Hoi An

On my first day in Hoi An I woke to find the power was off for the entire street, and despite being reassured it would be on 'soon'it didn't reappear again until 5pm that night. There wasn't much point spending any time in the hotel as my room didn't even have a window so it was lovely and dark. Hoi An is renowned for its Old Town - lots of old buildings and tiny streets leading down to the river. The majority of these shops are tailors and as two of the boys wanted some clothes made we went for a look around. They can make anything here! Absolutely anything... shirts, shorts, dresses, suits, even custom-made shoes! I left Tom and Jimmy debating over watches and headed back to the restaurant we were at the night before to meet up with Danny and Andy to hire bikes. It is cheaper to hire a motorbike here for 24 hours than it is to hire a bicycle! Madness. We drove to a temple and then found the beach. It was gorgeous! White sand, palm trees with coconuts and people selling the nicest mangos! Unfortunately my sunburn from the bike ride down to Hoi An was still pretty bad so I sat in the shade but I did stick my feet in the sea. We got back to the hotel that evening to find the power still off so cold showers only. We were also told as we hadn't rented the bikes from the hotel we couldn't keep them there overnight so had to take them back down the road. Riding a motorbike in a dress is not easy let me tell you! That night we found a bar on the other side of the river that seemed so happy to have customers they gave us all a free 'bucket' drink.

The next morning everyone else was still asleep (or as I later found out, passed out as they ended up at a beach bar and didn't get back until 6am. Oh dear.) so I picked up my bike and had a lovely morning just pootling around the town. Finding somewhere to park was the hardest bit but a cyclo driver took pity on me and had me park in what looked like a temple! That threw me a bit but apparently it was ok. I acquired a Vietnamese boyfriend in the riverside market - well, a guy grabbed my hand, insisted I was his girlfriend and had me sit with him and his friends for a bit. It was actually very funny and they were really nice people. Managed to leave without causing insult and found a French-style pattisserie which did fairly good crossaints. I then decided to be clever and try and find the beach by myself. It's a straight road from the town so I didn't think I could get it wrong.... Well somehow I found myself on a motorway (nice road, pretty deserted) which I really didn't remember from yesterday and then two Vietnamese women on a motorbike rode us beside me to have a conversation, as we were still driving along, and told me I was heading back towards Danang. Ooops! Turned around and found my way back to the town. Also found the road to the beach but I was seriously low on fuel by that stage so I admitted defeat. Also, the bike had to be handed back by 1pm and it was getting on for that. Sadly handed the bike back and then met up with Tom and Jimmy as they had a fitting for their shirts. I went with them and gave in to temptation by ordering a pair of shorts. They are very thorough with their measuring! I was more than a little taken back. Went onto the main street in Hoi An - Le Loi Street - for lunch at a little street cafe. Noodles and a lump of pork. With baguettes :D That evening we had an impulsive boat trip on the river for an hour. The sunset from the water was breath-taking. Really beautiful. We ate that night in an Indian restaurant. We let Jimmy take charge and order a variety of curries for us, including a spicy chicken madras, extra hot. It was bright red and is the hottest thing I think I've ever eaten. We were all sweating after just a couple of bites and my lips stung so much! But it was very good food. Went into a bar on the main street that was opposite a tailors so Charlie and I popped in there to get linen shirts made. We'd seen Tom and Jimmy's and had been very jealous. Had an early(ish) night that night as we had plans for the morning!

Charlie, Andy and I were up bright and early to hire motorbikes as our plan for this day was to get to the Cham ruins at My Son, about 50km away from Hoi An. I had the directions(!) and we set off. Took us about an hour and a half to get there, though at the first fuel stop I realised neither my spedometer or my fuel gauge worked on my bike so I had to take my lead from the guys. The roads weren't too bad and the closer we got to My Son the more rural it was. It was fantastic to be able to stop where we wanted and actually see the country we were passing through. Most tourists only see these areas from their air-conditioned buses while we were actually experiencing and interacting with the locals. We left our bikes for free at a crazy man's restaurant just outside My Son as he'd waved us down saying we couldn't take them into the ruins. Walked to the ticket booth and found out that we could actually take our bikes up to the proper entrance but it was too late by then. Ended up getting a rickety, 1960s American army jeep up to the entrance and then spent two hours walking around the ruins. They're known as the 'Angkor Wat' of Vietnam but, while nice, they are no where near as complete or big as the Cambodian ones. They are however right in the jungle and it was incredibly hot and humid! We'd arrived just before lunch, when all the tour groups were leaving so we had the ruins almost completely to ourselves, so it was worth the heat. Drank so much water! Also saw a huge yellow spider (yuck) and hundreds of lizards - one of which gave me a fright by sticking his head at me and I thought he was a snake. Jumped so badly, silly thing. On the way back down, Charlie and I had a quick look in the souvenir shop which ended up quite embarrassing. The sales assistant came over to talk to Charlie and he said he wasn't going to buy anything but she should talk to me. She replied that first she would talk to him "so you buy for your wife"... Us: "We're not married"... She looked puzzled and then rallied "Your soon-to-be-wife"... "No no no, just friends"... "Just friends? But you look good together. Very suitable!" At that point we legged it. Note to anyone travelling around with a male friend, be prepared for in-depth questioning about your 'relationship'. Oh dear. Made it back to the bikes and then headed back to Hoi An. Somehow we missed a turning along the route and ended up at a toll booth that we hadn't passed on the way here. Luckily after asking for directions and driving over a rather dodgy-looking bridge (it was actually closed off but bikes just went around the blocks so we did too) we eventually got back to town. We booked the bus down to Nha Trang for the next evening and then went to find food. We all went to the 'Before and Now' bar which has a real hippy feel (Che Guevara pictures up everywhere, quite old fashioned but nice) and played pool. A rule is in use here that if your opponent pots all their balls before you pot one of yours you have to run around the table 'sans clothes'... Thank goodness I'm not that appauling at pool (though it did come close). There was also a really old-school foosball table :D At 1am the bar ran a free bus to the beach bar so four of us headed out for that. It was a really nice little bar, right on the sand so naturally we just had to stick our feet in the sea. But that meant we were all sandy so the logical thing to do was jump in the swimming pool! Really good fun. Charlie and I lost Danny and Tom soon after we arrived but we were entertained by a very drunk British guy and his Canadian friend who fell asleep on each other. Got the bus back at 4am and stopped at the little bakery near our hotel to grab a fresh baguette. Better than kebab!

The next morning there was slight worry as Tom was nowhere to be found. Turned out Danny and him had actually stayed at the bar until 5am and then Danny had left him with a girl... He didn't reappear until 1pm looking more than a little worse for wear. Cue some serious teasing. Tried a baguette for lunch at a little cafe but there were ants all through the bread which was seriously off-putting, so ended up at the market to try the local Cao Loa (noodles). Had a final walk through the Old Town before grabbing our bags from the hostel to get the night bus to Nha Trang. Hoi An is one of the best places I've been to so far! I think I'm going to miss it.

Hanoi and Halong Bay

I meant to update this sooner but I haven't had time! Now I have a free afternoon in Hue so I figured I should use it to let y'all know what I've been up to this past week. It's a lot so I apologise now for the length!

Well I arrived in Vietnam after two rather long flights. The first to Singapore was actually not too bad as I had two seats on the upper deck of the huge Airbus to myself which meant I could spread out a little. And they kept feeding me so all was good. The second flight to Hanoi was cramped and hot and by the time I arrived at the airport and collected my luggage I was exhausted. Couldn't find the bus from the airport so ended up getting a taxi instead. Took me to the wrong hostel first (Backpackers Hotel instead of Backpackers Hostel) - I think that was a genuine mistake as I'd told him I was meeting someone at my hostel. Did end up having to argue about the price at the end as he tried to put it up, but I won.

After a snooze at the hostel I found out I'd arrived on Australia Day and as the guys that run the hostel are Auzzies it was packed with them, especially as they were offering free beer. They were also doing frog racing - with live frogs - and a vegemite eating contest which was funny to watch. Sadly jetlag caught up with me so I disappeared early to bed.

At breakfast on Wednesday I met a Swiss guy so we ended up spending the day roaming Hanoi. The city is rather polluted and very dusty, but the weather wasn't cold so it wasn't that bad. Walked around the Hoam Koam Lake and down to the south. Got lost around the streets but nothing serious. Had lunch at a little cafe that had a menu that included snake, civit cat, porcupine, pangdolin(?) and tortoise. I ended up going for chicken and corn soup which has the consistency of wallpaper paste and tasted pretty much like it too! They brought us beer which we had to politely decline and swap for coca cola. In the afternoon visited Hoa Lo Prison (aka the "Hanoi Hilton" as it was called by American POWs during the war). Was quite interesting although it was mostly concerned with political prisoners during the French occupation. Lots of pro-Vietnam propaganda. Walking around the city is pretty dangerous. There are just hundreds of motorcycles/motorbikes and they don't really stick to the road. The pavements are covered in stalls and parked bikes most of the time so you have to walk on the roads anyway. And the ONLY way to cross the road is to just walk and keep walking, slowly. You avoid the cars and then trust that the motorcycles will avoid you! I saw so many near misses, it's unbelievable. And the things they carry on them - flatscreen tvs, boxes, poles three times longer than the bike, beer, live pigs and cows... The list is unending.

The next day was an early start as I'd booked on the tour to Halong Bay. It was a four hour minibus ride to the port and the weather wasn't looking good, but our English guide Henry reckoned it would clear up... We were boated to our "junk" for the trip, fed lunch as it left the port and were showed into our cabins, which were really nice. We dropped anchor off some of the islands and some of the guys jumped off the top deck into the water. Brrr! It was too cold for me! But I did get into a kayak - me and an English guy called Danny and off we paddled. We weren't very good. I was in the front so I suppose I was meant to steer but I lost track of the times we went around in circles! Made it through a cave and saw the monkeys on an island, then followed the guide to a floating village. I swear we saw the floating bar that Top Gear visited! The village was amazing. I saw a little boy about seven years old happily rowing his little sister around in a boat completely unsupervised. We also almost got run over by another large junk as it began to reverse... Oops. Made it safely back to the boat ok, unlike the crazy Isreali Eitan ("already eaten" - does the best Borat impressions ever!) who lost his paddle not once but twice! Dinner was fresh seafood (oh dear) but I did try the fish. It had teeth!!! Ah! Sat up on the deck after dinner with the other guys on the trip. There's four London lads who I'm now travelling south with who Grant would just love. Proper cockneys :) Tried teaching me rhyming slang but I've forgotten it. Shh! Ended up not going to bed until 2am after watching some of the drunken people throw themselves off the deck again.

I'd only booked myself onto the two day/one night trip but I made a deal with the guys that I would stay for the extra night if they would travel down south with me. Seemed fair. So I got all that sorted after breakfast the next morning and those of us that were staying the extra night - nineteen in all - switched to another boat... in the middle of the sea... that was a little hair-raising! We then had over an hours boat journey through the islands right out to the outer edges of the bay where we had our own private island. In fact, island is a little excessive. It was a stretch of beach perhaps 100m wide at the most. 20m cliff to the back and sides and the sea to the front. It was gorgeous - a real castaway island! Literally in the middle of nowhere. Hardly saw another boat let alone tourists! The only way to land on it was for this (fairly large) boat to practically ground itself on the beach for us to hop off into the water.

We were staying in hut things. Basically a wooden pallet with a grass roof and that was it. No walls, just a thin mattress with a duvet and mosquito net. We played volleyball on the beach and ate lunch overlooking the sea. It was quite warm and a little sunny. There were kayaks there that we could take out whenever we wanted so me and another Charlie (boy) went out and managed not to crash. Then I went wake-boarding that afternoon. Took us out and had us jump in the water. It was FREEZING! I actually thought my lungs had gone into shock. But managed to get my feet strapped to the board without drowning and almost got up on my first try. Got on my feet every time after that but the longest I managed to stay up was about 20 seconds. Still brilliant fun! The two instructors (from America and the UK) ended up showing off, backflips, the lot. Found the only hot shower on the island to warm up in and felt much better after that.

That evening we played poker with shells for chips and someone had got their hands on some green zinc sunblock so all nineteen of us, plus the two wakeboard guys plus the three Vietnamese men all ended up with weird designs all over our faces. At midnight it became Eitan's birthday so we all signed a piece of paper for him and sang happy birthday. Played 'Around the World' ping pong which started off quite sensibly but ended with fourteen of us playing with anything but bats - pringles tin, plates, trays, bowls, flippers... From that we moved onto volleyball again but it was too dark.

The next morning it was raining but not cold. The boat arrived at 8am and we travelled back to join up with our original junk, most of us looking slightly worse for wear and still covered in green stuff. We got some funny looks from the other people on the boat! Had lunch on board and then got a minibus again for the four hour trip back to Hanoi. The sun came out on the way back which was nice but most of us dozed. Once back at the hostel in Hanoi I sorted out my bus pass for the trip down Vietnam - five stops which came to $40 (sleeper buses). That night three of the four London lads and me went for a dinner in the most expensive place I've eaten so far. It came to 120,000 dong, so about four pounds. That night all of us that were on the island went out again as it was Eitan's birthday this day and Mikey's (a fireman from Sussex) birthday the next day. Went to a Vietnamese Jazz club and then to an Irish bar. Apparently it was meant to shut at ten but it was still open just after midnight - until the police turned up anyway. According to Henry (the guide from the island) it's a fairly common occurrence and they normally just turn a blind eye to it but they're cracking down at the moment due to Tet. We did find another bar *somewhere* in Hanoi so stayed there for a while. A group of us left and almost walked into a scene straight out of The Fast and the Furious - a group of about 50 or so Vietnamese lads with their motorbikes racing around the streets!! We tried to avoid them but needed to cross their street to get back to our hostel. They were actually lovely and waved us across no worries.

It's odd, despite the people hassling you for buying stuff/cyclo trips/motorcycle taxis I haven't felt threatened once.

The next morning was my last day in Hanoi so I went with a couple of Danish girls and an Australian girl to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. Dead guy. Looked like something out of Madam Tussuad's. But it was an experience just to be shepherded around by all the Vietnamese soldiers in shiny uniforms and told to hush while walking around the body. From there we got a little lost trying to find the Temple of Literature and ended up getting a taxi. We always made sure it was on the meter as otherwise they'd try and rip you off. That afternoon I had a walk around a market with the Londoners as we were all catching the night but later that evening. There was all sorts of live food there - mostly seafood. Fish, eels, shellfish, crabs, frogs and something that looked suspiciously like snakes but probably was just a different type of eel. We watched one lady kill this huge catfish - slit all around its neck then snapped its back and pulled its head off... while it was alive. The head kept twitching in the bowl afterwards! Wandered back to the hostel via a chemist as someone needed some paracetamol and I was horrified to find you can buy antibiotics and prescription drugs just over the counter! Madness.

Tom, Jimmy and I went out for food and had the best food I have eaten so far in Vietnam. It was at a street kitchen down this really dingy looking alley. The woman cooked it in a pot on the street and we were sitting on the road on teeny tiny plastic stools. The food was really simple - pho ga which is noodles and chicken soup but it was so so good. It was a huge bowl and I couldn't eat it all. The boys added chilli to theirs which was hilarious as it was very spicy! To top it off it cost 20,000 dong which is 66p.

Got a transfer from the hostel to out sleeper bus. There were bunk beds! On the bus! That's what our seats were. I cannot describe in words what it looked like but it was amazing! We got comfy and, with the bus driver playing loud Vietnamese pop music we set off for Hue!