Vietnam: What an ending

This is when we had a bit of a run of bad luck. We left our hotel in Hoi An rather hung over and arrived at Da Nang airport to some confusion. Our flight was scheduled for 16.15 but all the boards were showing it as leaving at 22.20, strange, nowhere did it say delayed. Everyone else around seemed to be just as confused as we were, so we followed the crowd and joined the que to check in in the hopes of being enlightened. 

We waited over an hour in this que which wasn't very long just very slow moving. This would not be such an issue had the yager (jagermeister) shenanigans of last night not been sending waves across us every few minutes and further unaided by little tit bits of information filtering through the que! Basically our flight and the next were delayed until 22.20. Instead of updating the board as such they explained the situation to everyone individually so everyone in the que could have their own moan, the stewart at the desk would then apologise and go and see if there were seats available with other airlines, a pointless exercise which only kept us in the que longer.

We listened as the two ladies in front of us discussed how this always happened with this bloody airline, "like, seriously this happened the last five times with bloody Jetstar!!" This leaves you to wonder why a person would choose to book with the same airline given that there are a number of budget air lines available. Having gotten to the desk, they took the dumb route and were in a desperate situation as the woman's imaginary daughter was getting married in the morning and they simply must be allocated another flight! Good effort, but to no advantage.

When we finally reached the desk we were informed of the delay but to compensate us for the inconvenience we were given a meal voucher for the airport restaurant and a discount for our next flight with jetstar. Great! At this point we only had 6 hours to hang about. There were several flights delayed so we decided to head straight to the airport restaurant and nab a seat before the rest of the crowd followed and reconsider our original plan. 

The original plan was to get to Saigon early and possibly get straight on a night bus to Cambodia or failing that head to the Saigon Inn where we'd stayed previously and arrange a bus through them for first thing in the morning. With no other option we decided we'd better just book the hotel and sort our onward travel in the morning, great idea if the bloody internet worked at the airport! Besides not being able to book a hotel 6 hours with no internet to entertain us made for a very long wait.

We chatted for a while with some other passengers before ordering our free meal. Despite the restaurant serving several different dishes we were given the option of "chicken" noodle soup or "beef" noodle soup with a bottle of water. Unfortunately it appeared to be parts of animals you don't normally find in food! The soup was more oil than water and confirms quite the theory that there is no such thing as a free meal. Realising that we were in the airport for some time yet it seemed logical not to spend our time in the bathroom so we tasted it and left it and the restaurant. 

After some time to recover our appetite and with few other options in the check-in area for food we decided on a change of scenery and went through to departures where thankfully we found a burger king. Despite the portion sizes being much smaller than we're used to it was very edible and the first real fast food we'd had in weeks. At this stage we'd had an update on the flight and learned we were delayed by another hour which made us a little nervous about the time we were finally going to arrive in Saigon.

The hotel we intended to stay in didn't operate a 24hr reception and while we were familiar with the area we were heading to we didn't fancy trying to find an alternate at 12 at night so we thought we'd try and call the hotel and make a booking in the hopes that they'd stay open until we arrived, but how to make that call. 

Our mobile for some reason while we were in Vietnam wouldn't connect to a network so we thought a pay phone, obvious right, wrong! The airport didn't have payphones and thinking about it I'm not sure they exist in Vietnam, all the currency is in notes so I'm not sure how they'd work. Anyway we thought it was jetstars fault we were in this mess so we went to their desk and thankfully they made the call for us and the hotel agreed to wait for us. 

All we'd left to do now was wait. We were eventually the last flight to leave the airport at around 11.30 that night and finally arrived at the hotel just after 1 for a sleep before rising early to organise our onward travel. 

On waking the next morning I went straight down to reception to organise a bus to Ha Tien, the most straight forward route back to Kampot. Luckily there was availabilty on a bus at 12.30 which gave us time to shower and eat before boarding, great until the next incident accurrred. 

I headed back to our room to have a shower and instead of unpacking my bag to get to everything I used the sachets of shower gel and shampoo provided by the hotel, bad idea. Struggling to open the first sachet I used my teeth and broke my front crown! (I've had a front crown for 17 years after breaking my tooth playing hockey) I was devastated, what was I going to do. It had broken in three and left me with a stump as a front tooth.

Thankfully after calming me down Shane took hold of the situation, cancelling the bus which we hadn't yet paid for thank God and getting the details of a dentist which the hotel recommended. After getting myself together off we went.

Unfortunately the dentist the hotel had recommended was closed but we'd passed some on the way so left the taxi with Shane doing all the talking while I stood there with my hand over my mouth. The first place we tried after showing them the problem were very eager to help and even drew pictures of a new tooth and also wrote the cost alongside. Suspicious of the lack of talking and artistic display, Shane took the piece of paper and wrote "any English??" The response was not verbal, just a sorry looking head shake! Whilst having no English on its own could never be a detriment to the ability to do a job, not being able to quickly and effectively communicate with someone in this position is definitely a deal breaker so we left to try another. 

The second place we tried looked like a dental hospital but we couldn't find anyone to speak to believe it or not. Shane tried speaking to the security guard but he presumably had no English either as the only response received was the all encompassing twist of the hand so we carried on up the street.

The third place we got lucky. The young girl on the desk had perfect English and shows me to the treatment room. I did get a little nervous at this point, was she the dentist? She looked about 18 definitely not old enough to be qualified. Thankfully a much older man arrived, fortunately he was the dentist and appeared to have good English and a friendly attitude. With Shane standing at the viewing window arms folded intently studying the dentist, he explained that he'd examine me and then explain my options which put me at ease. A half hour later he'd prepped what was left of my original tooth, taken the impressions needed for me to return the following day for the new crown to be fitted.

Disaster averted we got some lunch and considered our options to get back to Kampot in Cambodia. Our visas were about to expire in two days but we didn't really want to leave the following day in case there was any issues with the crown but didn't want to over stay our visa and make things complicated at the border so we decided to book a bus for the last day on our visa and hope for the best. 

If only it was that simple, we didn't realise, and we should of given how much we'd learnt about the Vietnam war while in Vietnam but there was a three day holiday coming up. This meant there was no available buses going to Hat Tien until at least the 1st May. Our options were to go via Phnom Penh or over stay our visas so reluctantly we opted for Phnom Penh. Decision made the agent tried to make the booking but there was nothing available! Could we have any more bad luck! After explaining our predicament wearing our best sad faces, the agent made a few more calls and managed to get us on a bus but it wouldn't be a sleeper bus. We could live with that, it wasn't that long a journey and it was early in the morning and would eliminate visa issues.

Plans made we went back to hide in our room or at least that's what I was doing for the afternoon. Unfortunately I had to eat so that night we went for dinner and bumped into Shane´s ´snuggle buddy´ Ben from the night bus and his other half Emily (you might remember Ben who we mentioned in our Hue post). After a beer or two we then met another couple we'd spent some time with at the airport in Da Nang and had two more beers as you do before heading back to the hotel where we had yet more bad luck.

Our hotel was down an alley and didn't have 24hr desk so on arriving at the hotel we had to ring the bell. While waiting for the door to be answered disaster struck and my bag was snatched. The guy cut the strap and before I knew what had happened he was off. Shane took off after him but it was a futile exercise, the alleys are like a maze and he had the upper hand. On the bright side which I couldn't quite see at the time he didn't get much, thankfully we always separate everything and Shane had the bulk of our money but he did get my bank card which was another drama to sort out. 

Once we got over the fright of what happened we went about phoning the bank to cancel the card. We asked to use the hotel phone as our mobile didn't work only to find you couldn't dial international numbers from their phone, ridiculous if you ask me! I then had a brain wave and thought we can put credit on our Skype account but even that wasn't straight forward. 

We logged on and went about adding credit only to be told that because of our location the option wasn't available. At this stage we'd no choice but to call home on viber, explain our predicament and ask for them to put credit on our account. We were then finally able to call the bank and calm ourselves down enough to get some sleep. 

The following day we didn't do very much before heading to the dentist. After much pushing and pulling my crown was finally fitted and I was pleasantly surprised. It looks as good if not better than what I originally had. With a sigh of relief we were able to head back and pack up to finally move on the following day. 

Our final journey in Vietnam thankfully was incident free and we arrived in Phnom Penh that evening checked in to a hotel for the night and then straight on to Kampot the following day where we could relax and take in everything that had happened over the last few days.

Vietnam conclusion
Despite the ending we had to our visit to Vietnam we did enjoy it and both Halong Bay (despite the mist) and the Hai Van pass were real highlights on our travels so far and we met some great people. It's a much more developed country than you might think and has really embraced the tourist industry but not always in a good way. Scams await you everywhere and unlike India in a lot of ways are well disguised. There must be more travel agents than anywhere in the world especially in Hanoi but they're not always legit. 

We also learnt a lot about the Vietnam war and its long term effects still present today. War is pointless and the more I've learnt about the Vietnam war the more I realise just how pointless it was. It should never have happened, but the Vietnamese are very resilient. While the country may be poor in parts it's never squalid and as a race they've come out the otherside of some serious atrocities, the village at the Vinh Moc Tunnels being a case in point.

The Vietnamese are very social and like to party and there are karaoke bars everywhere. The bar scene particularly in Hanoi and Saigon is huge where people sit on little plastic stools on the street outside the often just an open shop front with a beer tap or cooler.

Vietnam was the first space where we struggled a bit with food. Their food is quite basic and lacks flavour but they serve a type of fish sauce with most dishes. If your on the coast and like seafood however there's plenty of fresh options to choose from. The best food we had was in Hoi An which is probably to be expected given its largely a tourist town. For coffee lovers though Vietnam is the place to be, it's very strong so beware.

Other things I'll take away from Vietnam is that there is nothing that cannot be transported on a motor bike. Across Asia you'll see everything and anything being taken on a moto but I think some of the funniest things we've seen have been in Vietnam. A 20ft. ladder being dragged along by the driver with his foot through the top rung, a whole family on the back with a babyseat to the front for the youngest and even uncaged animals balancing happily on the back. 

There's nothing that can't be put in a plastic bag either, soup, coconut milk absolutely anything, the bag is filled and tied with a straw in the knot for you to drink the liquid. 

One big irritant while in Vietnam was the ATMs, because everything was so cheap most bank machines would only allow a maximum withdrawal of 2,000,000 dong which is about £55. This means you use them more and are consequently charged a currency fee and a charge for using your card abroad which can add up over a month especially when you consider how far the charges will get you here.

It really is a very beautiful country with some breathtaking scenery and has so much to offer the world. It definitely should be on everyone's list for a visit and unfortunately the sooner the better as is the running theme in South East Asia it is changing fast and not entirely for the better.

Hoi An

Hoi An

This trip would be a nice easy 4-5 hour bus ride compared to our previous bus treks and thankfully we arrived in Hoi An still in daylight allowing us to leave the bus and the army of relentless tuk tuk drivers and guest house reps behind. After a rather warm 15 minute walk we arrived at our hotel. The hotel was really nice too with a pool, basically a brand new building so the rooms were a really good standard too. It was situated roughly halfway between the old town centre and the beach with the hotel providing free bicycles we could be at either side in less than 10 minutes.

After a much needed swim we headed towards town for dinner and a drink. It was very noticeably hotter here than in Hue both day and night with figures averaging 35 in the day and between 28 & 32 at night. When we got to the old town we just walked down the street towards the riverfront and enroute we were stopped by a lady in formal attire just repeatedly stating "ticket", not really knowing what to make of this I carried on walking however the lady became quite insistent and then Geri; "hmm...........ya actually i remember reading something about this somewhere, yeah we have to buy tickets". There is indeed a ticket system in place for the old town part of Hoi An! I must confess to having a little difficulty processing the fact that we would have pay to walk down the street!! Thankfully my inately irish utterance was heard but not understood, "hmm better be a damn good feckin street for this feckin craic!!"

It's a good job it didn't disappoint as it really is such a nice experience on the old town streets and riverfront. With the majority of the buildings retaining their traditional architecture (19th and 20th century), two storey buildings. Among the many many tailors and tourist orientated shops in the narrow lane streets were lots of religious buildings, such as temples and pagodas, etc., including meeting/assembly houses in which public meetings were held by the local 'clans' there to discuss all current matters of the time. The traditional lifestyle, religion, cooking and customs of this city which originated as a port community have been well preserved with lots of festivals taking place there annually.   

*Just as a side note on the tickets' thing:
Purchase of a ticket does actually entitle you to free entry into five of the sights within the old town and part of the concept was "the money from the tickets is used to support and maintain the old town as it is.

Familiar thirst quenching god send.
After spending the day doing not very much at all we headed into town late evening for a meal in the famous restaurant, The Mermaid. It was by far the busiest place in the old town with tables hard to get as 'walk ins' we were lucky to be seated straightaway and enjoyed some delicious Vietnamese cuisine nicely washed down with some ice cold beer. It was by far the hottest, most humid night of our travels given a quick temperature check on the way back at 10pm showed a whopping 32 degrees with 'real feel' being 36 and a humidity level of 86%!! We stopped at a convenience store for a bottle of water and as we both reached the fridge at the back of the store from either side of its one aisle we opened it, looked in, looked at eachother and both assumed that we were suffering hallucinations from the heat?! Having closed the doors and taking a moment we peered in through the condensation on the doors and once again saw the most miraculous sight, It was a familiar colour bottle with a very familiar label...............MAGNERS CIDER!!

Excitedly we picked up two each, got to the counter and paid and before heading for the door got the nice man behind the counter to free the bubbles of the amber nectar that I sadly missed on my travels as this side of the world has yet to discover cider, yet alone proper cider. As there was a table and chairs on the street outside the door, we sat and drank our bottles marvelling at the taste of one of the best cold drinks on a hot day or in fact night. They disappeared quickly so we decided another one each for the rest of the walk to the hotel was not too much and even shortened the road. This would not be a one time deal during our stay in Hoi An as we may have enjoyed just one or two more visits to the most convenient store ever.

Familiar faces.
Having known before we left that some friends of ours would be in Hoi An on holiday at this time we kept in touch, confirmed their arrival and were very happy to arrange going out for dinner and drinks. Dawn and Steve, Dawn is a former work colleague of mine and her partner Steve did the plastering work in our house. They arrived to our hotel and we were delighted to see familiar friendly faces in such a far away place, we strolled into town and decided oddly enough on an Indian restaurant as we had been told by another guest at our hotel that their food was really good. It did not disappoint at all, it had been a while since our trip to India and I had nearly forgotten how much I love their food.

Everyone enjoyed their meal and a sociable tipple afterwards before we headed off to a bar to have a few more. Steve seemed to attract quite a bit of attention in town as his physique bears some similarities to Buddha and with an admirable level of patience he smiled and laughed at the locals patting his belly and calling him "ahh lucky Buddha". We really enjoyed a catch up with these guys and probably bored them to tears with stories of our travels to date.

We agreed that we should have round two before we left Hoi An and did exactly that the night before we left Hoi An for Da Nang airport and our flight back to Saigon. Another amazing night was had by all before wishing eachother a fond farewell and safe onward travels.

Having been to town we decide on the opposite direction today for the beach. As the hotel provided free bicycles we figured that was quicker than walking in the searing heat. After about 10 minutes enjoying the short wheel base bicycle experience (after the tandem disaster in Da Lat only further reinforcing by now firm belief that tandems are an idiotic unnecessary, quite frankly evil monstrosity!) we arrived by the main entrance to the beach.

Taking us completely off guard was the ambush of vendors calling to us and pointing to what appeared to be their own individual, garage sized plots of land?! When we attempted to confer as to what this was all about we were interrupted by the most persistent lady resulting in Geri having to take action; very calmly and serenely returning the lady, verbally of course to her metaphorical box in a most beautiful way leaving no doubt to the rest of them that we needed a moment here. Having received our moment we concluded that these plots were in fact "pay and display" parking! You have to again marvel at the ingenuity of the situation, there's literally nowhere else to put the damn things as they are not allowed on the beach and luckily they are there to solve the problem.

Having 'paid and displayed' (ain't no time printed windows stickers here, it's all about a chalk number on your saddle, which if you don't remember to wipe off will leave you looking like a literally numbered idiot some time later in the day) we head on to the beach and yet another ambush, this time for sun beds for the different beachfront restaurants, long story short: "you eat, you sit free".

Despite the ambushes and hawkers, the beach is definitely worth it. The creamy coloured sand hot enough to burn your feet meaning that most people including us, ran quite quickly between the gently lapping turquoise waves and very necessary bamboo parasols providing shade. Stunning views, insane temperatures, long beach and not too many people along it makes it very easy to see why Hoi An is becoming such a popular holiday destination from everywhere in the world.

Geri went for a dip, (I'm still dealing with jelly-fish issues) and read for a while and I went for stroll up the beach at the shore line to try to retain most of the skin on my feet. It really is a very enticing and when there is nobody being ambushed a very peaceful place. We had lunch and decided that we had probably had enough scorching morning sun so we retrieved our bicycles, wiped our saddles and headed back towards the hotel. (Ha! I bet you all thought that because I said it earlier that we were those numbered idiots........ Well, no as we had already seen a few branded backsides and no longer wondered why!)

As we stayed in Hoi An for a week we enjoyed some time to catch up with ourselves physically and enjoyed that time including a full day by and in the pool in the hotel, few beers some snacks and even a bottle of wine, not a bad way to wile away another scorching hot day.

The Hai Van Pass (Another Top Gear inspired adventure)
We hired a moto from a lady who had quite cleverly set up a little stall across the road from the hotel selling western snacks, cold drinks and cigarettes. She had told us that we wouldn't need to put any more than 100,000 vietnamese dong (£3 approx) petrol in it as that would be loads. As we were short on dong until we got to an Atm we said we would put in 50,000 dong and get money and more fuel in Da Nang (approximately 40km north of Hoi An). We went to a local station, asked for 50,000, paid and the "very helpful" attendant put in what seemed like too little and put the fuel cap back on! I looked at the pump and as it only showed 5,000 I reiterated 50,000 and his response was to say yes, reset the pump and then end of conversation because you can't argue if you can't prove it! Reluctantly deciding what we'd lost probably wasn't worth getting locked up for assault on the smug little git, we carried on for Da Nang.

When we got there we refuelled the bike and our water supply and headed for Hai Van with our ultra basic and fundamentally useless map. Following the directions, we came to a T junction that didn't exist on the map we were a little unsure which way to go however having been stopped on the corner less than a minute a lady came out of her shop and said "Hai Van Pass?" We confirmed her suspicion and gratefully headed in the direction she pointed us in.

As we got to the bottom of the mountain road we could see the climb ahead of us but thankfully the road seemed quite and we ventured up. Not very long into the climb we passed a collection of large American style articulated lorries stopped on the road with drivers milling about with ropes and chains. My assumption was the one of the lorries  had stopped for some reason and was unable to pull off again given how steep the road was. We carried on climbing and stopped at a safe point to properly take in the view we now had, take some snaps and drink a little water. The heat was such that our five minute stop with no shade had left the black vinyl seat of the moto untouchably hot however our options were to just leave it get hotter still or toast our backsides and carry on.

With very toasty posterior's we continued to climb continuing to be distracted by the absolutely incredible views. We did start to wonder how far we should go with 'switchback' after 'switchback' (hair pin bends to us) and the moto feeling even less enthusiastic with the altitude. We were so glad we continued as when we got to the top we were rewarded with some of the most beautiful views I have ever witnessed on all sides. As with everything beautiful in this part of the world there are always entrepreneurial opportunities for locals to make some money. On arrival at the highest point there is a sort of lay-by with a dozen or so make shift 'cafes' and shops with a catcher running out of each one telling you park in the shade of their 'cafes', they'll help you with photos and of course offer cold drinks and snacks. Again given the heat a cold drink was absolutely a god send, we took some  photos, took in the view and reluctantly decided we should descend and make our way back. The descent was just as exhilarating as the climb leaving me wholly disappointed that we were not riding a proper bike (as opposed to our 125cc moto).

Unfortunately our return to Da Nang was not straight forward as the roads were twice as confusing coming back. We picked a direction and drove for longer than I'm willing to admit before deciding that we should be pretty much back in Hoi An by now never mind not actually at Da Nang! Very hot and bothered we turned around and with a lot of guessing and one or two more u-turns we were delighted to recognise being back in Da Nang made even better by knowing the road back to Hoi An and heading straight for it. After pretty much all day on this moto we opted for a change of rider and swapped seats for the last of the journey back, still sat on it but at least in a different position. What a day but worth every frustrating little moment during the day as it is one of the most memorable trips of my life and will be forever with me.

After a week here we finally moved on and started to make our way way back to Cambodia, via Saigon by plane which is where things started to go wrong.

Hue

The Dreaded Night bus took 16hrs but wasn't too bad. Our pick up was very late as usual which meant that we were pretty much the last people on the bus which meant we got the back seat but the top bunk. The bus had a toilet on board which meant the back seat was three seats along side each other which we were to have to ourselves but that didn't last long. 

The bus crew included a drunk (he was meant to be of the very attentive stewards!) who tried to get into the spare seat in our bunk. He'd been bothering some other passengers on the bus and was sleeping on the floor until he realised there was a spare seat along side us. He tried several times to get up along side us but there was no way we were having it, we didn't want him to get sick all over us! He eventually fell asleep on the floor again but woke up and started bothering a passenger (Ben) who in the end actually left his seat to sleep on the floor in the other aisle until he realised there was a spare seat along side us. 

With Ben along side us and the danger of our steward joining us gone we could eventually get comfortable and managed to get a few hours sleep. Shane slept for a while and had chatted with Ben, maybe too much as in the early morning  Ben whilst asleep put his arm round him! Ben realised what he was doing however when his arm met Shanes beard and woke with a fright waking me in the process. Quite amusing!

During the 16hrs the bus only stopped once at about 10 the night before which meant by the time we got to Hue we were more than happy to disembark but it was hot! We arrived about 11 to the usual onslaught of tuk tuk drivers. For probably the first time we walked away from them all and headed to the KFC by the station to gather ourselves before heading to our hotel. 

Having checked the GPS we decided to walk to the hotel which wasn't far or at least it wasn't far according to Google Maps! I don't think they've any idea how to measure distance on this side of the world! We eventually got there, checked in and headed straight for the pool.

The reason we'd come to Hue was to see the DMZ (demilitarized zone) and the Phong Nha caves which were going to have to be seen by an organized tour which I'm not a fan of but sometimes you've no choice. I much prefer to work to my own timetable and I was reminded why on the first tour. 

We chose to do the caves first, these were a bit of a drive away, 4 hours to be exact so we were picked up very early at 6.30 with a takeaway breakfast courtesy of the hotel and off we went but we didn't get far. We were brought to the otherside of town and left at a restaurant to have breakfast, we could of had another hour in bed! We eventually set off in the minivan around 7.30 having picked up the last passenger, a rather irritating French woman who had to have her own set of instructions from the very rude tour guide at every turn. It wasn't that she didn't understand English, her English was perfect it was more a case of I'm special and should be addressed separately. Everything had to be repeated, I'm surprised the tour guide answered her he was so rude but he did but shouted even louder.

The drive while long wasn't bad, we'd a decent driver for a change but myself and Shane ended up sitting in the front seat somehow which wasn't all that comfortable so we were glad when we got there. First stop was lunch which was quite early but given our early start we were ok with this, little did we know it would be a long time before we ate again.

Once our guide had finished his lunch we were roared at to get back in the minivan, it didn't matter that some hadn't finished, he was finished and that was that. We all followed instructions for fear of being left behind he was so impatient with the exception of the French woman. She'd to use the ladies which she should have done while waiting for lunch she was told but he agreed to wait anyway. 

A short spin and half of us were hunted off the bus and told to wait. We were left at the boat station. The were two caves to see but with the distance to get here you can only see one and we'd chosen Phong Nha cave and the other half of the bus were off to see the other, Paradise cave. Paradise cave is a dry cave where as the Son river runs through Phong Nha and is seen by boat which we thought would be a bit different hence our choice. 

After about a 20 minute wait which we spent fending off touts selling their wares we boarded a long narrow boat. Shane and myself were the last to board which meant we got the front seats, great we thought until the French woman came and sat in mine, separating myself and Shane, very rude. I ended up half ways down the boat on my own very annoyed! 

The boat trip took about 30 minutes down the Son river with beautiful views of the mountains and plenty of buffalo in the river before we arrived at the mouth of the cave. They cut the engine here and two people, one front, one back paddle the boat through the cave.

It's a surreal experience to float through the enormous caverns some of which are up to 40 meters high but you do feel like your on a tourist conveyor belt. You can only travel about 1500meters into the cave before caverns become too narrow for the boats which turn around quickly to bring you back towards the entrance where you can explore the formations by foot before emerging at the return boat station. While the size of the cave is quite impressive we were a bit disappointed when compared to surprising cave in Halong bay and really it probably wasn't worth the 4 hour trip with another 4 to get back. 

We waited patiently in the heat for the rest of the boat to head back. We were all assembled ready to go except for our guide and surprise surprise the French woman. I took the opportunity while waiting to reclaim my seat along side Shane only for the irritating woman to come sit directly in front of me when the boat got going completely blocking my view! I'd like to have thrown her overboard but I'm not as rude as she is! 

Having the French lady in front of us however allowed us to overhear a conversation she had with our guide which wasn't good. She was staying the night in the area to go and see Paradise cave the next day and wanted him to bring her to a good guest house and he agreed, so where did that leave us?!?! Waiting in the heat for over any hour is where!

When he finally came back for us he was not impressed to find that we weren't all ready and waiting exactly where he left us. Id gone to the toilet and emerged to him roaring across the car park at me to come on we were late, never mind that we were late because of him and his side line and just to annoy him I sauntered back.

Finally at about 4.30 we were on the road back or at least we thought we were. It turned out we were taking another detour which was in the complete opposite direction to drop someone off. After the drop off we were finally on our way and starving, remember we had lunch about 11.30 12 so we were expecting a dinner stop on the way back which never happened. We did stop once at a street food type vendor but no one but the guide fancied the egg and veg baguettes on offer so we soldier on and finally arrived back in Hue at 9.30 two and a half hours late! 

Needless to say having had such a day we were a bit nervous about the DMZ tour we'd booked for the following day so before we got any good we went to check that it wasn't with the same tour company. Thankfully it wasn't, we finally got our dinner before hitting the hay ready for another early start the next day.

We were picked up fairly promptly for a change and brought a stone's through away for our complimentary breakfast before the two hour drive to Dong Ha where we had a short stop before picking up our tour guide. Another hour and a half later and we finally reach our first stop the Rockpile which was exactly that. A pile of rocks used as a look out post during the war. After a brief stop for photos we were back on the bus and heading towards the Ho Chi Minh trail.  

We stopped for another 10 minutes at the Dakrong bridge and walked across to the marker of the Ho Chi Minh trail. Nothing remarkable but the bridge itself rebuild in 2001 is a piece of engineering. 

Next stop the the Khe Sanh US base, an uphill struggle for our ancient coach through some minority villages. The driver had to turn the aircon off to give more power to the engine so needless to say we were grateful when we finally arrived. 

Khe Sanh saw one of the bloodiest battles of the war killing over 10,000 Vietnamese and 500 American troops and was destroyed by the US when they abandoned the site. Today its a very remote peaceful place with a small museum some reconstructed bunkers, recovered weaponry and crashed planes and helicopters. After the war remnants museum in Ho Chi Minh we weren't all that impressed but it did explain a bit more about the tribal peoples contribution to the effort.

Back on the bus and we return to Dong Ha for lunch before heading to the Vinh Moc Tunnels, the reason I wanted to do this tour. 

I personally found the tunnels fascinating, to think that nearly 90 families lived in these tunnels for over 6 years rather than leave their village is amazing. There are 3 levels with the deepest being 27 meters deep with 12 different entranceses. The tunnels are just large enough to walk through although some are a little small where even I had to duck to get through and every so often there would be a chamber to the side of the tunnel which is where a family of four would sleep, an incredibly small space for four people.

The network of tunnels included a kitchen, several wells, and even a maternity ward where 17 babies were born dring the war. You might think these chambers would be larger than the sleeping areas but they weren't. After the war the village abandoned the tunnels and continue to live in the area above ground with many still alive today.

After the tunnels we made our way back to Hue via Dong Ha with one quick stop at the Troung Son cemetery, a very sobering place. Thousands of headstones most with the inscription 'martyr' to represent the remains recovered along the Ho Chi Minh trail. The Vietnamese didn't wear dog tags so most of the fallen went unidentified with many never found at all

After a long day we arrived back in Hue on time which meant a quick shower and off to watch the football. 

We'd a nice lie in the next morning before yet another bus ride to Hoi An where we planned to take it easy for a few days.

Halong Bay

Ha Long Bay
Having seen the odd picture and heard very little about this place I was eager to see it but it became a must do after seeing more of it on the Top Gear special. We booked a two day, one night trip meaning leave early morning to get to the pier, board the boat for lunch whilst cruising out to the bay for a visit to 'Surprising cave', kayaking then dinner, drinks and squid fishing as we anchor in the 'sleeping bay'. In the morning then a visit to the Pearl Farm, a cooking class before lunch and then cruise back to the pier for the bus back to Hanoi.

Picked up at the hotel, we get on the bus and as we head out of Hanoi, our tour guide 'Tony' introduced himself giving us a brief history of his credentials and reiterating the itinery. We then all had to introduce ourselves and where we're from if you could understand everyone, not too bad this time, some English, Thai, Scottish and Aussie's. after this the dreaded question came; "does anyone have any special dietary requirements?" After a brief silence and a prompt from Geri, I piped up with the sad fact that I do not eat seafood! This statement was met with a general response of shock and amusement, thankfully my bravery seemed to prompt a Scottish girl to advise that she did not "eat anything with a face" which took the heat off me.

With a little anxiety as to what kind of boat we were about to board for the next 24hrs after hearing many nightmare stories we arrived at the pier and thankfully our Imperial Cruise Junk boat looked pretty good and we were very happy with our cabin equipped with ensuite, air con and a decent double bed. It was quite misty as we cruised out which did impair the view somewhat but you could get a real sense of the dramatic scenery we were approaching. Lunch was good food, primarily seafood and plenty of it with the staff looking after me with an 'alternative' dish of an omelette which kept me happy.

When we reached the bay with 'Surprising cave' we became aware from the sheer volume of similar boats out here just how many people take this trip and evidently how much money was being made by the entrepreneurial people running these tours. The climb to the cave entrance from the tiny dock was considerable but as we climbed we were rewarded with some stunning views of the islands dotted around the bay with the mist starting to lift. This cave is the largest cave open to the public in Ha Long and it is massive with very impressive formations throughout resembling various shapes of animals, people and objects some very obvious and others becoming clearer after being suggested by the ever energetic 'Tony the tiger'. The caves have been adapted with paths and not very strategically placed lighting but it really was a curious place given its height up from sea level and enormous dimensions within the tiny island that housed it. I'll let some photos give you a much better idea of this.

Returning to the boat we cruised to a nearby floating village which is where we picked up our kayaks.  Having been told the direction we could and couldn't go we headed off taking a little time to settle into a rhythm as we had already tried the tandem bicycle this was our first foray into tandem kayaking. Given our lack of experience we opted to leave the camera and passports in the relative safety of the boat. We covered a reasonable distance taking any opportunity to paddle into any little cave openings on the water, a little scary at times but good fun. We even out ran any unspoken attempt by our fellow kayakers feeling the need to race us. On our cruise to the "the sleeping bay" we encountered numerous entrepreneurial ladies rowing between boats with a veritable floating supermarket with beer, wine, and "western snacks" without advertising them, you know the tubes with flavoured chopped and cooked spuds in them. Those ladies must work bloody hard though and were obviously so natural with manoeuvring these well laden boats around with ease.

Time for a hot shower and a beer before dinner, again plenty of good food and a plate of chicken nuggets for 'the child' which kept me quite happy really!

Following dinner we were invited to try squid fishing, now maybe it's just me but if you have seen half the same movies there's a mental image creeping into my mind of me falling backwards into the dark water desperately trying to pull a squid off my face! Most people obviously with either similar mental images or just knew the real story gave it a miss and went onto the top deck for a few beers and to chill out in the glow of all the other cruise boats anchored in 'the sleeping bay'.
It transpired however that my supposed premonition of squid fishing and the reality differ considerably. On hearing calm celebration we looked down to see that by shining a light on the water, using a short hand line that they did indeed catch a squid. The poor victim on the line must have been cursing how easily he was duped by the whole "ooh, look at the shiny light" thing but was not any bigger than my open hand in its entirety and this was the norm! Back to a few more beers and exchanging travellers tales with fellow passengers, some Spanish, German, Australian, Canadian, and a Thai family.

Our boat was quiet in comparison to some of the other boats presumably floating parties but it was nice just to enjoy the location. Unfortunately or conveniently depending on your mood at the time, our boat ran dry of the cheaper beers possibly due to the fact that everyone was drinking it or because the imported beers were more 'cost effective". Everybody suddenly seemed to remember the floating supermarket lady and sure enough it was not long till we heard a low call from the darkness. This lady was not not using a light of any kind and seemed to have ninja like stealth as none of us heard her approach.

Having suggested whiskey might be a good way to go, (yeah.....yeah.....shut up!) I enquired and was unfortunately declined, but she did have wine. I asked how much she put it in a net on a twenty foot pole and handed it all the way up to me! Funnily enough it was a red wine, everybody wanted white! I hold the red out for net whilst asking about white and how much, well as I was talking to her she was already in action responding as the net appeared at my hand with a bottle of white wine! Not thinking this through I am now holding a bottle of red and a bottle of white and the net is gone, this caused terrific amusement among everyone because the lady had no clue why we were slightly baffled and then to realise in my situation that in any case, nobody here has a damned corkscrew!

In hysterics everyone around me incapable of speech for the same reasons left me to deal with this situation of landing two glass bottles into a boat fifteen feet below me! The poor lady still with no more of a clue as to what we were saying as we did when she said something reacted quickly believing we needed to know how much. This was in the form of the net appearing at my hand with 200,000 Vietnamese dong in it! I don't know exactly how or why I took the money out and didn't just put the bottles in but as soon as I took the money the net was back in the boat. Deciding between fits of laughter on a new approach, I requested beer. At last we're moving forward, before I took the beer out of the net I put the wine and money back in there so that it just back to a straightforward transaction; I have beer, she wants money. Thankfully that long story finished amicably, us with beer and her with the money although the laughter continued till bed time. Thankfully a comfortable nights sleep too.

Breakfast was at 7:30am and led us to the Pearl Farm of Ha Long, where they grow and harvest oysters for the obvious reward of the pearls. It was interesting to learn about the process and also interesting to see again first hand just how the human race can intervene in an age long natural cycle to, not mass produce as such, more like play the hand your given in terms of making a living and surviving in a specific type of environment.

We were all awaiting our included "Vietnamese cooking class" on the top deck when the staff started to come up with trays including a covered bowl, rice paper and a wet towel! 'Tony the Tiger' then appeared announcing the class on his way. As he stood in front of the table he explained how "today you will learn to make spring rolls as he uncovered the bowl which contained all the ingredients for vegetable spring rolls all pre prepared and mixed finely in the bowl. He took a sheet of rice paper, laid it on the damp towel, took a spoon of the mix and placed in neatly on the paper. Yes we were learning the "ancient lost cooking technique of rolling pre prepared vegetables in rice paper. Well it's a good job at least everyone rolled two because, funny coincidence we're having spring rolls for lunch. As we dined in our culinary expertise we cruised from the bay back to the harbour for our bus back to Hanoi.

Ha long Bay is genuinely a spectacular place on earth to visit but to anyone who has on their lists of "must do" I would urge you do it soon. Between the worsening rubbish pollution caused mainly by ignorant tourists and the expansions daily to take yet more of them there it will not remain so naturally spectacular for long! Ha Long meaning "Descending Dragon" really

Hanoi

Given the distance and the time that would need to be burned on a bus we looked at flying from Dalat to Hanoi and working our way back down again it. The cost was little more than the bus when you factor in junk food stops so flight it is. 

When we landed in Hanoi we opted for the shuttle bus as opposed to the considerably more expensive taxi option. It was packed but fine for the short transfer and dropped us only 1.5km from our hotel, thank god for GPS eh. As we arrived in the early evening, quick shower and out for food, a drink and a wander. Hanoi is a very busy city with cars, buses and many many bikes milling about again raising the question, how do they not kill eachother? The old quarter of town is really busy and set around a beautiful lake with a clever (yet mainly ignored) one way system around it.

We found an "Irish bar" for food and drink and unfortunately like most but not all of these bars we've encountered on our travels resembles Ireland in only two major things: massively over priced and bugger all Irish working there! (Somewhat inflammatory, admittedly yes......... but the sad truth none the less!)

The next day we headed for the Musuem of Ethnology, being advised that a No.14 local bus would take us within 5 minutes walk this again seemed the more cost effective sensible option but for one very important factor. Where can you get on the bus? This was a question none of the working locals we asked seemed to know or probably understand as everyone had the same smile and utter lack of response. After an hour walking up and down the same street finding stops for every other bus except 14 we at the point of giving up ventured into a travel agent to be told it stops just outside and the sign had disappeared some time ago!

The Musuem was a very interesting and worthwhile visit spending most of the day here learning about the different 'tribes' of Vietnamese people, their customs, languages, clothing and rituals. Also all the different types of houses they lived in including very detailed scale models inside and full scale replicas outside. It certainly made a pleasant change from the museums about the war.

Having wandered around exploring the narrow streets of old town we both came to the same question, why do they put all the shoe shops together, all the hat shops together etc? It was only later we learned that the translation of the street names equated to the wares normally sold on it, shoes sold on Shoe street and hats on Hat street and so on. Everyday is a learning day eh! Having plenty of time in Hanoi we strolled around the Hoan Kiem lake which is apparently home to a giant ancient turtle, Cu Rua. Unfortunately we didn't manage to spot him between refusing vendors offering everything and anything for "cheap price for you, you my friend".

We spent most evenings here drinking cheap beer in street bars, that had tiny little plastic stools about a foot high. The size of the seating means that you can fit so many more people in a much smaller area of footpath and also apparently is a "tax related thing" presumably as they're made of plastic.

We decided whilst here to visit the Hoa Lo Prson aka "The Hanoi Hilton" where captured or downed American pilots were held during the war. This place was also home to many Vietnamese men women and children deemed to be supporting the wrong side mostly incorrectly in any case. Most of the prison has been demolished now with only a small area left with examples of the cells showing the horrible conditions the Vietnamese people were held in. In stark contrast to this there were many images of American soldiers seemingly enjoying themselves playing basketball, board games, music and even decorating a Christmas tree. This is the prison where the former US presidential candidate John McCain was taken after being rescued by Vietnamese locals having been downed by anti aircraft fire. Apparently Mr McCain's version of the events that took place at the 'Hanoi Hilton' differ considerably from that of other US soldiers accounts as well as that which the many afore mentioned images portray. You can research yourself to establish who you would be inclined to believe.

We also managed to fit in a show at the water puppet theatre. Having never previously heard of this genre of puppetry I was curious in any case. With similar seating to any other theatre I have been to, the major difference being the stage. To the left the musicians were positioned above the water where the puppets performed. The show depicted traditional Vietnamese life which we could understand to an extent given it was all in Vietnamese but interesting none the less. I'm still scratching my head as to how they do it!

The next obvious stop after Hanoi was Halong Bay, something we both really wanted to do but we didn't know where our what to book. We really wanted to do the overnight trip for two nights but research had made us nervous about the condition of the boats, stories of rats running around etc. We finally settled on a two day, one night trip thinking one night of horror would be better than having to endure two if we were unlucky. We booked it through our hotel, another safe guard, we had to come back to the hotel before heading on to Hue so thought they'd be less inclined to send us on a rubbish trip for fear of ruining their trip advisor ratings, something that's very important to hotels in Vietnam. 

Our other dilemma before leaving for Halong bay was how to get to Hue. We looked into all our options and found we had none. It was a sleeper bus or nothing. After our last experience in Cambodia we were hoping to avoid another one but we had no choice, it was either book the sleeper bus or skip it and fly straight to Hoi An so we booked it reasoning that it couldn't be as bad as last time. Roads are in better condition than in Cambodia and the buses are much more comfortable. With our plans made for the next few days we packed up ready for our pick up the following morning.

Dalat

Leaving Mui Ne via bus for Dalat we had expected a five hour bus journey to knowing that this would be different to our previous stops based on its location inland and up in the mountains. I for one had vastly under estimated just how high up in the mountains however as the bus just seemed to climb and climb winding it's way up the heavily pot holed roads with my ears actually popping before we had even reached the highest part of the road. Finally we started to level off and actually reached Dalat in at the expected time albeit to a dark and drizzling Dalat.

We jumped in a taxi for the short spin to the hostel and checked in although the young chap seemed surprised to see three of us however just carried on and showed us to our room with two beds before asking if we could do him a favour!! Basically there had been some error with bookings and this was the only room he had left so having brought us up the stairs with our bags he asked if we could please share for one night?  with little other option and it not being any real drama we agreed before a weather dictated change of clothes we heading out for dinner. Very sadly Linda received a call with tragic news just after dinner so we returned to the hostel to organise a return asap so unfortunately we say goodbye to Linda in sad circumstances. RIP Matt Ryan.

We'd had quite a late night that night so myself and Shane had a slow start to the day. We headed towards the centre for some breakfast/lunch but only made it to the bank before the heavens opened. We hadn't seen rain in almost a month and this one shower which lasted about half an hour certainly made up for that! The temperature here only got to 28 degrees but it rained everyday.

Once the rain passed and we were fed and watered we had a wonder round the town which was really nice. Set around a large lake you could see how it could be quite picturesque in the sun. Having orientated ourselves we headed to the crazy house and crazy it is.

It's like something from Alice in wonderland, almost creepy but interesting. It was originally started as a personal project but was opened to the public in 1990 and operates as a hotel with ten rooms each based on a particular animal which is still being added to with the rather eccentric 74 year old Vietnamese lady architect's house in the centre. The whole project is based on illustrations rather than traditional architects drawings and the work has been completed by local craftsmen rather than professional builders. It is a bewildering maze of narrow paths and stairways all the way through the property and often crossing each other either through, over or under. You do need to be pretty sprightly and have reasonable balance for this as some of the paths reach heights of 35 feet up with the sides being little more than 2 feet high meaning "health and safety experts" in western society would have shut this place a long time ago. The pathways are constructed with narrow.gauge steel and concrete and made to look like tree branches up high and tree roots lower down, it is remarkably well done as from 3 feet away you would find it difficult to say they were not.as they appeared. Such a wonderful mind coupled with extraordinary vision and indeed finances have produced this truly marvellous feat of construction.

Having previously received a dinner invitation from the manager of the hostel we tried to prepare ourselves for every eventuality, not knowing whether it would be in his home with his family or a nearby restaurant as the only clue we were given was that it would be genuine Vietnamese food. We appeared at reception at the given time and were somewhat relieved to meet other guests waiting there also. What we had not realised was the manager regularly invites many of his guests for dinner, the idea being that he will guide them all to local 'street food restaurants' to have traditional cheap food and also so that the guests from many different countries can chat and get to know eachother a little. In my opinion a genuinely thoughtful and clever thing for a hostel manager to do.

As there were a number of other guests with bikes and mopeds it was decided we should all go by moto, so with a first name introduction those of us that didn't have bikes were riding pillion and off we went. It was later on we learned that three of the guys (A Brit, a Canadian and a Dutch guy 18 & 19yrs old) who did not know each other at all had met in Saigon whilst purchasing their bikes and as they all intended riding all the way to Hanoi that they might as well go together. None of them had ever ridden never mind owned a bike prior to purchase, they knew nothing of their rather tired steeds stress and did not even have any basic mechanical knowledge but we're all eager to learn. (Note: It is very popular when travelling Vietnam to buy 'back packers bikes' normally very tired 100cc motorbikes that have been to the moon and back. They generally cost $250-$300 dollars and the idea being you sell it to another back packer when you've driven south to North, vice-versa or just can't take it anymore!)

Dinner was interesting, you didn't really know what you were getting just point to what you like the look of and try it! Thankfully it was all vegetarian and pretty good really costing a massive £1.20 per head. We then mounted up and headed for dessert at another location which was fried banana and tapioca, looked horrific (anyone that's seen the film 'There's something about Mary' could probably guess!!) but again pretty tasty. After dropping the bikes at the hostel we headed for a quick beer and chat before bed.

The next day we took a cable car up further into the mountains to see the Truyen Lam lake and Truc Lam Pagoda. The cable car was pretty new and fully enclosed much to my relief. The scenery was spectacular providing views to the city on the way up, mountains and tiny villages at the peak and the lake on the brief but steep descent on the other side.

When we got back we went for a quick lunch deciding that we would rent a moto to see some more of the city and around the lake. As our passport and driving licence were back at the hotel this was not possible however a hair brained notion and 5 minutes later we're on a tandem bicycle! Now I'm not sure if anyone reading this has ever had the experience of a tandem before but my advice for what it's worth; run away, run away quickly! No sooner had we wobbled 100yards when the heaven's opened and rain torrents pounded on top of us, off the bike and into a restaurant to climb into the plastic ponchos which we had cleverly, just in case purchased previously however with the road resembling a white water rafting course we decided to wait out the worst of it.

After about an hour or so all that was left was a light drizzle and much of the rain water now dispersed with the exception of some visible road floods we decided to brave it again. Having gotten somewhat of a rhythm going we headed for the railway station. Besides the fact that it was about 2km uphill it really wasn't worth the effort or continuous swearing and nervous, hysterical laughter that got us there, the best part about it was the return was downhill! This was also a cause of much swearing as the wet had not assisted the already less than reliable braking ability of our very own in line missile even invoking the fleeting thought that at least Geri won't see it coming when we crash through the crossroads at the bottom into the side of a rigid lorry! Having mercifully survived the descent we carried on around the lake through the floods to the impressive, well watered FlowerGardens. On exiting this our 'tandem thought was to return to the rental shop to return this wretched machine and go back to the hostel for a hot shower, beer and dry clothes.

Dinner was a repeat of last night's affair with some of the same and some new participants. Again guessing what the food was but carrying on regardless and ultimately enjoying the food and company before returning to the hostel to pack up and get ready to move on again in morning.