Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)

From Hoi An to Dong Hoi, the transfer time was 30mins by taxi.  Our flight from Dong Hoi to HCMC was just over an hour.  This is the way to travel!!!!!  Of course, we picked an early flight as it was cheaper but it meant we were tired (especially after a few shandies the night before!).  Once into HCMC it was hot and smelly.  There were motorbikes lining the streets.  I forgot just how crazy it was!  In between stopping for food and drinks in air conditioned places (such tourists!), we visited the HCMC Museum and the Reunification Palace, learning about the history of Vietnam and the war. After a well deserved nap we went for dinner at an outdoor BBQ garden.  The place was buzzing for a Sunday night with locals and tourists.  The trees all had little sparkly lights and our table had it's own gas BBQ so the food was cooked on the table in front of you.  It was meaty heaven!  Anthony had a smile on his face the whole time!  The food was actually pretty good. Afterwards we headed to the backpackers area across from  our hotel and had a few drinks in one of the bars.

Next day was our final day together in HCMC and what is the main thing to do when you are here?  That's right, visit the water park!!  We both love water parks and when you find out it's only 4 pounds for the whole day, it would be rude not to go.  We spent most of the day there running around like big kids.  The park was pretty quiet so we didn't have to queue for anything.  Result!  Mid afternoon the heavens opened so we sat in one of the pools but it didn't let up, so we left.  To be fair we had been there most of the day anyway.  That night we did some shopping and had dinner in a lovely Vietnamese restaurant.  The restaurant employs former street children and disadvantage youths, and the service was impeccable.  Afterwards we decided to go to a rooftop bar and had a cocktail each.  Lovey last night.

Final day in HCMC I went with Anthony to the airport (sad faces all round), then caught the bus back to HCMC.  I checked out of the hotel and booked into a backpackers hostel.  Back to slumming it and sharing with strangers!  I felt like the last few weeks had been an amazing mini holiday in the middle of my travels.  Yes I know I am on holiday but when you're on your own it can be hard work at times.  I was a bit mopey that last day and wasn't sure what to do with myself.  And after getting hassled outside the hostel to buy things, hire a moped, get in a tuk tuk, give people money, I decided to leave the next morning and go to Cambodia.

Update! Just to let you know I have changed my flights to come back a bit earlier - 21st October.  5 months away is still a really long time (especially when you get hassled on a daily basis to go in Tuk tuks, buy things & give money to beggars). The time has helped me think & plan for the future (watch this space!) & I have had such an amazing time. But it's not over yet!  In the next 7 weeks I need to do a whistle stop tour of Cambodia, Boreno, The Phillipines and Thailand.  Looking forward to exploring new countries but also looking forward to coming home to some normality!!!!  I miss my boyfriend, friends & family. Oh and being able to put my loo roll into the toilet! And a decent cup of tea.  Sometimes it's the little things....

Vietnam: Hoi An

The taxi transfer took us to Hoi An where we were to spend the next 4 nights.  The first 2 we managed to get a special offer in a lovely wee boutique hotel with an infinity pool (nice!) and the second 2 in a home stay (more like a B&B than the homestay I did in Laos).  We arrived at the boutique hotel (http://www.mucahoian.com/) and both looked at each other to say 'are we really staying here'?!  The grounds were absolutely lovely and we later found out it had only opened this year so everything was really new.  The room was modern, big and the bed was MASSIVE!  We went for a swim in the pool and even when the heaven's opened and we could hear thunder, we stayed in.  It was lovely & warm & quite refreshing being rained on!  We decided to stay at the hotel for dinner.  The small bamboo restaurant was set over the river so to get to it, you crossed over a bridge which was lit up by lanterns.  It was beautiful.  We had some food and a few drinks and enjoyed the ambiance of the place.  Lovely.

Next day was pretty chilled spent at the hotel enjoying the pool and comfy sunbeds. That evening we ventured into Hoi An.  It was chucking it down.  We found a tailor's that had been recommended to us by some people we met in Sapa.  I wanted to get a Chinese style dress made and Anthony a suit jacket.  The girls in the shop were so lovely and helpful, asking us things we hadn't even thought about.  Of course, they wanted us to buy more!  We were told to come back 24 hours later to see our garments. More on that later!  We then went to an Indian restaurant which was the number 2 on Tripadvisor (my favourite app - not! I should explain, it's a good app but not always user friendly and it frustrates me sometimes!).  The food was delicious!  The onion bhaji s were to die for. I could just eat some right now!

The following day we enjoyed breakfast outside the restaurant overlooking the river at the hotel, and enjoyed some more pool time.  Then before we knew it, it was time to check out and go to our second hotel.  We arrived at the homestay and the owner was so welcoming.  The homestay was more like a 4* boutique hotel!  The only thing missing was the pool, but we didn't care as for the price, it was amazing.  I had suggested using the free pushbikes to go to the nearby beach but Anthony wanted his moped fix so we hired a moped from the hotel and drove to the beach.  The beach was lovely and we lay on the sunbeds listening to the waves. Later we went back to the tailors.  My dress was amazing!  So beautiful and guess how much?  Yes 20 pounds (still can't find the pound symbol on this computer!!).  Anthony's jacket was also amazing.  Fitted him so well and the finish was such great quality.  We then ordered some more things!! I'd already found some photos on the internet from current clothing sites and they said they could copy them. 3 dresses, 2 tops and a winter coat later, I was done!  I'll not tell you how much I ended up spending, but it was a lot more than I planned!  Still, it's loads cheaper than at home.  Whilst we were in the shop the electricity went off!  She finished taking my measurements in the dark using Anthony's Iphone light.  What a pro!  We went to a nearby bar and had dinner and drinks by candle light.  Very romantic and the food was delicious... cooked in the dark!!  They must be used to it! Lovely night.

Our last full day in Hoi An, we thought we better go and see the old town so we got up early and drove down.  You pay for a ticket to enter the old town and wow it was just beautiful.  We wished we had gone there sooner!  We explored the streets visiting traditional houses, stopping for a drink in one of the bars.  We were so hot from walking around, we decided to head back to the same beach we had gone to yesterday.  Then back to the tailor's to collect my mountain of clothes.  They were all so well made and I was really happy.  I just hope I haven't paid for some young kid to make them :(

Our last night In Hoi An we decided to go for dinner and drinks in the old town.  At night, all the houses, bars, restaurants and shops are lit up with lantern's outside all in different colours.  Such a cute place.  Dinner was average (especially when they went from playing romantic music to some terrible dance music really loudly, much to the shock of 3 English people in their 60's!). But we found a cool bar with good drinks offers.  Tempting as it was to stay out, we had to get up at 5.30am to catch our flight, so we called it a night.  Next and final stop in Vietnam... Ho Chi Minh City!

Vietnam: Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and Hue

After the cruise we had some time to kill in Halong Bay as we had booked - yes you've guessed it - another night bus to get us to our next destination!  Yes we are glutton's for punishment, but more on that later.  We found a nice 4* hotel with a pool out front with no-one in it and blagged our way in for the afternoon.  Lovely.  We had dinner and prepared ourselves mentally for the bus.  Had a random situation in the lobby of the hotel whilst we were waiting for the bus.  About 8 Vietnamese ladies trying to speak to us (in Vietnamese) and we have no idea what they were saying but they desperately wanted to have their photo taken with us.  One of them fancied Anthony and I was pretending to have a fight with her.  Very random.  Anyway we were picked up by car and then had to wait at the side of the road for the bus.  Over an hour later the bus turned up.  This was not a nice bus like the one to Sapa oh no, this was a local bus!  Yes it had sleeper beds but they were really tatty and the bus driver was smoking.  We were given our allocated seats right at the front and enjoyed the smell of smoke and the extremely loud bus horn, and terrible music videos for the journey.  We were the only tourists on the bus.

We were told the journey would take 8-10 hours and going by past experiences, we thought ok maybe 12 hours max.  We geared ourselves up for this and I went to sleep (somehow!).  Anthony however couldn't sleep & didn't feel very well.  Morning came and around the time we should have arrived I looked at Google maps (which has saved me so many times whilst I've been travelling) and looking at the map, we were nowhere near where we should have been.  In fact, it looked like we were still about 4 hours away. I told Anthony and his face fell.  We stopped for breakfast and Anthony stayed on the bus.  I ate all of the popcorn we'd bought for the journey (something he keeps reminding me about!).  Then a few hours later we stopped for lunch.  I ate some of the food but Anthony just drank some rice wine a local man kept giving him!  We were supposed to arrive at 4.30-6.30am... we arrived into Dong Hoi at 1.45pm!!!!!  Then we had a catch a taxi to the hotel, another 30mins away.  Finally we arrived at the hotel.  What a journey!!!  The hotel was our most expensive yet but it was worth it.  Four poster bed and the setting was amazing, overlooking a lake.  The hotel had a really nice atmosphere and we were excited about exploring the caves in the National Park.  The rest of the day was spent chilling and planning the rest of our trip... with no more bus journeys (we had done our fair share thank you very much!).

Next day we had breakfast at the hotel and hired a moped from reception.  Anthony had never driven a bike before but it was a quiet area and he was excited to give it a go.  We got on the bike and to begin we were both a bit apprehensive but after a while, it was like second nature.  The scenery here was also beautiful and the really sweet smells from the fields as we drove past were gorgeous.  We went to the Paradise caves which were amazing, climbing 500 steps to the entrance to the cave.  We spent about 40 minutes in the cave, glad to be out from the heat and the walk!  We had lunch near the cave and drove back to the accommodation enjoying the views and freedom of the bike.  Such a lovely day.  We both managed to get a bit of sunburn too.  The rainy season has been kind to us.

The next day we hired a bike again and drove to the main Phong Nha caves.  Here you have to pay for a boat to take you into the cave.  We went down the river which was really relaxing and we enjoyed the views.  Once into the cave entrance the engine is switched off and a young guy rowed us into the cave.  Wow this was also stunning.  Sorry to keep saying this but it really was!!  Then we got off the boat in the cave, walked through it for a while and then got back on again.  We then spent a bit more time on the bike driving around the area before being collected to travel to our next destination - Hue.  We were both sad to leave Phong Na as we had such a nice time here.  Anthony especially enjoyed the bike!

We were collected by taxi and taken to Dong Hoi where we were to catch the train to Hue.  The train goes all the way from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city (taking 2-3 days!).  We were on a 4 hour journey thankfully!  The train was 40mins late.  Once we were on it, it was actually quite comfortable.  Everyone wanted to chat to us though.  A local guy, who then translated for us from an old guy who had fought in the Vietnam war.  Then a monk.  The journey was quite pleasant but because of the delay, we arrived into Hue later than we had planned.  We had some food and then headed to bed.

The next morning we got up really early as we only had the morning in Hue.  We walked into the Citadel and walked around the old ruins.  Beautiful place.  It was roasting hot that day and we were flagging a bit as we walked.  We had brunch and then went back to the hotel for our taxi to our next destination - Hoi An.

Vietnam: Halong Bay

We stayed the night in a hotel in Halong Bay.  Not really that much happening there but was nice to chill after the awful journey to get there.  We booked a 2 night 3 day trip through our hotel, getting picked up at 12 the next day.  We decided to blow our budget and go for the luxury cruise.  This was a once in a lifetime trip.  Why not treat ourselves!!  Just to clarify, it was 3* luxury... remember I am a backpacker!!

We were collected at 12 and taken to the harbour.  Then we were picked up by bus with our fellow passengers who had all come from Hanoi.  We were both glad we had actually come down the day before, even if the journey was crap.  The guide (Maggie) was really friendly and her English was really good.  She embarrassed us by asking us to introduce ourselves on the bus in front of everyone.  Brilliant!  We caught a small boat over to our boat, I mean cruise ship, and were given a welcome drink.  The ship was lovely. Cabins on the bottom and middle floor.  A restaurant on the middle floor and a seating area on the top deck. The room was so cool.  Big double bed with a private bathroom.  It was like being in a hotel.  I kept thinking about the boat trip I did back in Indonesia and it couldn't have been more different! (and it wasn't much more expensive!).  But anyway back to the cruise (I'm calling it a cruise from now on ok!!).  

There were about 18 of us on the cruise.  A mixture of people from all over Europe. After lunch we went to visit a cave and went kayaking and swimming.  Anthony was in his element as he'd always wanted to do kayaking.  Later we had a 'rainy party' on the top deck, as it had decided to rain that evening.  We met a nice couple from Leeds/Preston. Tried some Vietnamese cocktails (mine was bright green looking - and tasting - like mouthwash, Anthony's bright blue!), had some B52's & beer's and went to bed.  I didn't feel like I was on a boat. Nothing to do with the amount we drank I hasten to add!!

Next day we were up early and went on the day boat as we had chosen to do kayaking.  We were with an English couple, a French couple, 3 Spanish friends and an Aussie girl.  We had breakfast on the boat and then went kayaking.  It was pretty awesome kayaking around the massive rock formations in Halong Bay.  Something I will never forget.  We had lunch on the boat, then did some more kayaking over to a small beach.  Then later we visited a Pearl Farm where we learned about how pearl's are made. I was very kindly treated to a pair of earrings from my lovely boyfriend.  Lucky lady that I am :)  We did some sunbathing on the boat and then went back to our cruise ship. Didn't have such a late night that night and we were both a bit sunburnt!  We did attempt to do some squid fishing but to no avail.

The final day on the cruise we were both pretty tired but we were up early to visit a small fishing village.  It was chucking it down and I could have quite easily stayed in bed.  Once I was there we were transfered to a small fishing boat, just myself, Anthony, the English couple and a local lady.  She gave us some Vietnamese hats to wear whilst she rowed us around the fishing village for about an hour.  The trip was actually really nice and not what I had expected.  It was calm and peaceful and the views were lovely.  Back on the cruise ship we did a cooking class... well, we learned how to make fresh spring rolls which was quite fun!  We had lunch and then before we knew it we were back in Halong Bay.  The trip was amazing, such a great experience and you never know, you may find me on a cruise ship in the future... I said maybe!!!

Vietnam: Sapa

Tired and weary, we arrived into a rainy Sapa whilst the sun was coming up.  Wow it was just stunning here.  Calm and peaceful, so different to Hanoi. There were no taxi's around so we walked to our hotel...ok we got a taxi ride for aprox 10seconds as we didn't know where we were going, but let's not go into that!  The owner of the hotel opened up for us and we went straight to our room to sleep. Shattered!  Our room had a little balcony which overlooked the mountains and trees.  I felt like I was in the clouds.  Gorgeous. We had a pretty chilled day with more eating, drinking and walking and booked a trek for the following day.

We were collected by our guide for the trek.  Well I say our guide as I was a bit confused by the amount of local ladies with us...About 15 in total.  We felt like the Pied Piper! They were all dressed in the traditional dress and most of them spoke good English.  The trek was so good.  The views, wow I've never seen anything like it.  The photos below are just from my Iphone so I'm hoping the one's on my camera are better.  Green hills and rice terraces as far as the eye could see.  Little villages.  Streams. It was so quiet and peaceful and it smelt so fresh.  Sapa is actually really close to China and I felt like I was in another country.  We were really lucky with the weather too as it's rainy season but the sun shone for us all day. The 14km trek was good but one annoying thing was the local ladies (who had previously been all nice and friendly), tried to sell us handicrafts (supposedly hand made) at lunchtime and at the end.  They were really persistent and we both got ripped off after we found out how much other's had paid.  In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a lot of money to us but probably a lot to them. You just have to suck it up sometimes.

The next day we walked to Cat Cat village to see the waterfall.  Again the scenery was just out of this world. Breathtaking.  I didn't feel like I was there (if you know what I mean!).  We decided to go it alone for this trip and it was nice to relax and enjoy the views, knowing I wasn't going to get hassled by the ladies.  Later we caught the sleeper night bus back to Hanoi.  Apologies if you read this on Facebook but for those that didn't, this is what happened!

We arrived into Hanoi at 2.30am... we were supposed to arrive at 5/6am as we were going to the local bus station to catch the bus to Halong Bay. So arriving at 2.30am we had no hotel and we hadn't slept a wink as the bus driver was mental, going far too fast and beeping his horn every 2 minutes.  We walked around trying to find somewhere to sleep for a few hours... the rain started coming down really heavy with thunder and lightening!  We tried a few hotels but nothing was open.  We found a hotel that was open and noticed they had hourly rates.  Not thinking about it, we booked a room.  It was only for a few hours.  We got to the room and it stank of stale smoke.  Then we noticed a massive mirror on the wall.  Yes we had booked ourselves into a prostitute hotel!!  Anthony managed to sleep but I think I had 30mins.  The smell was awful and I was confused as to why there were towels on the pillow???

We got up at 6am, very delirious and booked a taxi to take us to the bus station.  It was still chucking it down.  The taxi driver spoke no English and stopped a few times pointing at google maps on his phone. We had no idea what he was trying to say.  Then we arrived at the station.  Got out and realised we were at the train station with the same name.  I lost my cool a bit then.  Luckily Anthony was on hand with free wifi and google maps.  The bus station was 5-10min walk away.  Hurrah!  We walked there and asked for the bus to Halong Bay.  There was a bus waiting ready to depart.  It left 30mins after the scheduled time and we knew then, this journey might not go as planned.  We watched the TV which played Vietnamese music videos. The bus journey should have taken 3 hours.  5 hours later we arrived.  The bus picked up every man and his dog. At one of the many stops I went to the toilet and it drove off without me!!!!  I just sat there alone hoping it would return.  Thankfully it did as Anthony also had my mobile!  Then at one point it broke down. And the music video's were on repeat.  Longest day ever!  We decided at that point that we didn't care how much it would cost.  No more local buses!!!!!

Vietnam: Hanoi

I'm not sure if you were aware but I actually didn't go straight from Laos to Vietnam.  I was a wee bit sneaky and caught an overnight sleeper train to Bangkok from Laos (comfy beds but didn't sleep well as it was pretty noisy... and I was very excited like a small kid!). I then spent the day and night in Bangkok which was most enjoyable doing some shopping, and going to the cinema to see Hercules for just $1.80 (that's 1 pound 80p... this computer doesn't have the symbol!). Then the next morning I caught the train to the airport as I booked myself on the same plane as my boyfriend to Hanoi.  You should have seen me sneaking around the airport, trying not to bang into him (and also trying to find him!). I managed to bang into 2 Northern Irish girls I'd met in Chiang Mai a month before... small world!).  Eventually I found him waiting at the departure gate.  I shouted his name and his face was a picture! He just gazed at me as if I wasn't there. He he!  It was so lovely to see him and we caught the flight together which was a great start to our 3 weeks together. He said he's going to get me back as he had no idea... I said we are even now after he surprised me with Faye and Lindsay coming over for my leaving weekend!!

We arrived into Hanoi and I surprised him again as I'd organised a chauffeur transfer to our hotel.  My name was on a sign in the arrivals area.  Nice!  Our hotel was lovely, really close to the old town and the staff couldn't have been more helpful.  We went for a wander in the old town.  I forgot about the crazy bikes in Vietnam (I went to Ho Chi Minh in 2009).  There are no rules here... if a traffic light is red, they still drive.  If a street is one way, they still go down it the wrong way.  And the noise from the bikes! Ahh!  We walked around the Lake which was beautiful.  Then we tried some street food - Nem (battered & deep fried pork).  OMG it was delicious! It came with a spicy tomato sauce.... I was in food heaven!  We sat on tiny seats (imagine small kids plastic seat with no back) and along with a iced tea and the locals nearby, we enjoyed the craziness of the city.  We went to another street nearby with loads of bars, which also had the same seats.  Enjoying a beer, all of a sudden everyone started to get up and move the seats back inside.  Then the Police came.  Yes the bars aren't supposed to have the seats on the street!  Shame as it was really fun!  But alas, it wasn't long before the Police left and all the bars moved the seats back outside.  Brilliant!  We went to another couple of bars and then to bed.

The next couple of days were spent exploring Hanoi.  We visited the temple in the Lake and the Literature Temple (both stunning).  Walked a LOT!  Drank a LOT!  Ate lots of local food (I especially enjoyed it when I ordered Bun Cha - soup with pork and noodles - and found a really long hair in it.  UUgggghh!  Sorry if this makes you feel a bit sick, it's making me queasy thinking about it!).  We went to the Ca Tru Club where we listened to live traditional Vietnamese music in a beautiful setting.  One of the highlights of Hanoi though was the cooking class.  We saw it advertised at the Little Hanoi restaurant in the old quarter and I'd heard from other travellers that it's a cool thing to do and you get to eat the food you've made (yes please!).  When we arrived it was just us and the chef (Tien).  We learned to cook 4 meals; spring rolls with a dip, papaya salad, Chinese 5 spice chicken and fried aubergines.  The chef was really good and his English was spot on.  He even made a swan out of a tomato.  As you do!  After a couple of hours, we got a sit down and enjoy the fruits of our labour.  OMG it was just so good! I'm not just saying that because we made it (well helped to make it) but the flavour combinations, WOW! Throughout Vietnam we tried a lot of spring rolls and none came close to the one's we had here.  I hope we can recreate it when we get home!

We tried to book seats on the train to Sapa a few days in advance, but they didn't have sleeper beds available so we decided to go for a night bus. I'd heard the buses were pretty good in Vietnam and the price was cheap so why not!  The beds were proper flat beds, a bit like a business class seat on a plane (ok a little bit like that!).  And they had wifi on the bus! Pretty cool! I managed to sleep but Anthony didn't.  I think he was too excited (we both felt like kids on a school trip!!). Finally, after a lot of twisty roads, around 5am, we arrived into the beautiful mountains of Sapa.