Hello all. I can barely remember all that I have done since I last blogged, but I will attempt to tell you about some of it... So after Hoi An Alice and I made our way to Nha Trang where we headed almost immediately to the beach for some more tanning time. This would have been a pleasant and relaxing experience if it weren't for all the women walking by trying to sell you things: 'You want mango?' 'Banana banana?' 'Massage for you?' One woman actually screamed WHY?! when we said we didn't want any mango for what must have been the tenth time. Still, we struggled on and managed to brown ourselves despite all of the challenges we faced. The next day we decided to venture out to Vinpearl waterpark/amusement park, which you had to get a cable car across the sea to. When we got there it was like a ghost town, with weird music blaring out as you walked past the shops, and huge plastic clowns (it turned out these were showers) dotted around the place. We tried out some of the water slides - some were fun and others were dangerous and a little bit painful - and then decided to dry off and head to the amusement park area, where we were fortunate enough to get there in time to catch the monkey show... This involved a group of monkeys dressed in brightly coloured shiny outfits cycling round in a circle on tiny monkey-sized bicycles. One monkey was riding a tiny rickshaw, whilst a smaller monkey sat inside holding a parasol. It was most surreal, although all the locals seemed to absolutely love it and were clapping their hands with glee. We left shortly after that. We went out in the evening and bumped into a couple of girls we'd met on the bus, so ended up having a wild old time drinking cocktails and playing connect 4 with the barman, before rounding the night off with a boogy in the very swanky Sailing Club.
After Nha Trang we made our way to Dalat for a bit of mountain scenery. The town centre wasn't anything too special to look at, but as we were walking around on day one contemplating getting a post dinner pastry we bumped into Emma, a girl we'd met in Halong Bay, which was very nice indeed, so we ended up spending the day with her. We wandered around Dalat's enormous market, buying strawberry sweets and coffee, and looking at (but not buying) the table of raw eyeballs that we came across. After that we went to have a look at The Crazy House, which is a weird Gaudi-esque house/hotel, built by a local lady with some zany ideas. Apparently when it was built a lot of the locals wrote to the architect, outlining their intention to tear the house down. Walking around the house was bizarre, and at times incredibly dangerous (there were some very high, very low-walled bridges, some of which led to unfinished bits of the building where there were just pieces of wood with nails sticking out). For a mere 30 dollars you could sleep in this house, but it didn't seem like anyone had opted for that, judging by the empty rooms and the general smell of damp and mustiness. On our second day in Dalat we went on an 'easy rider' motorbike tour with Mr Lee and Ocean, who were very nice and very entertaining. They took us away from the town centre, where we got to see some amazing mountain scenery, strawberry farms, coffee plantations etc. They stopped off at a nice waterfall which was again absolutely treacherous - I was only wearing flip flops and it was raining and we had to scramble over slippery rocks to get to the waterfall. They also took us to see silk being made, which was interesting but really quite disgusting as the whole factory was filled with boiled up silk worm carcasses, and also took us to sample some special 'weasel poo coffee' - this special treat is made from the coffee beans that are eaten and then pooed out by weasels. It was quite sour. After a long day of riding on the back of motorbikes we were very happy to go back and make use of our hotel's free hot tub on the roof.
After Dalat we got a bus to Mui Ne, for some more beach time. It turned out we weren't getting a bus, just a mini bus which was so full of people that one guy had to sit on a tiny stool in the aisle by the door for the whole four hour trip. To make things worse, the roads were quite windy, and I had one woman sat next to me puking into a plastic bag for a lot of the journey. To her credit, she managed to vomit very discretely. We spent a few days in Mui Ne doing little more than lying on the beach working on our tans and watching the kite surfers. We spent all of our beach time at Coco Beach resort, where the sun loungers were the most expensive of my life ($6), but for our money we did have a whole host of beach boys ready to run over to assist us if we needed our loungers repositioning, or if the water bottle was just a touch too far from our hands to reach it...We could probably have gone on lounging around like that for days, but Alice's flight home was fast approaching and we still had Ho Chi Minh City to see, so we booked ourselves on to a bus with the ticket we'd bought in Hanoi at the beginning of the trip. When we arrived at the bus stop the next day, however, we were told that our ticket wasn't valid and we would have to pay an extra $4 each. The woman in the office mumbled something about someone having called her to say we couldn't use our tickets, and just said that the guy who'd confirmed our bus reservation the night before 'didn't know'. We were very angry about this indeed and made a huge fuss, adamant that we absolutely would not pay anymore. However, when the bus was ready to leave the driver and his pal were of a different opinion and wouldn't let us on the bus. Furious, we watched it drive off and then stomped our way up the street where we found a different bus also going to Ho Chi Minh, so we paid $6 and got on that one...
Arriving in Saigon (it's too much effort to keep writing Ho Chi Minh City) were pleasantly surprised to find that we quite liked the city, and it felt like there was a lot more space to move than in Hanoi, where all the narrow roads and pavements were clogged with motorbikes. To be fair, the roads here were also clogged with motorbikes, but they were wider roads so it felt more spacious. It turned out Alison, who I'd first met in Vientiane was also in Saigon, so we went out that evening for drinks with her and her friends, rounding off the night by drinking buckets in deck chairs on the street. A few of the girls we were drinking with had warned us to be careful as drive by bag snatchings are very common in Saigon, especially late at night, so when it was time to leave we practically ran back to the hotel firmly clutching our bags to us. We made it back unscathed and unmugged, thankfully. The next day we went off to explore the sights of Saigon - wandered around the park, had a look at Saigon's Notre Dame cathedral, strolled by the reunification palace and visited the War Remnants Musuem, which was incredibly depressing as it featured a lot of pictures of Agent Orange victims. Still feeling a bit hungover after we left the museum we had to revive ourselves with an iced coffee and a doughnut at a nearby German bakery, before going off to explore the market. Shopping at the market was quite an amusing experience. We didn't come across any more eyeballs, but you couldn't walk past a stall without someone springing up from behind it shouting 'Hello lady you buy something? Looking please! How many you want? Good price for yooouu'. The next day was Alice's last day, and we got up early to go and visit the Cu Chi tunnels, which were used for fighting/hiding during the war. This was very interesting, although crawling around inside them was quite claustrophobic and not at all pleasant. We somehow resisted the temptation to fire a gun at lunchtime, although a lot of people were very keen which was obvious from the deafening sound of gun shots which made talking over lunch impossible. Alice left that evening which was very sad indeed, so to dull the pain of loneliness I met up with Alison and her friend Dominic, and went for a few drinks in a bar, rounding off the night with an 18p fresh beer which we drank on tiny plastic stools on the side of the road. We attracted the attention of a Vietnamese man keen to practise his English, and he took a particular shine to Alison, subtly making his intentions known by asking about the meaning of a word he had written on his hand, which turned out to be 'pubic'. I woke up the next morning with the beginnings of a flu, although managed to drag myself out of bed to go for lunch with Alison and Dominic, at a very posh restaurant somewhere away from the main backpacker district, and then for some expensive mocktails at a nice restaurant overlooking the river. When I got back, however, fever had set in again so I spent the rest of the night shivering in bed.
I got up the next day feeling a bit better which was lucky as it was the last day before my Vietnam visa expired so I had to get a bus to Cambodia. The six hour journey was pretty uneventful, although a bit confusing at the border as I was the only Westerner on the bus and no one else seemed to need to faff around with getting a visa. Arrived in Phnom Penh in the evening, and met up with Lilach, a friend I made in Vientiane, who took me off to a club to meet her friends and where we danced the night away. Despite only drinking about 5 drinks I woke up the next day with an absolutely awful hangover, and all I could do until midday when Lilach knocked on my door was lie in bed moaning watching Junior Masterchef Australia. Lilach dragged me out of bed though, and we went for lunch, lay on some grass in the middle of a busy street, and then found a delightful bakery which sold delicious ice cream, and which had comfy beds to lie on in an air conditioned room where they brought you minty fresh ice cold towels to put on your face. We stayed there for a while once we found it. I then went back to my hotel, thinking that I would finally undo my braids as they had become beyond disgusting. Considering how many plaits fallen out in the three months that they'd been in, I didn't think the process would take too long. 7 hours later, at midnight, weak from hunger and covered in sweat (no air con in the room) I finished doing my hair. Exhausted, I limped outside planning to go in search of food, and spied some of the guys I'd been out with the night before drinking on their balcony. I abandoned the dinner plan and went dancing with them instead, although I did have to leave fairly early to go and get some street food on the way home. I hadn't managed to see much of Phnom Penh the day before, so the next day I headed out to see the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng prison, and learn a bit about the Khmer Rouge regime. I did feel quite informed by the time I left, although also extremely depressed. I got chatting to a tuk tuk driver when I was eating lunch afterwards, and he told me a bit about his experiences. He was 5 when the Khmer Rouge came to power, and he lost his brother and sister, although when it all ended and he went back to his old house he was delighted to find that his cow was still there and recognised him. The tuk tuk driver told me about a nearby orphanage, and basically cajoled me into going to visit it and giving them some money to buy rice, which I did. The kids were very cute and the staff were very sweet. The next morning I went to visit the Royal Palace which was very beautiful but pretty expensive to visit and difficult to walk around in the absolutely blazing heat. After that I hot footed it to the bus station for my bus to Sihanoukville.
I arrived in Sihanoukville in the evening, and found the guys I went out with in Phnom Penh. I went out that night and there were absolutely hundreds of US navy guys in town.One actually sent over drinks to our table and then presented me with a rose, which I didn't think actually happened in real life... Unfortunately I was immune to his charms. The next day I lazed around on the beach and got assaulted by all manner of people trying to make me bracelets, do my nails, give me massages and thread my legs. Went out again in the evening and met a very lovely and very funny Irish couple on their honeymoon, so danced the night away with them. The next day I decided to go and visit one of Cambodia's islands, so got a boat over to Koh Rong, and it turned out Gill and Gerry (the honeymooners) were going too and staying at the same resort so I ended up spending most of my time with them. Koh Rong was amazing. Absolutely beautiful, and really quiet - there were just three resorts on the island and there didn't seem to be too many people around. I stayed at Paradise resort, run by an old German guy called Rudy who walked around smoking a spliff pretty much the whole time. His resort was really nice though, and the accommodation was just little wooden bungalows. I had dinner and many gin and tonics with Gill and Gerry, and we rounded the night off lying on the beach watching the lightning light up the sky. I got up the next day and went to explore the beach, a lot of which was completely covered in water, and the few bits of available sand was terrifyingly soft quick sand. I spent the morning swimming and clambering around on rocks looking at crabs and the afternoon reading and sunbathing before meeting up with the honeymooners again in the evening for cocktails and pizza. Unfortunately the otherwise wonderful experience was ruined slightly when I went to check out this morning, and Rudy was very angry with me for not having told him the day before that I was going to be leaving, as it meant he didn't have anyone to take my room. I apologised and said that I hadn't decided what my plans were before, and seeing as there wasn't much I could do about it I thought that would be the end of the conversation, but when I got up to pay for my breakfast he started going on about it again as if I was a naughty child. In the end I told him I didn't appreciate being spoken to like that and made a swift exit. I'm back in Sihanoukville today and achieved nothing more than having a lovely massage on the beach this afternoon. Off to Kampot tomorrow to continue my adventures.
And that concludes this epic blog, which I hope people are still reading since it takes me so long to write. Do let me know, by sending me all the latest gossip.
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Monday, 10 October 2011
Hounded in Hue and (w)Hole lot of Ants in Hoi An
You'll be pleased to hear that Alice and I survived the night bus to Hue, although it wasn't a particularly wonderful experience. We got picked up (about an hour and a half late) by minibus to take us to our bus, but the minibus was so full that a few people (including Alice and I) had to stand up, crammed in against the door. Got taken to our sleeper bus and found seats together, only to discover that one of them was absolutely soaking wet, and so were all the blankets. Niiice. But the driver produced a towel and some dry blankets so we settled down for our 14 hour journey. We were glad to have seat belts, because occasionally we would almost fly up and out of our seats - a stange sensation when you are lying down. I had a bit of trouble when I got up to use the toilet as the bus was lurching all over the place, and not only did the door not lock but it also kept swinging open while I was in there.
Anyway we arrived in Hue at about 9 in the morning, expecting to be greeted by a pick up from our hotel. Not only was there no one to meet us, but there were about 20 men all trying to hassle us and get us to go with them to their hotels. One in particular would not leave us alone, and even when I got angry and told him to 'PLEASE LEAVE IT NOW, OK JUST STOP NOW', this only encouraged him to go and get a leaflet about his hotel. But we made it to our hotel and checked in to our surprisingly delightful 12 dollar a night room.
In Hue we hired bikes and cycled around the city, and then went to the citadel (Hue's big hit) and walked around inside where there was the 'forbidden purple city' (former residence of the royal family way back when, and not remotely purple). That was really nice. On the way back we bumped into a Swiss couple also staying in our hotel so went for a boat ride on the river with them. The boat ride was odd; it seemed to just be someone's houseboat, although the only furnishings were some red plastic chairs and a TV with polystyrene around it. The ride wasn't particularly scenic, and once on board they tried to get us to pay for a load of extras which we didn't appreciate, but it was a pleasant way to pass an hour. Decided to leave after one night as we realised we were a bit pushed for time, so we left the next morning and got on a bus to Hoi An.
Arrived in Hoi An in the afternoon where it was delightfully hot and sunny. Walked around the beautiful, charming old town by the river, found a delicious ice cream shop, and generally maxed and relaxed. Got hounded some more in the market by people desperate to sell us everything under the sun which gets a bit tiring. There are absolutely hundreds of tailor shops in Hoi An, so we chose one recommended to us by our hotel and investigated getting some clothes made. I decided on a blazer and some chinos in the end. When we got back to the hotel after dinner I discovered an ant infestation on my bed which was deeply unpleasant. The next day we got motorbike taxis to the (very nice and quiet) beach and scorched ourselves all day long. Went back into town for another icecream, and then went out for a 12p glass of beer and some 75p cocktails - yum. Went to (a thoroughly cleaned, ant free) bed and woke up to find that it was absolutely pouring with rain, there was a power cut in the whole town and the ants had returned. After explaining for a long time that although 20 dollars might be a good price, we expected to pay that for a clean room without ants, we got moved to a much nicer room where we moped about for most of the day hoping the rain would stop. Hunger eventually drove us out, so we braved the rain which became absolutely torrential as soon as we stepped out and practically swam to dinner.
Woke up today to a sunny Hoi An so we wandered around the old town again, ate a final ice cream, and picked up our tailor made clothes. Now getting ready to get on another 12 hour sleeper bus to Nha Trang, where we hope the weather will stay nice as we need some more beach time.
EMAIL ME with all news big or small xxx
Anyway we arrived in Hue at about 9 in the morning, expecting to be greeted by a pick up from our hotel. Not only was there no one to meet us, but there were about 20 men all trying to hassle us and get us to go with them to their hotels. One in particular would not leave us alone, and even when I got angry and told him to 'PLEASE LEAVE IT NOW, OK JUST STOP NOW', this only encouraged him to go and get a leaflet about his hotel. But we made it to our hotel and checked in to our surprisingly delightful 12 dollar a night room.
In Hue we hired bikes and cycled around the city, and then went to the citadel (Hue's big hit) and walked around inside where there was the 'forbidden purple city' (former residence of the royal family way back when, and not remotely purple). That was really nice. On the way back we bumped into a Swiss couple also staying in our hotel so went for a boat ride on the river with them. The boat ride was odd; it seemed to just be someone's houseboat, although the only furnishings were some red plastic chairs and a TV with polystyrene around it. The ride wasn't particularly scenic, and once on board they tried to get us to pay for a load of extras which we didn't appreciate, but it was a pleasant way to pass an hour. Decided to leave after one night as we realised we were a bit pushed for time, so we left the next morning and got on a bus to Hoi An.
Arrived in Hoi An in the afternoon where it was delightfully hot and sunny. Walked around the beautiful, charming old town by the river, found a delicious ice cream shop, and generally maxed and relaxed. Got hounded some more in the market by people desperate to sell us everything under the sun which gets a bit tiring. There are absolutely hundreds of tailor shops in Hoi An, so we chose one recommended to us by our hotel and investigated getting some clothes made. I decided on a blazer and some chinos in the end. When we got back to the hotel after dinner I discovered an ant infestation on my bed which was deeply unpleasant. The next day we got motorbike taxis to the (very nice and quiet) beach and scorched ourselves all day long. Went back into town for another icecream, and then went out for a 12p glass of beer and some 75p cocktails - yum. Went to (a thoroughly cleaned, ant free) bed and woke up to find that it was absolutely pouring with rain, there was a power cut in the whole town and the ants had returned. After explaining for a long time that although 20 dollars might be a good price, we expected to pay that for a clean room without ants, we got moved to a much nicer room where we moped about for most of the day hoping the rain would stop. Hunger eventually drove us out, so we braved the rain which became absolutely torrential as soon as we stepped out and practically swam to dinner.
Woke up today to a sunny Hoi An so we wandered around the old town again, ate a final ice cream, and picked up our tailor made clothes. Now getting ready to get on another 12 hour sleeper bus to Nha Trang, where we hope the weather will stay nice as we need some more beach time.
EMAIL ME with all news big or small xxx
Monday, 3 October 2011
Very lazy Vientiane, Hellish trip to Hanoi and (not so) Sweltering Sapa
Hello! Losing a bit of momentum when it comes to writing this blog regularly as it is proving to be quite the time consuming task. Do let me know if you are reading this so I have some motivation to continue writing...
I spent a very uneventful 4 nights (I think) in Vientiane. Although the city was pleasant I wasn't a massive fan of it as it paled in comparison to Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng and there didn't seem to be much to do. Also I was sharing a dorm room with the most ridiculous man I have ever met. So I arrived in the evening and bumped into my friend, so went and got some tasty fried rice on a stick in the night market, then had an early night. I was in a three bed dorm; one of the beds was occupied when I went to sleep but the other guy was out. He was there when I woke up at about 8am the next morning, so we introduced ourselves. His name was Corey and he was from Tennessee (this was his first trip outside of Tennessee). He was in his early 20s. One of the first thing he asked me was if I minded if he smoked a spliff in the bedroom. I said I'd rather he didn't. He later told me his whole life story about how he had been planning to meet his girlfriend (of 6 months) in Vietnam so they could teach English together, he'd sent her 500 dollars and then she'd broken up with him, so he was angry and bitter, trying to proposition every girl he met and planning on finding work in Laos instead. He didn't lack confidence ('finding a job should be like shooting fish in a barrell', 'two weeks of training and I'm ring worthy' - on boxing), but he did lack manners and social skills (he told me I was unreasonably uptight when I said I didn't like people writing in my books and tried to smell my bag of dirty laundry). I could go on, but anyway his presence kind of marred my Vientiane experience. Other than talking to Corey I wandered around the city, visited the night market, people watched and watched the sun set by the river, but was a bit bored as there didn't seem to be much else to do and it would have taken me too long to get to anywhere else in Laos and still make it to Hanoi in time to meet Alice. I did have an amusing night out one night though, where we visited a bar where there was a live band playing YMCA, and finished off the night in a club on the second floor of a hotel which was full of lady boys, and which was playing Justin Bieber when I walked in; I danced the night away. Oh, and I also visited the Buddha Park one day, about 25km outside of the city, which was just a park full of Buddhist sculptures/monuments. Quite nice.
Anyway, I was glad to be leaving Vientiane, but very anxious about my bus journey to Hanoi, which I'd read bad reviews of (after I had paid for my ticket). I got picked up and taken to the bus station at 5pm, where I befriended some Dutch girls. They lent me a pen knife as I was having trouble opening a particularly pesky bottle of water. I then proceeded to cut my finger open and bleed all over the floor and the girls had to patch me up with steri strips... We got on board the 'VIP' bus, which was very far from VIP. It was a sleeper bus, so it had these weird fake leather seat things which fully reclined. No toilet though. The girls and I were forced to sleep in a row of 5 seats, rather than in any of the two seater sections as those were reserved for the locals, who clearly paid a lot less than we did. Sleeping in the row of 5 meant that the people in the row of 5 behind us had to clmb over us anytime they wanted to get out which was inconvenient. I was sat next to a local guy who seemed ok, but one of the Dutch girls was sat next to another local who tried to feel her bum in the night, until she screamed at him. Anyway we set off at about 6pm, stopped for dinner and a disgusting squat toilet break at about 9, and then drove to the border with Vietnam. We arrived at the (closed) border at 1.30am, where the driver turned off his engine, and where we sat without any aircon until 6.30am when it was light enough to get out and use the toilet. All the locals went promptly to sleep, with no qualms at all about spreading out and resting their legs all over us, snoring, and even playing music without headphones at one point. The bus was really hot and uncomfortable and absolutely stank of durian fruit as someone had put some in the luggage hold (it smells like sewage). I did not have a good sleep. We went through border control at about 7am, which was a disorganised mess with people pushing and shoving and absolutely no sign of any kind of system. Back on the bus where we got shouted at by the locals as 4 other girls and I decided we would all sit together on a row of 5 so we didn't have to have our personal space invaded by any men. We were supposed to get to Hanoi at 4pm, but the bus kept breaking down and a petrol smell kept pouring out so we didn't arrive until 7.30pm, 14km outside of Hanoi, where we had to get a mini bus to the city centre. Was very happy to be off the bus, and happy to find Alice waiting for me at the hostel. We went for some Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and a beer in the evening and then had an early night.
The next day we went out to explore Hanoi. Alice had booked us on to a free tour with a company called Hanoi Kids, where students wanting to improve their English take you around the city for free. We were taken around by two 21 year old girls who were simply delightful, and had ridiculously good English. Hanoi is absolutely mental. Motorbikes ALL over the streets so you cannot wait for a break in the traffic to cross the road, you just have to walk slowly and purposefully into the road and hope for the best. No traffic rules it seems, everyone just uses their horns a lot rather than brakes or good sense. It's quite treacherous, but also entertaining. The sound of horns all the time does get a bit tiring though. The old quarter was interesting, with it's narrow streets and people living their lives all over the pavements (impossible to walk on the pavements as people are cooking, playing cards, or even shaving their beards as I saw a couple of times). The girls took us to Ho Lao (I think) prison, where the French imprisoned a load of important Vietnamese people during their reign (I wish my head could hold the details of when this happened), and which was later used by the Vietnamese to hold American POWs during the Vietnam war. It was very interesting. Then we had a wander around the old quarter, looked at the sword lake (so called because of something to do with a turtle that took a sword and disappeared into the lake..?!) and went for lunch. The girls helped us order so we had a delicious selection of Vietnamese food including spring rolls and some kind of tasty honey beef. Then went to visit the Temple of Literature (was a university in the 11th century) which was pretty and interesting. We were glad to have the girls and their infintie knowledge as there wasn't a great deal of info written in English. Unpleasant incident on the way home. We were pondering what to do next, and a taxi driver was hanging around us trying to get us to go in his taxi. We decided to head towards a metered taxi, as some of the non meter ones are dodgy and rip you off, but this angered the man who had been hanging around so he stamped on one of our guide's feet. We walked off, and then the guy's mate came along and rammed the same girl in the legs with his motorbike. We hurriedly got into the metered taxi and shut the door, but motorbike man was still angry and he wrenched open the taxi door and violently kicked the same girl. It was horrible. We said goodbye to our Vietnamese friends after that, promising to add them on facebook - they were very sweet.
The next day we went on a trip to Halong Bay, which was absolutely marvellous, and it was blazing hot which was a surprise as it had been raining the day before. We were on a boat with three girls from my bus journey from Vientiane, and a few others. Halong Bay was really beautiful. We admired the view from the top deck of our boat, went to a cave and then went kayaking around the bay and rounded off the evening with some on board karaoke... Was more fun than I anticipated! Alice and I made a spectacle of ourselves in the evening by getting hysterical when we found a cockroach in our room and making the staff remove it (I let out some involuntary shrieks) but after that all was well. We were supposed to go to Cat Ba national park for some trekking the next day, but we had to go back to Hanoi because of an approaching typhoon, which was a shame.
Back in Hanoi we had som absolutely terrible rain so didn't achieve a great deal, despite our best efforts, although we did manage to sample 'coffee with egg' which the girls had recommended. Sounds awful, and I had been picturing scrambled egg in coffee... but actually it was really nice. Sort of like a sweet and frothy cappucino except stronger and creamier - delish. The following day it wasn't so rainy so we tried to get a bus to the museum of Ethnology which was a bit tricky at first but we made it on to the number 9, paid a cheap and cheerful 9p for our ticket and sat back feeling proud of ourselves. We were getting off at the last stop, so I fell asleep and was woken up half an hour later by Alice. I looked out the window and was dismayed to find that we were back where we had started. I just said 'shall we get a taxi then', which we did and made it to the museum where we learnt things about Vietnam's hill tribe groups and found an unexpected section on HIV - interesting but quite depressing. Went outside and caught a bit of a water puppet show, which was ridiculous. We felt like we were in some kind of dream... not a paticularly good one.
Had a night out one night with a girl I had met in Vientiane which was fun. We rejected the 1 pound beer in the bar as too pricey and found the same beer for half the price at a street stall next door (although admittedly it was warm and out of date) - gotta love a bargain. At about midnight we were told the bar was supposed to be closed so they crammed everyone who had been outside the bar drinking into what was already a very sweaty, packed bar and closed the shutter things. We had to bang on them to get out when we eventually wanted to leave...
After Hanoi we headed to Sapa on a surprisingly comfortable overnight train (didn't really sleep though for no apparent reason so we napped until about midday when we arrived). Sapa is very beautiful - amazing views wherever you look of green mountains and rice paddies. On our first day we went on a short walk to Cat Cat village, with a waterfall on route and some excellent scenery. Stopped off for lunch at a little tent/shack, and had a very tasty but modestly sized sticky rice in a piece of bamboo and some pork skewers. The next day we went on a 12km organised trek, led by a sweet hill tribe girl called Kho (or maybe Khu). She told us about how she gets up at 3.30/4am every day to cook. I couldn't be 'andling that. She also showed us a poisonous plant and told us that her brother ate some in order to commit suicide because he wanted to go to school and study but he had to get married instead. Quite a horrifying tale, but she told it quite matter of factly... The trek was very scenic and lovely, but quite tiresome and treacherous at times. A group of hill tribe ladies (some with babies on their backs) accompanied us and helped us all the way there. I wondered if they would be wanting a tip when we arrived, and as soon as we got to the village where we had lunch they whipped out their wares from their bags and tried to sell us everything under the sun. I was very grateful to my helper though, and also quite wanted a bag so let her sell me one.
Last day in Sapa today and then back on the sleeper train to Hanoi tonight. Then overnight bus to Hue tomorrow evening. Have a feeling we're going to be tired when we finally arrive in Hue!
Do send word from home and let me know all the goss.
xxx
I spent a very uneventful 4 nights (I think) in Vientiane. Although the city was pleasant I wasn't a massive fan of it as it paled in comparison to Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng and there didn't seem to be much to do. Also I was sharing a dorm room with the most ridiculous man I have ever met. So I arrived in the evening and bumped into my friend, so went and got some tasty fried rice on a stick in the night market, then had an early night. I was in a three bed dorm; one of the beds was occupied when I went to sleep but the other guy was out. He was there when I woke up at about 8am the next morning, so we introduced ourselves. His name was Corey and he was from Tennessee (this was his first trip outside of Tennessee). He was in his early 20s. One of the first thing he asked me was if I minded if he smoked a spliff in the bedroom. I said I'd rather he didn't. He later told me his whole life story about how he had been planning to meet his girlfriend (of 6 months) in Vietnam so they could teach English together, he'd sent her 500 dollars and then she'd broken up with him, so he was angry and bitter, trying to proposition every girl he met and planning on finding work in Laos instead. He didn't lack confidence ('finding a job should be like shooting fish in a barrell', 'two weeks of training and I'm ring worthy' - on boxing), but he did lack manners and social skills (he told me I was unreasonably uptight when I said I didn't like people writing in my books and tried to smell my bag of dirty laundry). I could go on, but anyway his presence kind of marred my Vientiane experience. Other than talking to Corey I wandered around the city, visited the night market, people watched and watched the sun set by the river, but was a bit bored as there didn't seem to be much else to do and it would have taken me too long to get to anywhere else in Laos and still make it to Hanoi in time to meet Alice. I did have an amusing night out one night though, where we visited a bar where there was a live band playing YMCA, and finished off the night in a club on the second floor of a hotel which was full of lady boys, and which was playing Justin Bieber when I walked in; I danced the night away. Oh, and I also visited the Buddha Park one day, about 25km outside of the city, which was just a park full of Buddhist sculptures/monuments. Quite nice.
Anyway, I was glad to be leaving Vientiane, but very anxious about my bus journey to Hanoi, which I'd read bad reviews of (after I had paid for my ticket). I got picked up and taken to the bus station at 5pm, where I befriended some Dutch girls. They lent me a pen knife as I was having trouble opening a particularly pesky bottle of water. I then proceeded to cut my finger open and bleed all over the floor and the girls had to patch me up with steri strips... We got on board the 'VIP' bus, which was very far from VIP. It was a sleeper bus, so it had these weird fake leather seat things which fully reclined. No toilet though. The girls and I were forced to sleep in a row of 5 seats, rather than in any of the two seater sections as those were reserved for the locals, who clearly paid a lot less than we did. Sleeping in the row of 5 meant that the people in the row of 5 behind us had to clmb over us anytime they wanted to get out which was inconvenient. I was sat next to a local guy who seemed ok, but one of the Dutch girls was sat next to another local who tried to feel her bum in the night, until she screamed at him. Anyway we set off at about 6pm, stopped for dinner and a disgusting squat toilet break at about 9, and then drove to the border with Vietnam. We arrived at the (closed) border at 1.30am, where the driver turned off his engine, and where we sat without any aircon until 6.30am when it was light enough to get out and use the toilet. All the locals went promptly to sleep, with no qualms at all about spreading out and resting their legs all over us, snoring, and even playing music without headphones at one point. The bus was really hot and uncomfortable and absolutely stank of durian fruit as someone had put some in the luggage hold (it smells like sewage). I did not have a good sleep. We went through border control at about 7am, which was a disorganised mess with people pushing and shoving and absolutely no sign of any kind of system. Back on the bus where we got shouted at by the locals as 4 other girls and I decided we would all sit together on a row of 5 so we didn't have to have our personal space invaded by any men. We were supposed to get to Hanoi at 4pm, but the bus kept breaking down and a petrol smell kept pouring out so we didn't arrive until 7.30pm, 14km outside of Hanoi, where we had to get a mini bus to the city centre. Was very happy to be off the bus, and happy to find Alice waiting for me at the hostel. We went for some Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and a beer in the evening and then had an early night.
The next day we went out to explore Hanoi. Alice had booked us on to a free tour with a company called Hanoi Kids, where students wanting to improve their English take you around the city for free. We were taken around by two 21 year old girls who were simply delightful, and had ridiculously good English. Hanoi is absolutely mental. Motorbikes ALL over the streets so you cannot wait for a break in the traffic to cross the road, you just have to walk slowly and purposefully into the road and hope for the best. No traffic rules it seems, everyone just uses their horns a lot rather than brakes or good sense. It's quite treacherous, but also entertaining. The sound of horns all the time does get a bit tiring though. The old quarter was interesting, with it's narrow streets and people living their lives all over the pavements (impossible to walk on the pavements as people are cooking, playing cards, or even shaving their beards as I saw a couple of times). The girls took us to Ho Lao (I think) prison, where the French imprisoned a load of important Vietnamese people during their reign (I wish my head could hold the details of when this happened), and which was later used by the Vietnamese to hold American POWs during the Vietnam war. It was very interesting. Then we had a wander around the old quarter, looked at the sword lake (so called because of something to do with a turtle that took a sword and disappeared into the lake..?!) and went for lunch. The girls helped us order so we had a delicious selection of Vietnamese food including spring rolls and some kind of tasty honey beef. Then went to visit the Temple of Literature (was a university in the 11th century) which was pretty and interesting. We were glad to have the girls and their infintie knowledge as there wasn't a great deal of info written in English. Unpleasant incident on the way home. We were pondering what to do next, and a taxi driver was hanging around us trying to get us to go in his taxi. We decided to head towards a metered taxi, as some of the non meter ones are dodgy and rip you off, but this angered the man who had been hanging around so he stamped on one of our guide's feet. We walked off, and then the guy's mate came along and rammed the same girl in the legs with his motorbike. We hurriedly got into the metered taxi and shut the door, but motorbike man was still angry and he wrenched open the taxi door and violently kicked the same girl. It was horrible. We said goodbye to our Vietnamese friends after that, promising to add them on facebook - they were very sweet.
The next day we went on a trip to Halong Bay, which was absolutely marvellous, and it was blazing hot which was a surprise as it had been raining the day before. We were on a boat with three girls from my bus journey from Vientiane, and a few others. Halong Bay was really beautiful. We admired the view from the top deck of our boat, went to a cave and then went kayaking around the bay and rounded off the evening with some on board karaoke... Was more fun than I anticipated! Alice and I made a spectacle of ourselves in the evening by getting hysterical when we found a cockroach in our room and making the staff remove it (I let out some involuntary shrieks) but after that all was well. We were supposed to go to Cat Ba national park for some trekking the next day, but we had to go back to Hanoi because of an approaching typhoon, which was a shame.
Back in Hanoi we had som absolutely terrible rain so didn't achieve a great deal, despite our best efforts, although we did manage to sample 'coffee with egg' which the girls had recommended. Sounds awful, and I had been picturing scrambled egg in coffee... but actually it was really nice. Sort of like a sweet and frothy cappucino except stronger and creamier - delish. The following day it wasn't so rainy so we tried to get a bus to the museum of Ethnology which was a bit tricky at first but we made it on to the number 9, paid a cheap and cheerful 9p for our ticket and sat back feeling proud of ourselves. We were getting off at the last stop, so I fell asleep and was woken up half an hour later by Alice. I looked out the window and was dismayed to find that we were back where we had started. I just said 'shall we get a taxi then', which we did and made it to the museum where we learnt things about Vietnam's hill tribe groups and found an unexpected section on HIV - interesting but quite depressing. Went outside and caught a bit of a water puppet show, which was ridiculous. We felt like we were in some kind of dream... not a paticularly good one.
Had a night out one night with a girl I had met in Vientiane which was fun. We rejected the 1 pound beer in the bar as too pricey and found the same beer for half the price at a street stall next door (although admittedly it was warm and out of date) - gotta love a bargain. At about midnight we were told the bar was supposed to be closed so they crammed everyone who had been outside the bar drinking into what was already a very sweaty, packed bar and closed the shutter things. We had to bang on them to get out when we eventually wanted to leave...
After Hanoi we headed to Sapa on a surprisingly comfortable overnight train (didn't really sleep though for no apparent reason so we napped until about midday when we arrived). Sapa is very beautiful - amazing views wherever you look of green mountains and rice paddies. On our first day we went on a short walk to Cat Cat village, with a waterfall on route and some excellent scenery. Stopped off for lunch at a little tent/shack, and had a very tasty but modestly sized sticky rice in a piece of bamboo and some pork skewers. The next day we went on a 12km organised trek, led by a sweet hill tribe girl called Kho (or maybe Khu). She told us about how she gets up at 3.30/4am every day to cook. I couldn't be 'andling that. She also showed us a poisonous plant and told us that her brother ate some in order to commit suicide because he wanted to go to school and study but he had to get married instead. Quite a horrifying tale, but she told it quite matter of factly... The trek was very scenic and lovely, but quite tiresome and treacherous at times. A group of hill tribe ladies (some with babies on their backs) accompanied us and helped us all the way there. I wondered if they would be wanting a tip when we arrived, and as soon as we got to the village where we had lunch they whipped out their wares from their bags and tried to sell us everything under the sun. I was very grateful to my helper though, and also quite wanted a bag so let her sell me one.
Last day in Sapa today and then back on the sleeper train to Hanoi tonight. Then overnight bus to Hue tomorrow evening. Have a feeling we're going to be tired when we finally arrive in Hue!
Do send word from home and let me know all the goss.
xxx
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