Farewell Vietnam

We spent two days exploring Hanoi, Vietnam's charming capital. We didn't venture far from the old town which surrounds a lake home to a giant turtle. We spent most of our time exploring the narrow streets originally named after whatever was sold on them. Today we found barbie street, tourist street, shoe street, iron mongers street, party supplies street and many others. We also visited a couple of temples, the Hanoi Hilton Prison, museum with some amusing propaganda and overflowing markets. My highlight had to be the water puppet show. It was a brilliant show of skill, music and comedy. In the evenings we joined the locals on the street for bia hoi, and hung out in a couple of bars, one called Bomba Latina served the best mojitos we found in Asia so far. The food also improved massively once we reached the city. Grilled fish Hanoi style, full of lovely peanutty goodness, is definitely recommended.

We left Hanoi on the night bus bound for Dien Bien Phu, famous because it was the site for the battle ended French colonial rule in Vietnam. Our bus, complete with disco lighting was surprisingly comfortable.

We arrived at DBP at 7 in the morning and had a day exploring some of the old battle sites, a refreshing change from learning about the american war. By about 3.00 though we'd had enough and found a bia hoi garden where several hours quickly disappeared drinking jugs of beer and eating fresh peanuts.

The next morning it was up at 4:45 (!) to catch the bus to Laos. Olly was unusually awake having drunk a can of crazy horse, a bit like red bull on speed.

The border crossing, up probably the worst road we found in Vietnam, was virtually deserted. Entering Laos was slightly more amusing when we all got out temperatures taken with a strange forehead gun thing. Paperwork sorted, another page of our passports taken up with a shiny visa, and we were off into the highlands of north west Laos.

Our Vietnam highlights:

Best scenery:
Jo - rolling hills filled with fruit and veg in Dalat
Olly - Nimh Binh karst on the boat trip

Best site:
Jo - Paradise cave, Phu Nong National Park
Olly - ditto

Best place we stayed:
Jo - Century Hotel, Hanoi. $20 a night with fluffy towels and a computer in our room!
Olly - beach front hut on Phu Quoc


Best food: Olly - French meal at Augustines in Saigon
Jo - clams Thai style in Qui Nogn

Best Tour:
Jo - Dalat Easyriders
Olly - boat trip in Nimh Binh

Best journey:
Olly - ATR 72 flight from Phu Quoc to Saigon
Jo - local minibus journey from Chao Doc to Ha Tien, watching squabbling locals

Best beech:
Jo - Leper beach near Qui Ngon
Olly - Local beach in Hoi An

Best town:
Jo and Olly - Hoi An

Best local music:
Vietnamese Christmas songs on repeat for a 4 hour bus journey

Overall Vietnam gets about 7/10 as a backpacker destination. There is loads to see and do, travelling is well set up, as the locals love to travel, but we felt like we were missing the adventure of less developed places like Cambodia. You can get off the tourist trail very easily, but it's not long before another 'must see' site draws you back. The north of Vietnam has the amazing scenery, but on the whole we found the people in the south to be warmer.

Photos

For anyone not on facebook, here are some links to photos just uploaded x

• Cambodia 
• A few from Vietnam

Limestone maddness

We enjoyed a second day in Dong Hoi in style - a beautiful deserted beach with a 4* resort and swimming pool. That wasn't in the guide book!

It's just as well we had a relaxing day, because the night was not so relaxing. The only way (we were told) of getting to our next stop, Nimh Binh, from Dong Hoi is the night bus to Hanoi, jumping off on route. OK we thought, until we found ourselves deposited on the roadside at 3am! The fact that Olly didn’t fit in the ‘bunk’ beds on the bus didn’t help either.

After some more sleep we took a xe om ride (on the back of two scooters) to the see the beautiful limestone formations surrounding the town. The trip included a VERY sweaty hill climb, followed by a far more relaxing boat ride. The boat drivers row with their feet!

 Nimh Binh town is not much to write home about. The local specialty is roast goat. We were surprised to see one being blow torched on the pavement in preparation for dinner (it was dead of course, but still very much in one piece).

It was back on the road the following day, with a local bus ride to Haiphong. Loud music, sun and dust were the main themes of the journey.

In Haiphong, we brought tickets for the “fast” boat to Cat Ba, the island at the edge of Vietnam’s iconic Halong Bay. Along with two American girls we met on the bus, we boarded what looked like a suspiciously rusty, over loaded boat. The lady who sold us the tickets much have been delighted as she waved us off with the fair for a 45 minute boat ride in her pocket. 3 hours later we arrived in Cat Ba town. We could have been pissed off about it, but actually the boat ride was quiet fun and the scenery was beautiful.

Cat Ba is overrun with Vietnamese tourists. It’s summer holidays and if you have the money in Vietnam, you travel. We arrived on Thursday, when a room cost $10 a night. By Friday it was as though carnival had some to town and room prices rocketed to $30 a night. Vast quantities of beer and seafood were consumed and the cash machine emptied. Vietnamese are early risers though, so everything is over by 10pm.
Friday was a good day. Kayaking and boating around Halong Bay. The weather wasn’t the best, but we went with a fun bunch of people, avoided the crowds, paddled around stunning bays and didn’t get sun burn. The floating rubbish jettisoned by thousands of tourist boats was a bit of a downer.

 
We had dinner and beers on Friday night with our American friends – and Olly ordered a 400,000 dong crab – about 13GBP worth!

Saturday was more chilled (we had a lie in after Olly tried to stay awake to watch the football, on at 1:45am here). We climbed the island to see the Vietnamese war bunkers and gun emplacements.

We had a lovely dinner, featuring a little lizard which scurried up inside my trouser leg. Thank god it wasn’t a cockroach! The waitress couldn’t stop giggling and saying “very funny memory”. Here’s a photo of the little blighter: 

Sunday morning, we set out for Hanoi. This time we really did take the fast boat.

Going underground in North Vietnam

After 26 days travelling in Vietnam we have finally crossed the frontier known as the DMZ - the demilitarized zone - which separated North and South Vietnam during the American war. It seems like we've been travelling north for a long time through this remarkable country, but it turns out we've only seen half of it. To give ourselves a bit more flexibility with what we do next, we've extended our visas for an extra two weeks.

From the beautiful, quaint paradise of Hoi An (with so many beautiful clothes shops, that I can't begin to tell you how hard it was for me not to buy an entirely new travelling wardrobe!), we headed to Hue (pronounced Whey). Hue was the capital of the Nguyen dynasty in the 19th and 20th Century. It was a puppet empire, first for the Chinese and then the French, but left behind a stunning citadel full of beautiful archways, buildings and Chinese architecture - until the French, followed by the Americans bombed most of it to the ground.

We spent the afternoon wondering around what is left of this amazing place. There's a big restoration project in place, but I doubt it will ever be close to its former glory.

From Hue we got the 10:00 train four hours up the coast to a quiet, untouristic town called Dong Hoi. We're really off the tour routes now and far away from the 'buy one get one free', 'free drinks for girls' and 'cheap price' venders. Our soul reason for stopping here is the caves in Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park. We hired a driver to take us and an American girl yesterday... and WOW!!!! This place is amazing! We spent most of the day with our jaws on the ground.

The landscape around the caves is breathtaking - my geography geek really came out again. Limestone karst mountains which look like strange dragons rising out of the flood plain. And inside, the most incredible, enormous caves. First we visited Phong Nha cave, which has been open for some time. Only accessible by boat, this cave is something of a Vietnamese tourist attraction. The incredible limestone formations are lit with multi-coloured lights, but were probably the most beautiful caves I've ever seen. That was until we headed for our second destination - Paradise Cave. This cave only opened to the public a year ago. It's part of the longest cave network in the World, and it's massive! The stalactites and stalagmites in the cave are off the scale they are so enormous. We both find the fact that most people visiting Vietnam don't stop here incredible. We definitely got our fix of caves for this trip.

Tonight we're off to Nim Binh to see more amazing limestone mountains.

Love to everyone at home.

Jo x

From Na Trangh to the DMZ

We quite happily got out of Na Trang as we felt we'd somehow slipped out of Vietnam into an alternate universe- where there was no culture. Plenty of hotels, holiday makers and drunken tourists though.

And so in search of Vietnam we travelled up the coast for a few hours, with a very curious British couple in their 50's, who were acting like petulant 19 year olds on their first trip abroad.  Jo had to get out of the minibus that was taking us to the bus station just to explain that it was a transfer bus and that we would be getting a 'real' bus from the bus station, to prevent the curious argument outside the bus from going on any longer, later we discovered the couple had been away for 9 years and had never learnt any of the language of the countries they'd been to (some of which they'd spent 1 year in). We ended up parting company when they started to complain about a 12 pence charge for taking a taxi from Quy Nhon bus depot.

Almost as soon as we arrived we were aware we were in Vietnam once again, no foreign tourists, no hassle and cheap beer. We also had the opportunity to visit leper beach, so named because the beach actually belongs to the leper hospital right next to it, the beach though was beautiful and deserted.

The next day we rented a scooter and for the first time in my life I rode one, Jo at this point decided that my 10 minute practise was enough learning, jumped on the back and said "go!" Quite the leap of faith.

We had a fantastic meal for only a few pounds of clams, giant prawns and ladyfingers, Jo would like me to state that "they were the most amazing clams in the world ever" - Hmm.

From that provincial fishing town we've travelled to Hoi An, which is without doubt the most charming and untouched town we have been to in Vietnam, it was untouched by the war and the old town with it's yellow buildings, bridges and silk lanterns is like a time gone by.

Today we headed off to some Cham ruins (as it turns out we are in the kingdom of Champa) Which are a bit more ruined than they by rights should be because the site was bombed by the US ( This site dated from 4th Century AD to the 12th) and is now a UNESCO world heritage site due to the blending of Indian Hinduism with the local culture at the time, which was pretty obsessed with genitals.

Must dash, have to go and see my tailor for my final fit of 2 lovely suits - a strange thing indeed whilst travelling, but at just 80 quid a suit it's hard to say no.

Vietnam - Highland and Lowlands

So... we've done a lot in the last week! We left Phu Quoc for Ho Chi Min City (aka Saigon) on 25th May - taking a slight short cut via a small double prop airplane - more of a 40 minute "hop" than a flight. We giggled to ourselves as the baggage was unloaded from the plane including fish shaped packages wrapped in parcel tape. The Vietnamese literally go to the island to stock up on sea food it would seem!

Saigon

Saigon was the mayhem we were expecting - scooters everywhere, but virtually no cars. Crossing the road was a bit like stepping out into a firing range, you just had to dodge the bikes and hope that they avoided you too. On arrival in Saigon we decided to have a second birthday celebration for Olly. The official celebration had been fun, but lacking in the company that Olly would have liked (we were the last in the only bar on Phu Quoc beach by midnight, when we were sent off to bed). This celebration was slightly more sophisticated - think imported Australian steak and gorgeous French red wine at a very authentic French bistro. Some of the fine things that the French brought to Vietnam. The mean set us back a whopping $120, extortionate by Vietnamese standards, but was worth every penny! We continued the celebrations in slightly more backpacker styles at an Ozzy bar in the backpacker district.

Our first full day in Saigon was spent on a walking tour. We visited the fine art museum, wondered through markets and streets full of everything from fake designer clothes to antiques harking of luxurious colonial living, the museum of Ho Chi Min City and the Reunification Palace - a Gucci art deco palace which Olly took an immediate liking to. On several occasions he exclaimed "this is what I want my house to be like!" He particularly enjoyed pushing all the buttons on the ancient computers and communications tech downstairs in the war bunker.

We finished our tour with a visit to the War Remnants Museum - a memorial to the atrocities committed in Vietnam by the US. As well as tanks, planes and bombs left behind by the Americans, the museum houses harrowing accounts and images of the war, the crimes against humanity and the continuing genetic defects inflicted by Agent Orange. It was a dark place which left us both feeling thoroughly disgusted with humanity. Whilst the museum tells only one side of the story (that of the Vietnamese), it was hard not to leave feeling revolted by the US's indiscriminate approach to the war.

The following day we went to see the Chu Chi tunnels where the Viet Cong famously held out against the US invasion, living in a rabbit warren on tiny tunnels filled with booby traps and all their living conveniences. We were the only people in our tour group to make it to the end of the narrow winding tunnel which tourists could crawl through to get an idea of what it would have been like for the Viet Cong. It was hot, claustrophobic and uncomfortable. When I can I'll post some photographs. We also got to try our hand at firing an AK47 (at least I think that's what it was! Olly was more excited about that bit than me!)

Dalat, The Central Highlands

On the 28th we headed out of Saigon on the morning bus to the highlands. The winding bus journey took 5 hours - a comfortable experience on the whole apart from the fact that Vietnamese, used to travelling everywhere by motobike, do not have the stomachs for coach journeys. We had at least two people sitting around us who spent the journey throwing up.

Dalat is beautiful. It's a favourite honeymoon destination for the Vietnamese and was once a holiday destination for the French colonialists. As a result it's a mixture of OTT kitch and Alpine ski resort. It's hard to explain, but the flower garden complete with bushes and flowers grown into the shape of animals probably said it all. I felt like a kid who had arrived in Disney Land for the first time. We spent a very amusing day exploring the town on a tandem bicycle (we only argued once!) which included a ride on a swan shaped pedalo across the lake and a visit to a very Alice-in-Wonderland-esk guesthouse known as "the Crazy House". The owner, a French trained architect has let her imagination run wild to create something totally out of this world. You'll see what I mean when I can post the photos...!

We also explored the town's bustling night market selling all the local produce, crazy food and pretty much all the clothes you could think of. Olly brought a North Face jacket for $50 - very authentic!

Day 2 in Dalat, we took an Easy Rider tour of the highlands. Each on the back of an impressive motorbike, we were whisked through the picturesque countryside to visit local villages, tribes, waterfalls and small cottage industries. Our trip included visiting the flower farms - row upon row of green houses full of amazing colourful farms, a noodle factory, an incense factory and a silk factory. We also stopped at a coffee farm and tried weasel coffee i.e. coffee made from coffee beans which have been digested and then pooed out by weasels. It tasted surprisingly good. Olly didn't try the aphrodisiac rice wine aka "Happy Water" through, despite our guide, Duc's, encouragement.

Day 3 was probably the closest we've come to the elements on our trip so far. We'd booked ourselves onto a 'scenic' mountain bike ride through the highlands north of Dalat. We found out later that the ride is also known as the "Crazy 8". It turned out to be more strenuous, wet and frightening than either of us (or our guide) had expected. Right at the highest point of the ride through the forest on single track paths a typhoon blew in. To start with it rained like someone was tipping buckets of water out of the sky. Then the lightening, followed immediately by thunder started right over our heads, accompanied by a howling wind. In hindsight it was quiet comical, but as the path turned into a raging torrent of water, there was not much we could do but keep going. We did take shelter for a few minuets behind the trunk of a pine tree, but that's not really the best place to be during a thunder storm. To make matters worse, the paths that weren't rivers, were knee deep in mud. We had to keep stopping to clean it off our brakes which became pretty ineffectual. We both fell off our bikes once. I toppled into a mud bath before the rain even began. Olly went flying off a narrow path and down a bank into the trees. I was above him and just saw the tire of his bike flying through the air. We both made it back in one piece - despite looking very muddy and bedraggled, much to the local's amusement. By the end of the 33km odyssey we were both totally knackered.

We left Dalat yesterday, feeling that we could have definitely stayed of longer, and headed for the coast. We're now in Nha Trang, another holiday favourite for the Vietnamese, and the Russians. It has a beautiful beach complete with water park and jet skis. Last night proved a bit messy thanks to the 'free cocktails for girls' policy at the bar we went to. We're leaving tomorrow to head north to a less touristic part of the coast.

Jo