Hanoi

We arrived at our hotel in Hanoi around midday, after a 4 hour coach back down from Halong Bay.

The hotel has won Best Hotel so far this trip from us. Huge bed, shower, room, everything.

We went for a walk for lunch with Bun, to a place called Little Hanoi to try some local food which was lovely, before wandering down to the lake, to buy tickets to see the Water Puppet show.

We watched it basically straight away, the show was around 50 minutes, and around 49 minutes of  weirdness:

The puppets were dancing around, telling different stories of Vietnam from on top of/under  water, which made the choreography and challenge of putting the show on incredibly clever, but we still have no clue as to what happened. At some point there were chained dragons, noted as Unicorns in the programme, playing volleyball it seemed.

After the show we checked in at our hotel as we couldn’t earlier and discovers the incredible rooms, And relaxed for a couple of hours.

For dinner, we were taken around the streets to try out different street foods. The place had had the most and the largest selection of street food we had seen; kebabs, chicken, bbq pork, fruit, etc.

The next day and first and only  full day Here, we and some of the others from the group orientated around Hanoi to see some of its sights.

Our first stop was the Lake in the middle of the city. It had a red bridge going half way in to the the river to a Pagoda:

The lake is home to turtles apparently, and only one giant 100 year old turtle remains. We didn’t see it!

After walking around the lake we took a slight detour and visited a posh shopping mall that was 5 storeys high, before heading over to the Hoi Last Prison (“Hanoi Hilton”)  

The prison was only the front of the remains of it as the rest had been replaced by a office building. In here, the French used to keep Vietnamese during their time in charge of the country, and later in the Vietnam war, American pilots were imprisoned here:

We walked further along into Hanoi after seeing this, to visit the next stop, what was known as the “Temple of Literature”, one of Vietnam’s first universities:

We stopped for lunch after this as we had already walked quite far by now and it was getting hotter! Even though the forecast was for rain…

Walking back up closer to the hotel, we went to see the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, which was such an odd thing to witness. It housed his embalmed body, which in the morning thousand of people queue to see for 10 seconds, like an open casket. As we arrived in the afternoon it was quiet and we only saw the outside, it was still impressive:

This was our last stop of our sightseeing tour of Hanoi and after we took our long walk back to the hotel, to rest up before meeting our CEO, Phong from Vietnam, who would lead us for the next and last part of our trip. He took us for food and then we all dispersed our own ways.

Us 2, we went and got snacks from a shop and went to bed early, as at 2 30am We woke to watch the Liverpool Vs Chelsea semi final, so we were up till 5am. Was great to get up to watch  though, except for the loss.

When we woke on out last morning in Hanoi before a flight to Laos, we went shopping round the streets to look at souvenirs and postcards etc, to try and spend the rest of our Vietnamese dong. We had lunch on our own at the Lake View Cafe and the view was brilliant:

Then, it was time to say goodbye to Vietnam, which we both really enjoyed, except for the busyness and the consistent horn honking,  as we headed to the airport for a 1 hour flight to Vientiane, the Capital of Laos. Where scenery, hills, mosquitos, waterfalls and elephants awaited us.

Halong Bay

Our sleeper train was 14 hours long but didn’t feel that long. We stayed up till around 11 talking and playing Game of Life on an iPad. Liz won, I came 3rd!

It was the best sleeper we had been on so far, It felt like it anyway.

We then got on a coach to Halong Bay, it took around 3 hours and we arrived at 8 in the morning. We paid to get breakfast at the hotel to eat and kill some time, as check in wasn’t until 10 30.

After check in we showered and relaxed before meeting the tour at 12 to get a coach to the port where a Junk boat was to take us around the Mountains in the sea:

We ate on the boat as well… fine dining! Liz had the vegetarian option and I had fish, such as crab cakes in a crab shell, snapper fish, rice, noodles, shrimps (which I didn’t touch) and loads of other sides:

The views were spectacular, limestone rocks cascading out of the sea like icebergs:

We stopped so people could go kayaking through some of the caves in the rocks, we didn’t do this as it was pretty expensive for what it was, and money is getting tight for this part of our trip.

We then floated around some more and visited the caves within one of the limestone rocks:

We then went back to the port. The scenery was amazing, the mist around the mountains made it even more surreal and eery. 

That evening, we were so tired, we walked to get some snacks before heading back to the hotel to relax early, and both of us fell asleep by half 9!

Next stop, Hanoi. 

Hoi An

We got to our hotel and dropped our bags off around 7 15am and walked down to the riverside in the Old Town to get breakfast.

Afterward we wandered around the Old town streets, which was a pleasant change to the busy roads we have been around since arriving in Vietnam. To enter the old town, as it’s a world heritage site, you have to pay to get a ticket, which allows you entry to 5 different sites around it. We visited 3, the Japanese Bridge, an old house and another house that was showing some kind of  Vietnamese show.

The show was certainly odd, had some music, the mental guy above dancing, kicking and shouting… and Bingo, which we were involved in, but didn’t really understand and definitely didn’t win. 

After seeing these we went for a drink at a deaf and mute tea rooms, where all the staff were either of these, and therefore everything was signed to us or translated using these blocks on the table:

We had to order our drinks using a check sheet provided to us as well.

We then went back to the hotel and checked into our rooms at last and then went and played with the ball in the pool, Which was freezing, for around an hour, before getting ready for our activity for the afternoon.

We were going cycling, around the streets and countryside, then riding a water buffalo, before going along the river in bamboo baskets.

Our bikes were, not what I’m used to, and without helmets we attempted to navigate around the roads here. We went through countryside fields seeing all the rice paddies and various other scenery, before arriving at a field which was our stop to do this:

The water buffalo was really tame and clearly well trained as he did everything the Vietnamese farmer said when he directed it. Just to remind everyone, Liz is scared of cows when she walks past them, but after this she is getting no sympathy. It was great to get to do.

We then cycled further along to the river where we got to enjoy at least half an hour of floating around the river, through the trees on bamboo baskets:

This was fun and relaxing, we were all given Palm leave hats to wear and one of the women who took us along made us rings and bracelets as well.

We then hopped onto a boat with our bikes on and headed back to the town to cycle back to the hotel.

We went for food and relaxed to get an early night.

The next day, We were up for breakfast around 9 as at 10 We were heading back into the Old town to learn how they make various noodles here in Hoi An. The place was Oodles of Noodles which was a charity run business. They took orphaned kids and other kids from poverty and gave them a place to learn and work, learning English and how to cook so that one day they get taken on in 5 star international restaurants.

They introduced themselves and showed us the variety of Noodles, before giving us a demonstration on how to make to them… then it was our turn:

Both of us were superb. We used the rice pancake as it wet to make our Starters, smashed bread, I can’t remember what it’s called in Vietnamese. We put the sticky pancake we made onto a cracker and folded it and smashed it!

We were then made food by the restaurant, which filled us up alot.

After this, we wondered around the streets of Hoi An some more and Liz bought clothes… Shopping, no matter where we are.

We went back to the hotel to relax and lie by the pool/play volleyball in the pool, before we got ready to out for the evening, as it was one of the tours 20th Birthday.

We went out for food then to a club called Tiger Tiger and got home around 1ish, ready to be up for 6 to get ready and have breakfast before our 4 hour coach journey to Hue.

Hoi An has definitely been our favourite place in Vietnam so far… With all the suit and dress tailor shops, we may even come back to dory our Wedding attire out.

Nha Trang

We left Ho chi minh around 7pm to get a sleeper train to Nha Trang, our next stop, a beach town again.

The sleeper train was around 9 hours long, in our cabins were 4 beds, 2 bunk beds either side.

Liz had the bottom one and I had the top in the cabin we were in. We stayed up till about 10pm chatting to the other 2 girls on the tour we were sharing with, then decided it was time to attempt to sleep as the train arrived at 5am.

The sleep was… rocky. The beds were thin mattresses and a blanket and pillow. I listened to my iPod all night to try and block out all the sound. There wasn’t much room to move around in the bed and I was constantly paranoid I’d fall out.

We arrived at about 5 15 am and were at the hotel by 6. We couldn’t check in till 11 30.

To kill time we walked down the to beach, and watched the waves crash down. The waves here were the biggest waves we have ever seen up front!

After this We went and grabbed a bit of breakfast before going back to meet some more of the group back on the beach. I went for a run on the beach, about 2 miles.

On the way back it started to rain and Liz was stuck waiting for me. We went to cover from the weather at a little coffee shop and got another drink to kill some more time until we could check in.

After we finally checked in around 1pm, we relaxed before heading out to the local mud bath spa complex.

We firstly stopped at a local temple:

It had a reclining buddha and a giant Buddha, One of the largest in Vietnam. As you can see above.

After we went to the Thap Ba spa. We sat in a Jacuzzi like bath whilst mud filled around us, and sat in this for a while, plastering ourselves in it. Unfortunately I dont have any photos of this yet as I obviously didn’t have my phone.

We then showered and went to a hot mineral water spa, the same but with hot clear water.

After we went to the waterfall and swimming pool area, also hot spring water produced. Skin now feels smooth and cleansed!

In the evening we went for food at an open top restaurant and then went out for the night, getting back to the hotel at around 5am.

Today we woke up late, 11am and had to rush to then check out for midday. We walked around the town again and got some brunch.

In the afternoon we went to the beach and played with a volleyball we bought, before wandering around again and relaxing before heading to the train station ready for sleeper train number 2, to Hoi An.

Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh/Saigon

We left our home stay in Can tho and loaded our stuff onto the bus for a 5 minute drive to the river where we boarded a boat to travel down the Mekong Delta, a network of rivers all flowing from the Mekong itself.

We visited the floating market on the river, a section covered in boats selling different fruits, vegetables and rice etc. Boats come along side you and try to sell you things, or you can drive up to boats to buy stuff off them:

After we did a loop of this and some people bought pineapples we headed back to meet the coach, and took a 4 hour trip to Ho Chi Minh city, previously Saigon.

We went for lunch at Pho 2000, a noodle soup place that President Clinton ate at in the year…2000.

Afterward Bun showed us round the city and some of its sites, the market, the opera house, which was the first place to show the Miss Saigon:

Then we walked to a version of Notre Dame. The French have heavily influenced the city from when they owned it, and a lot of the buildings are of French design.

Liz told me to be careful to avoid some water, and ended up slipping herself, through oily mud and cut her knee open. Everyone was very sympathetic and Bun helped clean her wound and plastered it. I was concerned as well, but I took a picture instead:

We went back to the hotel after seeing Independence Palace and Liz got changed.. then we went back out just us 2, to look around the market again. I bought a new shirt and vest and Liz got the bag she was after! All for around £10 after some haggling. It was nice it just being us 2, felt like the first time we’d be on our own all trip.

We continued this in evening went for food by ourselves tonight, and got back to the hotel early to relax and collapse to sleep, after watching Liverpool play on the hotel room Tele!

This morning, we took a 90 minute coach to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. The main battle ground in the Vietnam War between the South communists and the Americans.

Our tour guide, Law, explained how they designed the tunnels, 250km of them, and the ingenious ways they used them to prevent American bombs, gas and flooding without loss of life. All the tunnels were dug by hand, 20m at a time. There’s a lot of Information we were given, but for 13 years 16,000 lived in these tunnels and kept outsmarting America’s troops, always finding a solution to America’s attacks.

We went inside the tunnels that had been made bigger for tourists, and these were still a squeeze, hot and very claustrophobic. We walked 40m in them, but it felt like a mile. How they managed to do this for so many years I’ve no idea.

After our tour, we got dropped off at the War Remnants Museum, which was very propaganda driven, but showed a lot of things you may not have seen from the American side. A lot about Agent Orange and the affects it has had on the Vietnamese people.

Outside it had American war planes and tanks on display.

Once we left here we walked Into the centre and have sat down for a couple of hours in KFC while we wait to leave for our overnight sleeper train to Nah Trang.  Our first of 4 sleeper trains, this one 10-12 hours long.

Ho Chi Minh lit up at night:

Good Morning Vietnam

We left at 6 30 this morning, for a 4 hour journey to the Vietnam border, and waved goodbye to our time in Cambodia.

It was certainly a diverse country, every place we went was different and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there, and look forward to seeing how different Vietnam is and what it holds in store.

At the border we had to walk about 150m across it with out bags, and then swapped coaches and a 4 hour coach trip to Can Tho and the Mekong delta awaited.

During this Bun explained about the history of Vietnam, The war and the divide between the north and south, and how the communist struggle here affected both Camdoia and Laos.
We didn’t arrive at the home stay in Can Tho until it was dark, so we had to walk down dark paths up to the house, fields and the noise of crickets either side of us. We walked past a tree that had fireflies on!

Our room here was delightful:

Corrugated roof ceiling, bamboo sheet sides, and ventilation holes along the top to allow creepy crawlies through. We had a mosquito net provided for us as you can see, so didn’t use our own. We did get to use our silk liner bags for the first time though.

I was actually really looking forward to the sleep later, it felt like a camp site. 

We ate in a big group as the family cooked in front of us, the food, pretty similar to Camdoia, but a bit more Chinese influence.

We ate then played a card game as a group, before heading to bed for the night.
When we went to brush our teeth however, that’s when my worst nightmare happened. It could have been a snake, a spider, even an alligator. But no, hanging on where we need to hook our door to keep it closed… A frog:

After that monster was removed from our door we went to bed. We used ear plugs to drown out some of the insect noises, rustling and karaoke that was going on down the street.

I slept well, was nice to be in fresh country air rather than air con which has been making my chest and mouth bad. I felt refreshed when I woke for a change! Liz on the other hand didn’t sleep much, was too on edge about something coming in and eating her.

Today we start off with a trip on a boat to the Mekong delta, but I’ll write this up separately along with what we do in Ho Chi Minh city.