Just as I get to thinking I have this travelling thing sussed, a week like this comes up and takes me by surprise. You'll have seen the slightly eery picture of Nick making his way from Laos to the Vietnam border, well we've still not seen sunshine since they day previous to that.
After getting arriving into Hanoi (the Northern capital of Nam - unofficial) we were thrust into carnival celebrations as the national football side had beaten Malaysia in the SEA (South East Asia) Games, we ate atop a balcony watching as hundreds of motorbikes buzzed about with bright Red flags emblazoned with the communist yellow star. After dinner, the group we’d met along the way showed us one of the Hoi beer drinking locales. Here you can get draught beer for very little money… (about 15p a glass) the only
drawback is that you’d need to drink about 10 pints to get the same effect as 2 or 3 regular beers! After a few of those, we navigated the confusing road system of Hanoi’s ‘Old Quarter’ until we stumbled upon Minhs Jazz club – nice.
We awoke the next day and planned to blitz the cities sites. After stocking our daypacks with the largest Croissants I ever ate, we trotted around the shops nearby our hotel. It was the first visual reminder for me that we’re fast approcahing the festive season – with some shops selling all sorts of seasonal tack. We made it to the cities main lake and visited the temple on an island there – I caught a legless guy with his hand in my pocket trying to steal my cash, I was gonna have to keep a watchful eye from now on! We walked on to the temple of literature, here there were a series
of courtyards each with it’s own characteristics. After this we wasted money on getting a cab to the ‘Nam airforce museum – it had been closed for the past 8 months – nice of the cab driver to let us know! So, back across town and we checked in at the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ – the name given by Americans to the prison used since French colonial days and during the more recent war. All of the articles there bragged about how well the Americans POWs were treated during there stays… I’m not too sure how much of that to believe!
The next day we awoke to more grey skies, though the temperature was still fine. We jumped on a tour bus destined for Ha Long bay, a huge area off of the North East coast of Vietnam preserved by internation heritage. Upon arrival, we were sat at lunch with a group of Koreans. Chop sticks were the weapons of choice as they served up Octopus, Rice and other unknown delicacies. You could see the Koreans chuckling to themselves as we fumbled to get used to the sticks. They took pity and gave us a crash course lesson though. We took a cruise across the bay checking out the breath taking rock features before arriving at some of the huge caves. Some great lighting inside the caves made them seem
really mystical – the caves in general would really be a great venue for a party!
As the days temperature cooled off we jumped back on board our cruiser and headed for a floating fishery. A family lived on board a floating raft that hauls in crabs, fish and all sorts of crustaceans. We had the option to pick ourselves a snack and have it cooked fresh on our boat. Having never eaten crab, we figured to give it a shot. It was a pretty surreal experience there at the fish place, as we arrived, it encouraged several row boats full of fruits, veg and Oreo’s! Some of the rowers were kids about 5yrs old.
I spent the evenings dinner session still getting my butt kicked by the Koreans using chopsticks, though I reckon I was getting better. To re-gain some pride, we gave them a lesson at pool in the hotels roof top bar.
The next day should have been us jumping into the beautiful blue waters of Halong Bay, sadly the weather was still grey, and the temperature had dropped considerably. So we headed back for Hanoi instead. We got in some traditional Vietnamese quisine – ‘Cha Ca’; a fishy dish served in a bowl atop hot coals to keep it sizzling the entire meal, very tasty. Later that evening, it started to rain. Forest Gump had it right on the mark; it just didn’t stop – at all…
We took the bus South next day to Hue, in the pouring rain. The only reason for our visit here was to look at the old DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone), the dividing line between old North and South Vietnam. We arrived in Hue too late that day to take a tour bus there so our only option was to rent motorcycles and make the 105km trip ourselves… in the rain.
We gave it our best shot, for 50km’s we battled against the monsoon, rain coming from above, below and even sideways! Eventually though, my visor-less helmet just wasn’t enough and we headed back without seeing the Zone… maybe next time. We tracked down a backpackers bar, and to console ourselves after the days failure, we played pool, ate food and drank lots of beer. With the heavens still pouring, we had to figure out a way of getting back to our accomodation. As is the custom in Hue, a cheeky chappy on every street corner was waiting with his bike with a kind of cradle on the front. It had a plastic bubble on it, and even though we’re sure they’re only meant to take 1 person, we squeezed our drunken-selves in and pointed our way home.
Next morning, we unsurprisingly overslept – our 7.45am bus was outside as we awoke at 7.53! After throwing all our gear in to our bags, we managed to catch our day bus destined for Hoi An.
Again, we travelled through the pouring rain, arriving in what at first looked like another Vietnamese town. We knew it was famed for it’s cheap tailoring, but hadn’t expected quite so many tailors to be lining the streets. Apparantly there are over 200 in this town – every one offering a fully tailored suit from as little as $35 US. We bought umbrellas and then set upon finding someone to make us our new threads.
After ordering these, we sat a little down-trodden with the relentless rain still pouring down.
We awoke to a surprise… the rain was gone! The roads were dry(ing)! And our new suits and shirts were ready to have their first fittings. After we’d ordered our adjustments, we took a stroll around the town and found it to be really quite nice, a river running through was home to all sorts of traditonal Vietnamese custom. The market definitely one of the quirky highlights.
It was finally time to go pick up our new suits. I wasn’t really too sure what I was going to do with mine – I still have at least 4months until I work again, but I was pleased to slip into something other than shorts and T-shirt for once.
With fairer weather now in sight, we jumped on a night bus destined for Nha Trang – the Vietnamese, snorkelling and diving capital…
The turkey, brandy and spring rolls have now since been digested. The firework mess cleared up. The decorations dropped quicker than the needles off a Tesco value Christmas tree and now everyone is gearing up towards the new year celebrations.
What a surprise when some of the local lads challenged us to a 3-a-side football match! Coconuts for goalposts, sand and shingle tearing the skin off the top of your feet... ah isn't it, aren't they... ahh We had to throw in the towel at 6-6 as our pink English feet could no longer take the salt quite literally being rubbed in the wound. The 2nd leg may follow on tomorrow, though I doubt we'll ever see a home advantage!
We found a sneaky, sandy road that shortcut away from the main route. Along the way, we discovered a few huge Khmer arch ways and saw some amazingly coloured butterflies.
We pulled in at another small monument overlooking a large (possibly man-made) lake. More surprisingly, bumping into the two women we'd met whilst elephant riding in Thailand!
