Vietnam. We were there maaaan!

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So here it is, the last entry unless I can be bothered to finish off when I finally come home. Right now I'm all on my lonesome, Mrs Moss abandoned me last week for 2 weeks, in exchange for spending 2 hours in the company of Robbie Williams and Take That. I wasn't wondering but in case I was, I know clearly where I lie in the pecking order. So here I am, all alone and not even with my other lady here for company (the Lambretta is in the garage having a service before its long trip). No doubt Lucy is being showered in love and affection whilst I'm still here trying to sell some shoes to Next.

It was a moist eyed farewell at the airport that brought down the official end to the Moss' in SE Asia but we managed to pack in some more adventures before she left......

Lucy got on the plane to Manchester not long after getting back from Boracay in the Philippines where we spent a few days with Ian and Joan. It was a fun time had by all and good to see them again. We arrived a couple of days before them and spent some very nice time at a hotel at a quiet spot up the coast - the room was perched on a cliff and reached by a rickety lift that looked like it was from a mine. The view was incredible though and we spent the first night in the outdoor hot tub watching a major thunderstorm all around us. The Philippines is famous for diving and the clearness of the sea and I can definitley see why - the snorkelling was great, like being inside a tropical aquarium. We hired a tiny boat for the day with Joan's local knowledge ($40) and spent the day snorkelling, fishing and eating before coming back with sunburn. As with most trips involving Wrighty, the evenings are the main event and this time was no exception. We found one of (my) favourite bars in Asia called the Hobbit House - so called because it is staffed entirely by midgets. It also happens to have the best beer list ever seen in Asia, so there were two major attractions. The final 2 nights were spent watching our new heroes - a band called The Boss. When we first saw them, we laughed at their 80's heavy metal look and the way they were strutting around the stage as if it was Wembley Stadium even though there were only about 20 people watching. Turns out their tongue was in their cheek most of the time although at the same time they were very talented musicians....but still, abolutely hilarious. We couldn't get enough of the headbanging, guitar solos (some played with the teeth) and 'rock faces' after the first night, so had to go back again - we left with smiles, a great photo and some new facebook friends.

We had a bit of drama on the way back from the Philippines though - I was refused entry to the country because a certain numpty at my work had applied for the wrong visa. You don't mess with the army and police in Vietnam so there was no flexibility. The plane landed at around 12.30am and I was then sent on my own to a 'secure hotel' at around 3am, having been told if i left the hotel i would be arrested. It wasn't the ideal last night together in Vietnam but in the end it was all sorted out the following afternoon and I now have a valid visa!

Not sure what else I should tell you about really, it's been a strange time given that we know we are leaving and I suppose it's been relatively quiet. On Lucy's last weekend in the city we had a treat and stayed at the historic Hotel Continental with a room overlooking the opera house which was lovely. Lucy had a load of end of year parties at school, including a 'fire' fancy dress theme one. I said don't bother dressing up, just set the fire alarm off and then it's job done. She also went to a hen party for a friend from school which involved drawing pictures of a naked man before a cyclo ride and cocktails....

As i write this i have just 3 days of work still to go (hopefully we're under the 30hr mark now) and then I have one last hurrah at the wekeend - a bike trip with my mate Neil from Saigon. We're flying to Danang and then doing a big 900km loop down to Quy Nhon on the coast to finish. This time we have the 'big' bikes from the Easy Rider company which should be fun and hopefully a bit more comfortable on the derrier. However, we're also having no guide this time so the emphasis will be on not getting lost and missing our flights home. Might add some photos when I get back home if i think on.

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Well, I didn't get round to finish the blog before but now i am doing, fittingly a couple of hours before getting the flight home. Back home from the bike trip, happy, safe, but not exactly unscathed. We had a great 4 days but as it turned out, the original 900km route was a bit over ambitious. We'd managed to cover 320kms in (near) safety on the 1st day and then my run of having absolutely no motorcycle incidents in 1 year of driving in this bonkers place came to a most spectacular and bizzare end. I need to hurry up as i have a bag to catch but basically.....you will never believe this, (however, i did have the presence of thought to take photos to prove it) but we were driving through a village when a 10 metre tree that was being felled by farmers literally came crashing down 5 metres in front of me, when I was crusing along a lovely quiet road at 60kmph. Anyway, given the circumstances, I have actually been very lucky! Damage to driver and bike was not too bad but I will be limping a little for a while. Still can't quite believe it. If you happened to be videoing it and sent it in to You've Been Framed then it would be video of the century. Anyway, on that evening we came to the realisation that we couldn't cover nearly enough miles within 2 days to get the bikes back to where we had to get them, so we discussed around 70 plans, the chosen one was to go back to Danang on the following day and then get on the train with the bikes for some of the final day. Didn't turn out that way as the train was full, so in the end yesterday we drove all the way to the finish in Quy Nhon - another 320kms which was a test of mind, body, machine and friendship, all of which remained pretty much intact! Happy and crazy memories....

Things we will miss....
The chaos
Riding motorbikes (especially in the mountains and on pavements)
Beer being 1 quid a bottle
Vietnamese food
Waitress service. Everywhere.
The weather
Cheap massages (Lucy)
Our friends
The lack of any helath and safety rules
The crazy adventures

Things we're looking forward to....
A general lack of chaos
Driving cars again
Country pubs
English food
Missing those days of where seemingly nobody in Vietnam understands what you want
Football on saturday afternoons (not 10pm at night)
Seeing our friends and family
Continuing the recent trend with trips away every month
Popular culture that doesn't involve Westlife being the biggest band in the country
Finding out what has actually happened in the world for the last 10 months. Apparently Columbo died last month?!!!

So that's it, the final curtain. It's probably the best thing we've ever done and we go home with huge amounts of memories and a lot sadness on leaving this lovely country and people. Not to forget all the fun we had in Thailand before the asian life started to become normal. Hopefully we've made a few friends that we will keep for a long time and we will certainly be back here at some point. Sorry parents, we had thought this might get it out of our system but i can't guarentee we will not be off to more exotic shores again at some point.

So long for now folks, thanks for reading the blog, we really can't believe how popular it's been - 5100 hits as of today. Hopefully it makes up in small part for being so bad at keeping in touch since we've been gone - we have a lot of catching up to do!

As usual, there's loads of photos so scroll through, you have to click on page 2 to see them all but it's not easy to see. Next time I see you will be back home in the drizzle....

Christ and Wucy
xxx

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Photos

This is the view out of our window.
I have probably taken 200 pictures of it but I think this might be the best.

Ian and Lucy in The Hobbitt House
Important note - Ian and Lucy are seated, little man is not.

This is how the Chinese go on holiday
Hundreds of them and they have to take a banner.

It's been tough out here.
Honest.

Lunch on the boat trip
Not on boat at this point though.

We took one photo in Manila and this is it. Lucy is trying to do a 'M'
Manila - In a word, dissapointing.

And later busting some moves
Lucy doing the famous Vietnamese telescope dance

Lucy's new look
For those who haven't seen her back in the UK

Lucy's drawing of a live nude male model on hen do
Judging by the proportions of the drawing I haven't got anything to worry about.

If Lucy doesn't get a job quickly when we get back home she will be introducing these to Nottingham
Think it'll catch on?

Comments

[Arni]

Wow I would never have enough courage to travel to such distant and I think a little bit dangerous country. I had many great travels with home exchange http://www.homeexchange24.com/ but this respect :) Good luck in future travels.

[Lucy and Chris]

Vietnam is a very safe country if you are careful as you would be in any city. Most people are very kind and genuine but you must keep your wits about you as you get used to the currency!