We arrived in Hanoi at 6am on 2nd November. The guide book is full of warnings about scams...yet we landed face to face with the most popular! The bus driver and the so called manager come out from the hotel where we said we wanted to go and they said it was full. We should have stood our ground and checked it out ourselves, however at this point we had been awake for over 24 hours and were both exhausted. The so called manager showed us his other hotel, which was fine so we didn't argue and took the room.
Hanoi is a sea of motor bikes, and the noise from the roads is crazy. To us the roads look like a death trap but as you study them more and more you see its organised chaos, and it works perfectly. There will be over 50 bikes coming towards you but you just have to walk straight across the road at a steady pace..not too fast and never stop or its game over! It took a while getting used to it.
Hanoi had a great feel to it. Lots of little roads full of street food cafes but its tricky to see them through the amount of traffic. The hussle and bussle of the city life surrounds a beautiful and perfectly still lake. In the middle of the lake is a beautiful Temple. Named, 'The Temple of Literature'.
From Hanoi we arranged a tour to go to Ha Long Bay. I cannot describe how beautiful Ha Long Bay is, it wouldn't do it justice. Its a world heritage site where 3000 or more incredible islands rise from the stunning still waters part of the Gulf of Tonkin.
We took part in the Hanoi Backpackers Tour- which was basically a huge party boat. We were with great people all our own age. In the day time we jumped off the top o f the boat into the emerald waters...and then we kayaked around all the hidden lagoons and beautiful caves.
In Hanoi we booked a 'jump on jump off' sleeper bus. The bus included 6 stop offs and lasted one month, costly us only $49.
Our first stop was Hue. The bus journey took 18 hours in total. The bus had beds on rather than normal seats. Our first experience was fine. Although its a very long time, it surprisingly went a lot quicker than we predicted.
Hue was a great little place. We had a lovely hotel for just $8 a night. A lady who worked there called Hong was very welcoming and became a very good friend of ours.
We experienced Hue market which was wonderful...it sold so many beautiful things, and the fruit and veg section was great!
The next day we did a cooking course together. So when we arrived in the morning we headed straight back to Hue market to buy all the ingredients for the dishes we were going to make. We bought fresh garlic, onions, shrimps, pork, chilies beef bone, and fresh rice noodles.
It was a great cooking course as it was only Berwyn and I. We made fresh and fried spring rolls, Hue speciality pancake. Which is a deep friend really crispy pancake filled like a spring roll with pork and shrimp too. It was yummy! We are definitely cooking it when we get home! The third dish we made was Beef Noodle Soup- Pho. Probably the most popular dish in Vietnam- very delicious.
The next day we planned to leave Hue, but the rain came down and literally didn't stop! So when we woke up to leave the roads were like rivers and there was no traffic on the roads which was the strangest part! We were stuck in Hue. They had turned the entire towns electric off because the water level was over the main wires. So all we could do was wait....
Hoi An was the next stop down the country. The bus took 6 hours this time, so not as long as before. Hoi an is famous for its tailors. Unfortunately we didn't get anything made as it was still really expensive and anything we bought we would have had to lug around with us. So we figured we'll wait until India!
We found Cafe 43- which was fantastic- amazing food and the local fresh draft beer was 300 Dong which is about 14p!
We took a tour to My Son- which is beautiful old Hindu Temples, but nothing compared to Angkor Wat we were told!
On our last last day in Hoi An we did another cooking course- it was a lovely posh restaurant called White Lotus and was fantastic! This time we made, 'Papaya Shrimp and Pork Salad', Çau lau (which is a local noodle dish where they use water from a special well to cook the noodles in) and finally 'Fish Claypot'.
From Hoi An we had to get on another night bus which took 12 hours. When we entered the bus we all chose our beds whilst the bus driver was shouting at us all because he wanted the westerners to sit by the stinky toilet but we were all refusing. After 2 hours we stopped for a snack and toilet break for 10 mins. When we all got back on the bus I realised that a Vietnamese lady had nicked my bed and thrown all my belongings out! I told her it was where I had been sleeping but she just looked at me like a was stupid and turned over so I just gathered all my stuff and headed for the only empty bed left which was on the top deck with no safety bar. I climbed up and tried to get settled as I knew I still had 10 hours to go!
At 5am we arrived in Nha Trang.Nobody knew where abouts we all were so we just had to jump on the back of motor bike taxi's and pray they would take us to a nice safe hotel. Luckily they did!
Nha Trang is the touristy beach area of Vietnam. The beach was beautiful and there were lots of nice restaurants. One afternoon Berwyn got brave enough to Para sail down the coast! He loved it.
We decided to do some diving in Nha Trang as we hadn't dived since Malaysia. We chose a great dive company called Sailing Club- it was brilliant. Our dive master was a lovely girl from Wales! We saw an octopus on the second dive- so that was great! Just diving in Vietnam was a great experience alone!
After the beach we headed up to the mountains, Da Lat. It was very beautiful. The days were still hot but the evening got really cool. We even had some red wine at night to warm us up!
We took an easy rider tour. Which is basically a motor bike tour with a man who was in the army so he has great English and is very knowledgeable. My guy was called Tin Tin! He was brilliant. We went to lots of great places. From a flower farm to a minority village to a silk factory.
Mui Ne was our next stop. This was another beach town but very quiet and less built up. It was beautiful,the sea was full kite surfers.
We went on a day trip around Mui Ne which included fresh water springs, Sand Dunes and visiting the fishing village. During our walk in the springs Berwyn noticed a field which was doing Ostrich rides for the equivalent of a pound!
The Sand Dunes were quite spectacular. Although they were ripping everyone off by trying to get us to use an overpriced quad bike! So we opted for the other choice which was a sledge, that was much cheaper....but a load of rubbish!! We didn't move anywhere, but we laughed about it!
Finally after six mega bus journeys down the coast we arrive in Saigon, now called Ho Chin Min City right at the bottom of Vietnam. We felt so relieved and satisfied that we had completed our epic journey from the very top of Vietnam to the very bottom!
HCMC was another wild city- with millions of motor bikes- we found out that there is an equal amount of motor bikes as there is people in HCMC!
It took a while to find a nice room as the standard of rooms had dropped compared to the rest of Vietnam, but we found a nice one in the end, owned by a lovely family who didn't speak any English but they were so smiley!
One day we took a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels.These were the tunnels that the Vietnamese soldiers used during the wars. The tunnels were tiny and really hot. Berwyn went inside and lasted until 40 metres. It said it was really difficult and extremely hot. Even though our guide said that they had made them bigger for tourist and have even added air holes!
After seeing the Tunnels we headed back to HCMC and visited the War Remnants Museum. This was extremely disturbing. The section on Agent Orange was awful. They displayed hundreds of photographs of people, families, children and babies that had suffered from the gas. There were even preserved fetus's on display. It was a really difficult afternoon, but I'm glad we went and saw what we did. I even thought to myself that in hindsight I would have preferred to have visit the museum at the beginning of our time in Vietnam rather than the end of our trip. I felt that we would have perhaps understood the people more and knowing more about the dreadful time that they went through, and what they are still living with today.
As we were fast approaching our visa deadline we searched around HCMC for ways to travel to Cambodia. We found that we could travel along the Mekong Delta, which would take 3 days and 2 nights. We thought that this was a great option as we had taken our fair share of buses! And flying makes you miss out on the scenery so much.
The trip was beautiful. We visited so many wonderful places.We saw amazing floating villages, and went to see how they make coconut sweets which was really interesting . There we also sampled Rice Wine, Banana Wine, Coconut Wine and Snake Wine...my favourite was the Coconut one!
We also visited a fruit farm, watched local traditional performance (which was interesting to say the least!!)
Night 1 of the tour we opted to stay in our first Vietnamese Home Stay. We were collected by a tiny boat with a couple from Estonia and a guy from Sweden. The boat trip to the Home Stay was incredible. Every sight was untouched beauty. There were no other boats on the still calm river- just us, and the sun was going down. All the homes on the river bank were still under water from SE Asia flooding.
When we arrived we were greeted by Huong who was the father. He showed us around his beautiful home and introduced us to his mother, wife, and children.
In the evening we all sat down in the courtyard for a wonderful feast. Just before we started we were joined by 3 other girls who were running late. Two of them Becci and Donna were from Liverpool and the other one Ruth was from Ireland. The girls were great fun! We made our own spring rolls and there was a huge selection of small dishes and one huge fish in the centre of the table.
After the meal Houng spoke more about his family life and we learnt how they live. He showed how they clean the dirty river water with a big crystal thing, which makes the water clean enough to drink, cook with and clean white clothes! Then we sat back around the table and Huong gave us some 'Happy Water'- which is also known as Rice Wine..and pretty lethal! So we all stayed up for quite a while drinking Happy Water and having a great evening.
The next morning we had to get up at 5am as we were going for a tour of the village. I had an awful hangover but got up anyway as didn't want to miss the opportunity. We took a ting canoe over the river to get to the market. When we thought it was already full of locals they piled us lot in....we all had to stand with awful hangovers and no balance! And when you thought it couldn't get any worse...another girl jumps on with her bicycle!
After the tour of the village we said our goodbyes and thank yous to the extremely kind family and off we went- along with the bed bugs I had got from the mattress I slept on!!
Our last in Vietnam was great, still on the Mekong Delta we explored even more and visited a Muslim minority village where they showed how they traditionally make silk and all the beautiful clothes. In the afternoon we arrived in Chau Doc which is on the boarder of Cambodia. Here is a huge Pagoda. A Buddhist Building, a p;ace for the monks to spend there time. It was very beautiful- the best I have ever seen. It felt like a really special place. Back in England a very close friend Lorraine had passed away and Theresa my great Aunt was extremely ill in hospital, so here I lit a Joss stick and send a prayer for them both. As a local lady said that the Vietnamese travel huge distances to this place to say prayers for loved ones.
Our final evening in Vietnam was in a not so nice hotel..but it was fine as all our friends were staying there too. WE went out to a local restaurant which was really simple but great fun. We sat with the locals and had a very fun night!
The next morning we left the hotel before 6am and headed on the boat to Cambodian boarder. Everyone was a little nervous and didn't know hat to expect as we had all heard horror stories of them charging way above the price for the visas. Luckily everything went really smoothly and our first impression of Cambodia was a positive one! All the children were shouting 'hello' and waving and the adults smiled, from that point we knew Cambodia was going to be a very friendly place!
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