random people. there was an old lady sitting across from us just staring at us for about half an hour. Then she burped in our faces and smiled as a beetle ran out from her bags and under ours! The beds weren't clean and both the old lady and another man who came into our room slept on their backs and snored theirs head off, although technically the man wasnt snoring, he was hissing like a snake at random intervals! Needless to say we didnt sleep that night and were so happy when we got off at Hoi An at 4.30am. Our tour leader Con took some of us on a walk around the town as the sun can up and its definately the most beautiful place
we saw in vietnam. All old buildings and narrow streets and theres a river through the middle which looked amazing at sunrise! We also walked through the morning market by the river side, lots of big fish, veg, meat, clothes and just about anything you can think of! Back to bed for a few hours after that and then back out to explore the rest of town. Lots of shops were full of pretty lanterns so we bought one each to send home and went to he post office to send them off. theres ALOT of forms to fill in just to send a simple package but we got them away after about an hour! Spent the next day chilling out by then river at a little cafe and taking it easy, lots of dogs running about to keep us amused!!
After Hoi An we went to Hue. Con said there was pretty much nothing to do for the afternoon so we all went out to a pub for a few drinks then got some dinner. I got my food for free because i didnt finish all of it which was a bonus! The day after we booked a
motorbike tour. A bunch of guys came to pick us up and we had to sit on the back of their little scooters, they didnt go much faster than 40mph but it felt much faster! We went through all the winding paths on the way out of the city, driving through the markets, dodging chickens and dogs and going over narrow bridges which were almost too small to squeeze through! First stop was the forbidden purple city which was quite badly damaged from the war but the parts that were left were nice. Our trip leader was called Uncle Tam and he was absoloutely insane! He did Tai Chi and was always doing the splits and speaking in a camp scottish accent. Went to see the car of the monk who set himself on fire in Saigon, saw a few temples, visited a rice museum and went to a look out point over the perfume river. We also stopped at a road side incense factory and jason got to have a go at making a few sticks. More fun than it sounds, just going around on the bikes was really fun in the mad vietnamese traffic!
We had to
take a third overnight train up to Ha Long Bay which thankfully was of the same standard as the first so we managed to get a little bit of sleep. We had a boat to take us around the islands in the bay which was great as we had the whole thing to ourselves. It was much cooler this far north but still warm enough to sit on the top deck for most of the trip. We also got a massive lunch, just unfortunate for me that it was all seafood! There was rice and chips though so i had enough of them to fill me up! Everyone else was eating crabcakes in the shell, fresh shrimp, a big fish and spring rolls. We were on the boat for about 6 hours and went to a cave in one of the cliffs for a look around. Had our one bad meal that evening, a wierd little italian restaurant / 60's bar. My steak was like eating leather but once you chewed for long enough and got to the middle it was completely raw. Jason's pizza tasted rotten too and everyone had ordered a different pizza and got the same one.
Hotel was nice though with a good view over the bay.
Next day we went to Hanoi. Went for a walk about and the traffic here was worse than we'd seen anywhere else, you had to run blind into a mass of scooters and it was best not to look to your sides or youd freeze up or make a wrong move and get hit! Con took us to a street where they just put tiny plastic chairs on the side of the road and had beer for 3000 dong, which is roughly 10p a pint! Had a good laugh people watching there for a while than had another tasty dinner! Went out for a few drinks and Con did a suicide Tequila where you have to sniff the salt and squeeze the lime in your eye! Looked sore!! The next morning we decided to see the "Hanoi Hilton", which was a huge task to find! We ended up taking 6 taxis in total as we kept getting dropped off at random hilton hotels across the city! Eventually we got there and got to have a look around. Didnt seem as savage as S21 in Cambodia but it was
still pretty awful. The women held there were sometimes raped with glass bottles and the cells were horrible. That night we got the best dinner possible! The restaurant was called Koto and was for teaching orphans from the street to speak English and work within the hospitality business. Jason got the best steak we've ever had, properly flame grilled with a mushroom jus and salad. Tasted amazing! And i had bangers and mash but made fancy with a brandy jus and some apple shavings, yummy 😊
The next day we had a 12 hour bus journey to our first stop in Laos called Lac Sao. Every now and again a truck full of yelping dogs would drive past on their way to Vietnam to be eaten 😞 Not much chatting between anyone on that journey!
Sorry theres no photos to this or Cambodia, for some reason we cant load them up but i think its a problem with this computer rather than the website so when we get to another one ill hopefully get them on too. And we'll fill you in on Laos, Bangkok, Phuket, Phi Phi and Krabi soon!!
Lots of Love, Ruth and Jason
xx
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susan
non-member comment
jealous
All sounds so different and gob smacking-can't believe you didn't eat what could have been some of the worlds best seafood. Ruth .Dying to see the photos-did you get one of the little old beetle lady?? Enjoy yourselves .love Susan