So we were in 'Nam'
After a very grueling 20 hour flight in which the airline played a very dull film about murderous Christians four times and Men in Black 3 twice (don't fly with China Southern!) we arrived in Hanoi.
It was around 12.30am by the time we got to our hotel (Diamond Holiday Hotel) so had to wake the manager and bell boy who had made themselves a little make-shift bed in the reception area. (Something that we noticed happens a lot in Vietnam) After a quick check in it was straight to bed for us so we could enjoy Hanoi the next day.
Hanoi is a crazy, crazy city with so many motorbikes it's unreal.
They seem to have priority over everywhere and everyone. Cars work around them and pedestrians hope they simply survive crossing the street.
Don't hesitate, just walk out, keep going, and hope for the best!
People nap on their bikes and just generally seem to hang around the street and eat (amazing food for ridiculously cheap prices) before its time to speed off with 5 people on a motorbike!
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| Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz |
Our hotel was right in the middle of the Old Quarter which was a great location and we had a great selection of tourist attractions, shops, restaurants and bars all in walking distance.
We visited the Temple of Jade Mountain which is on Hoan Kiem Lake and there you can see an embalmed giant turtle which was pretty cool. The legend behind the turtle is that in the fifteenth century, an Emperor named Lê Lợi had a magic sword given to him by Kim Qui, the Golden Turtle God. So it goes Lê Lợi was out boating on a lake in Hanoi when a large turtle surfaced, took Lê Lợi's sword, and dove back into the water. The sword and turtle couldn't be found so Lê Lợi decided the sword had gone back to the Golden turtle God and renamed the lake Hoan Kiem Lake (or Ho Guom), "The Lake of the Returned Sword".
After this we headed back on the boat and sailed to a quiet spot to anchor for the night. As the sun hadn't quite set we could jump off the boat and swim in the sea. I only did a small jump (nearly drowning in Thailand when I did the cliff jump has scarred me for life) but Wal continued jumping as high as he could for a good hour until he was the only one left.....and then he still kept going!
After a bit of night fishing we had an awesome meal in the evening and then it was karaoke time. Wal disappeared fairly quickly to our room when this started but I stuck around for some bad renditions of 'Sweet child of mine' and 'Uptown girl' mixed with a fair few shots of rice wine courtesy of the crew!
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| Wal catching tiddlers |
After a good nights sleep in our private room (That strangely, had interior that resembled swastikas??) we woke up bright and early to watch the sun come up over Halong Bay. It was amazing .
Breakfast was questionable (I pretty much just ate some cucumber and a hard egg) and then we hungrily cruised to our next destination.
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| Halong Bay Sunrise |
We first docked at Cat Ba Island but as we had been told that the Island was a bit of a haven for irritating backpackers and bad Karaoke bars (we are such snobs) we had arranged to go to Monkey Island instead. So another short boat ride later we arrived at Monkey Island and we were so happy we had made that decision. The island is very small with 2 main beaches that have resorts on them. The staff showed us to our bungalow and it was exactly what we had hoped it would be. A small thatched hut on the beach with simply a bed and a bathroom/wet room. (Plus with an added bonus of electricity and air-con!) Perfect.
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| An agile Wally getting off the boat |
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| Our Home on Monkey Island |
After lunch we spent our afternoon away from the rest of the group (as a small number of them where particularly irritating and extremely rude and disrespectful of the Vietnamese) and went on a climb/hike over to the other side of the island to laze on the beach and swim in the sea.
We had a lovely buffet style meal in the evening and the only sad thing was that we had to leave the next morning. It would have been nice to have been able to stay an extra day.
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| Sunset over Monkey Island |
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| Sailing back to the mainland |
We were back on the mainland by lunchtime the next day and then a 4 hour bus ride back to Hanoi. Although the bus ride back seemed to take forever it was nice to see rural Vietnam and I noticed how a lot of the homes and architecture reminded me of France. Slim, townhouse style homes with slat windows and balconies. Very pretty.
Back in Hanoi we stayed at the Diamond Holiday Hotel again as it was so good and we had an early start the next day for our flight to Danang.
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| Enjoying some of Hanoi's finest. |
We hadn't really been told anything about Danang prior to arriving except it was a place you needed to fly into to get to Hoi An. (Which was where we were heading) Danang was the first place the US Marines came ashore to join the in with the war so we thought it might be interesting to visit and decided to stay a night. If anyone is thinking of doing the same don't bother. Apart from the Museum of Cham Sculpture that has some cool Cham Sculpture from sites all over Vietnam there is absolutely nothing to do and the people who live there are very upfront in making it clear they don't like tourists. 'F*** You' was shouted to us a few times and even from a small child. Friendly place. Maybe staying along the beach rather than in the city centre would have been better but we didn't stick around to find out and took a taxi to Hoi An as soon as we could.
Hoi An had been recommended to us by several people and we were not let down. We loved it from the start. Initially we had only booked to stay for 2 nights and within a few hours we had booked an extra 2! Our hotel, the An Hoi Hotel, (So many An Hoi's, Hoi Ans, Hanoi's Im getting confused writing this!) was in a perfect location, situated along the river that runs through the town and only minutes away from the town centre, bars and restaurants. Its a beautiful town with a lot of history and it shows within the local architecture and heritage sites.
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| Huge Dragon Sculpture made from broken china |
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| Goat Balls |
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| Bang Bang |
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| Wally praying to the gods |
One of the main tourist draws to Hoi An is that it's known as 'the place' to get custom made clothing. Everyone, and I mean 'EVERYONE' is either a tailor or has a 'friend' who is a tailor and they are always pushing for you to see them. We were accosted in the taxi before we had even got to the hotel.
"Apparently" the taxi driver didn't know where the hotel was and a girl who was on the back of a motorbike pulled up beside us then got in the taxi to "show him the way" all the while touting she was a tailor and giving us her business card. Sneaky.
I got suckered in and had some custom made boots. However, what I learnt from getting these boots is-
'BE VERY SPECIFIC IN WHAT YOU WANT'
and
'MAKE SURE YOU HAVE TIME TO GET THEM ALTERED'
I am now the proud owner of some very comfortable good quality leather boots that make my feet look like long boats.
Our time in Hoi An was awesome. We ate some of the best food Vietnam has to offer (Fresh Vietnamese Rolls, Eggplant Hot Pots and Fish baked in Banana Leaf with Chilli, Lemongrass and Havana rum (mmmmmmmmm) were my personal favourites) and we were able to wash it down with 4000VND beer. (About 20c/15p) Yey Hoi An!
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| Cheapest beer ever with an addition of floating people for free!!! |
We rented bikes from our hotel for $1 a day and cycled to the beach which was about 20 minutes away, the sea was very rough though so stuck to sunbathing. Hard Life.
We had a great lunch on a longboat that was also a family home and had a good laugh with the local people trying to sell us souvenirs. The lines the Vietnamese often use on you when bartering are 'C'mon Darling', or 'C'mon Man' and after finding out we are English 'Lovely Jubbly' These even came from the 6 year olds which was extremely amusing and made you laugh so much you bought whatever they where selling. We wandered through the markets, narrow streets and heritage sites and got a real taste of Vietnam. It's such a pretty town, especially at night when everything is lit up.
I think one day we may be back in Hoi An............
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| Long Boat lunch |
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Look no stabilisers!
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| Hoi An all sparkly |
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So after our Hoi An holiday it was back to Danang (ughhhh) but only to the airport (yey!) to fly to Ho Chi Minh City. I had heard that this city was a crazy place and that was an understatement. We stayed at Kim 2 hotel in the middle of backpacker central, Pham Ngu Lao. Ho Chi Minh is a city that never ever EVER sleeps. There is a constant sound of 'beep beep beep beep' from thousands of motorbikes and cars, a constant hassle (even when your hidden in a restaurant) of the locals trying to sell you something you don't want and a constant fear that your gonna get run over. I just found it one big headache. Thankfully we were only staying 2 days and had plans for both of them.
Day 1 we walked to the War Remnant Museum. Outside you can wander around several American planes, helicopters and tanks and also see models of guillotines and tiger cages that where used to imprison the Viet Cong. Inside is huge selection of photographs from the war, some pretty brutal, and displays of guns and other artillery. As interesting as it was I came out knowing very little about the Vietnam War. The whole place is extremely propagandist, exploiting all the wrong doings the Americans did but showed non of the brutality of what the Vietnamese or Viet Cong did. I left very confused by it all.
Day 2 in Ho Chi Minh was a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. (Pronounced "Caaaaoooo Chi". Saying it quickly, Cu Chi means something rude in Vietnamese which we think was vagina but people would just laugh without confirming!)
It took about 2½ hours to get there on a very cramped bus (again, I think it was only about 30km away but the traffic is horrendous) but we had a nice stop at a workshop where locals made amazing artwork and ornaments from egg shells.
The tour was really interesting, our guide (Puppy) was really informative and his dad had been in the war so he had a lot of stories to tell. Apparently the tunnels run for about 250km and go 3 levels underground and the purpose of them was for the Viet Cong to live and be able to hide from the Americans during the war. The Viet Cong (including, woman and children) lived underground for about 16 years. Crazy.
For tourist purposes, they have made some of the tunnels bigger so we could explore. They were still so tiny! A lot of the entrances are hidden (so the Americans could not see them) but some had been dug out so we could enter easily(ish). We headed down and had to crawl through them on all fours and in some parts it was just pitch black. Every so often you would get to a 'room' which may have been a kitchen or meeting room and you could stand up in these. How people lived in these for so long and raised families is amazing. We had about 5 minutes in them and that was enough.
Another interesting fact that was told was that when the Americans were trying to find the Viet Cong one of the ways they could be spotted was by sun marks on their feet. The Viet Cong sandals were always made with a 'X' shape over the toes but Vietnamese sandals were never made like this so they could just check a persons feet and that would be enough to confirm them as Viet Cong.
Bang Bang for you!
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| 'X' marks the spot |
We saw lots of home made weapons and booby traps that looked brutal and extremely painful if you got hurt by them.
The club didn't really represent anything about the film, they had a few posters up and some sandbags and that's pretty much it. Some cool artwork though.
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| Artwork in the club |
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| Wal's new security job |
So that was our Vietnam adventure! There were a few places more I would have liked to have had the chance to visit but we just didn't have the time.
But there's always next time.
Our last morning in Vietnam was spent having a few beers (It was cheaper than a bottle of water or a coffee!) and then heading to the Airport to fly to the wonder that is Bangkok......................
