Hanoi and Halong Bay

After Hue we got a sleeper bus to Hanoi, this wasn't an enjoyable journey. We were nearly the last to get on so had the worst seats, right at the very back of the bus, no headroom and 3 beds in a row, to top it off the 3 bed, next to me, was occupied by a smelly fat man. The journey was 12 hours and we arrived in Hanoi at 6.30 am. The walk to our hotel from the bus stop took us though some parks that surrounded some of Hanoi's many lakes. Despite it being so early in the morning the park was full of local people doing their morning exercise, playing badminton, running, Tai Chi, dancing and other more obscure routines. It was unusual to see but a nice walk through the park.

We spent two days in Hanoi before we went to visit Halong Bay. Hanoi is so busy it is crazy, it might not have the voume of traffic as HCMC but in the old quarter the streets are narrow so it feels a lot busier. During our two days we visited a water puppet show which was surpisingly good, walked around some of the lakes, visited the Temple of Literature and the Ho Chi Minh museum.

The water puppet show



Hoan Kiem Lake in the centre of Hanoi old quarter

 The museum was a bit of a disappointment it didn't really have many exhibts just propergander photos and information, but the Temple of Literature was better than expected. It was really peaceful in the gardens, it was also close to a restaurant called KOTO where we had some amazing noodles.

A month or so before travelling my dad found an article in the paper about Hanoi which recommended a few places to eat so we got to try these out, the highlight was some fried crab spring rolls, Leanne can't stop talking about them still! (If anyone else has any tips or places to go then feel free to let us know)

The weather was pretty wet, dull and cold when we were there, we miss the sunshine! All of this added to the traffic and chaos of the city made us enjoy the peace of Halong Bay a lot more. Halong Bay is about 3 hours east of Hanoi and is made up of about 1969 limestone islands which rise from the emerald water.

We both don't like this photo but it is a rare one of us together!

We chose to do a 3 day 2 night trip with one night spent on a junk (boat) and one on Cat Ba island which is the largest of the islands in Halong.

Sailing around and through the islands was incredible, it was winter time however which meant it was again a bit rainy and misty but the mist made it feel a bit more mysterious. This ranks up with the Angkor Temples with the best thing we have done/seen so far.

(At this point we would have liked to put one of our videos showing us sailing around but the internet in Laos is painfully slow, maybe we will put one on later if we find a decent internet connection anywhere)

We stopped off at the 'surprising caves' which were on one of the many islands. From the outside it just looked like any other but once inside it was breathtaking. The inner geographer in Leanne came out and she was in heaven (even though she claims to be a human geographer). I don't think we could describe it that well so here are some pictures:

After the caves we got to go kayaking to a fishing village which was really interesting. Apparently the people spend most of their life on the water and so don't walk very far, this means that when they do go on to shore they get really tired easily when walking. Despite us being both first time kayakers we managed to navigate our way round and avoid capsizing!
When we anchored for the night I couldn't resist a dip, it was too cold for Leanne though, Southern softy! Or sensible as she calls it.

We then had food on the boat which was surprisingly good followed by some squid fishing (we caught nothing which just adds to our poor fishing record) and karaoke with the other people onboard. I don't think they were quite ready for our note perfect rendition of Take That's 'Back for Good'.

The next day we sailed to Cat Ba island, most of the people on the boat were just staying for 1 night so it was just us and an English couple who were really friendly and who we had drinks with on the boat. On Cat Ba we went to the national park and climbed to the top of a hill. The climb was a bit ropey in parts with metal ladders resting up against the rocks helping us climb, which was made worse by the wet weather. This didn't pose any problem however for our 60year old guide, she was practically running up whilst we were all out of breath, at one point she was literally swing from a vine making monkey noises.
Once at the top the view was pretty good but a little limited by the mist.

At the top there was a metal tower that you could climb up to get a view from higher up, I didn't fancy it, it looked a bit of a scary walk up the open metal stairs but Leanne was braver than me and decided to have a look. When Leanne returned with these pictures I feel I made the correct decision.

Long way down!

Leanne: It was only until I was half way up the slippery stairs that I realised just how dangerous it was, I tried not to imagine tripping and falling down! As you can see getting to the top didn't help with my nerves...

This greets you as you reach the top!

 It was a shame that the view was not massively different from the view from where Rob was, just cloudy and misty!
We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves to explore Cat Ba town, there wasn't much to see though. We went for a few drinks with the English couple, our new friends, in the evening. The next day we had to be up early to get a bus to the other side of the island where we would get back onboard the boat and sail one last time through the limestone islets to Halong City where we got the bus back to Hanoi.

One last shot before we left.

We arrived back in Hanoi around 5pm and had another local dish for dinner, Cha Ca La Vong. There is one restaurant that specialises in this and only serves it. There weren't many other westerns in there making it feel more authentic. You are served a cooker in which chunks of fish are cooking in a saffron oil, you then add mixed herbs, greens and chilli to your taste and add to a bowl of noodles. It was really good.


The next day we woke early to try another place popular with the locals, it serves Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) a staple of the Vietnamese diet, and is only open 7am - 11am. It was really busy and again we were the only westerners there, the Pho was amazing, probably our best in Vietnam.

Later that day we got a 24 hour sleeper bus to Vientiene, Laos if only it were that easy. Firstly we were told we would be picked up at 5pm, they didn't come till 6.30. And when they did it was a man on a scooter who shouted follow me and sped off through the hectic saturday traffic. We tried to keep up but weighed down with our rucksacks we weren't as nimble or quick. This is when Leanne was 'hit' by the motorbike ( I am sure most of you have seen her Facebook status) We would like to reassure everyone that she is ok and got away with only a tyre mark on her trousers. Thankfully in all the traffic they can't build up much speed.
We eventually found him next to a 7 seater taxi, and 5 other tourists, we all managd to squeeze in with our luggage. The taxi then followed the man on the motorbike and dropped us off in the middle of nowhere and we were told to wait here. About 5 minutes later the motorbike man drives by and shouts 'follow me' again. We were led to a cafe in the middle of nowhere with about 20 other people waiting for the bus. When we arrived, by this time it was just after 7 he informed us the bus would be here at 8. At this point we hated him, but there wasn't much we could do except wait. 8 came and went, 9 came and went and finally at 10pm 5 hours after it was due the bus arrived. Because the Vietnamese either can't count, can't be bothered to or most likely wanted to make as much money as they can two people ended up not having a seat, so would be spending the next 24 hours on the floor.

If only it ended here, during the journey we picked up about 6 Vietnamese people, I guess this is the drivers way to make a little extra cash. So at one point there were 8 people in the aisles of the bus. Then at the
Laos border we all had to get off and go through the border and get our visas etc. When we got back on one girl found that her phone was missing from bag. Her friend called it and we all could hear it ringing near the driver, he acted dumb though and tried to say he couldn't hear anything, eventually we found it under his seat. So he had obviously tried to steal it, luckily we had taken all our bags with us when we went through the border. It's at times like these that you feel so helpless, we couldn't do anything about. One passenger tried to tell the police at the border but they just waved him away. So we spent the rest of the journey, 8 hours, being driven by the driver who we knew had tried to steal from us, he didn't even seem bothered that he got caught. Our worst journey so far!

We were relieved to arrive in Laos where it was alot quieter and friendlier than Vietnam. The experience on the bus soured our last thoughts of Vietnam which is a shame as we had enjoyed most of our time there.

We have now spent 5 days in Laos and will update you all with what we have been up to in our next blog...

Gong Hay Fat Choi (Happy Chinese New Year)

Central Vietnam...Eventually

Firstly a long overdue Happy New Year to everyone!

Leanne had some spare time one day

It has been a while since our last post but it has been difficult to find a decent computer to do it on. For some reason in some areas of Vietnam Facebook, Hotmail, and other social media sites like the blog are restricted. Now we are in Laos we can finally update you all with the last few weeks!

Picking up from the last blog we visited the sand dunes on our second day in Mui Ne. This was both beautiful and infuriating: the beautiful part was the sand dunes. They were very picturesque and a refreshing change of scenery. However we (mainly me, rob) decided it would be fun to rent a quad bike to ride on them. We had 20 minutes to play about on it the first 5 were fun but then it stopped and wouldn't start again, after 5 minutes someone finally came and fixed it only for it to break down again. When another person eventually came to fix it he couldn't and told me my time was up and to go back on his. I wasn't happy! I drove back, feeling cheated and asked for either half the money back or another 10 minutes which we had paid for. He was not very cooperative to say the least and after spending a good 10 minutes arguing with him in English he decided that he could no longer speak or understand English.
Leanne: I didn't want to get a quad in the first place and spent the time that it worked holding on for dear life on a seat that was designed for one person. Then when Rob got in a strop I left him to squabble with the man whilst I got a slide and slid down the dunes and took some nice shots. Enjoy:

Can you spot the 'moon' behind us??

From Mui Ne we got the bus to Nha Trang and then got a sleeper train to Danang and then finally another bus to Hoi An. We left Mui Ne at 1pm on one day and arrived in Hoi An around noon the next. It was a long journey but an enjoyable one. I really liked getting the sleeper train. Each cabin had 4 bunks, 2 bottom and and 2 top. Me and Leanne had the top two whilst an old Vietnamese couple had the bottom, although we are certain that the woman changed half way during the journey.

We spent 4 nights in Hoi An, it is an old French colonial town on the river. All the buildings in the old quarter were in the same style and colour, a pastel yellow.



Although we can't rotate this is one of Leanne's favourite photos so she wanted to put it on anyway

 It is renowned for its tailoring, in the past in was an important town for the silk trade and it has kept its tailoring traditions. I decided that I would get 2 suits and a shirt made for when I start my job. At $270 it was pretty cheap for 2 quality tailor made suits and a shirt. Over our stay I had 3 fittings and the suits turned out good. On my final fitting the girls working there asked Leanne if she spoke Vietnamese and then when she said no proceeded to talk and giggle amongst themselves, definitely talking about how good I looked!  Lets just hope they get home, it takes 10-12 weeks so we won't find out for a while.

Poser!

We also took a day trip to the My Son ruins. These are the ruins of ancient Cham temples some dating to as far back as the 4th Century. Sadly many of the buildings were destroyed during the heavy bombing by Americans in the Vietnam war. There was still a lot to see and it reminded us of the Angkor temples just on a much smaller scale.

He's no Archie!

The weather in Hoi An was pretty wet and dull we spent most our time wandering in the old town from cafe to restaurant and ate a lot of good food.We tried a few local specialties and a few western comfort meals. Up until now we weren't that impressed with the food in Vietnam but our few days here restored our faith!

We even tried a cooking class here, as good as it sounds eating out every meal we craved a bit of cooking. We were a little disappointed with the course as our instructor was quite controlling and didn't seem to want to let us do it. But with me and Leanne both being stubborn this just had the opposite effect. When mixing the filling for the spring rolls she seemed disgusted that I used my bare hands to mix...obviously she hasn't heard of Jamie Oliver!






My mixing skills!

The finished article - Just after the photo Leanne displayed her eating skills!

On the one sunny day we had there we rented bicycles (again, this is becoming Leanne's favourite past time) and cycled to the beach.
It was a beautiful beach with the waves rolling in all along the coast. It reminded me of one of the beaches from home, although the weather and water were slightly warmer than the North Sea.

From Hoi An we got another train to Huê, this time the journey only took 3 hours and went through some of the best scenery we have experienced so far. Unfortunately it was raining and cloudy so we could not appreciate it fully but it was still beautiful through the rain. The train wound through the green mountains which dropped away to the crashing waves below. When looking out the window it seemed as ìf the train was hanging over the edge.

The best we could do through the dirty window and rain.  Google the Hoi Van Pass to get a better picture

Hue is a former capital of Vietnam and has a huge citadel on the north of the river surrounded by a moat which we spent a day looking around. Inside the citadel there is a smaller complex which was only for the Emperor. Again due to heavy American bombing a lot of this is no longer how it once was but you can still sense how regal it once was.

We try to coordinate our outfits.

Within the main citadel walls it is just people living and working so there is not that much to see. We found this out the hard way after a long day walking!

Along the river in Hue are many Emperors tombs, I think 13 in total. We visited 2 of them which are about 20km outside the city centre. They were very grand and opulent, and given they are quite remote and in the middle of jungle like terrain must have taken a lot of money and effort to build. One of them took 11 years to build and was built during a time of hardship for the people so it múst have been difficult to see all this money and work being put into making such an elaborate place for the Emperor when he died.
The two tombs were vastly diferent. One was more of a Western design and was very small in size, located on the top of a hill.

Outside the Khai Dinh Tomb



Can you spot which one is Rob?



Inside the Khai Dinh Tomb

Another in more traditional style was sprawled over a long stretch of land, and even had dedicated tombs for one of his 103 wives and another for his step child. There was also an artificial lake built to make it a more peaceful place.

In front of the lake at Tu  Doc Tomb

We also took a trip to the DMZ demilitarized zone, which ironically was the place that saw the most fighting in the Vietnam war. It was ok, but given that the places of interest were so far apart we spent most of the day on the bus, stopping for 10-20mins here and there. The best part of the trip was the Vinh Moc tunnels. These consisted of a network of underground tunnels that the Vietnamese used to hide and live in during the US bombings. It was hard to imagine whole communities living under there, at one point of unrelenting bombings, they stayed underground for 11 days straight. 17 babies were born in the tunnels, in the maternity ward that was not bigger than a double bed. Walking through the tunnels was not too bad for me (Leanne) as they were around my height, but Rob had backache after our 25minute trip.

This isn't rob lying down just a photo we still can't rotate.

This takes us up to Hanoi where we visited Halong Bay. This deserves a blog on it own and this blog is already so long, hopefully it doesn't take us another 2 weeks to update.

We hope everyone at home is good and hasn't forgotten about us despite a week or two of silence.

P.s  To everyone who attending our leaving meal on Brick Lane, especially Hannah and Kris, I'm sure you are dying to know the answer to the puzzle of the man who was in a hotel and made one phone call, didn't speak and then went to bed. He called the room next door as the man was snoring really loudly and then quickly went to sleep before the man started to snore again. I can't believe we didn't get it!!

Stay tuned....