After cruising along the Mekong river from Phnom Penh, this is how we spent it...
Ho Chi Minh City
But still referred to as Saigon by most of the locals, we enjoyed my bday celebrations, shopped, drank the local beer, ate our first pho bo - our lesson in adding lots of chilli had begun, met some new friends, got a bit claustrophobic in the cu chi tunnels and played ping pong.
Mui Ne
A sleepy little beach town where we relaxed on the beach, watched fishermen in their coracals, watched fisherman out of their corocals (lots of fisherman watching)...and sea watching (it's the nicest thing to spend an evening watching the sunset on your balcony as waves crash beneath you) - and, unfortunately, lots of dead animal spotting on the beach incluing the odd dead rat (big fat hairy ones too) and a giant jellyfish.We ate great food, made some lovely friends, drank rice wine, got a painful massage, rode bicyles and visted some great sights including the white and red sand dunes, the fairy stream and the red canyon.
Dalat
A moutain town, very pretty, lots of flowers and strawberries too! Very kitschy but with a great night market serving all sorts of shell fish, rice crackers smothered in chilli, hot soups, dried fruit and delicious strawberry and mulberry wine. Spent a day touring the vegetable terraces, wandering around the dragon pagoda, not slipping at the waterfall and steering clear of the vietnamese cowboys (they just looked a little mean)
Nha Trang
Another beach town with added party madness. I stayed 3 days and after spending the first two not doing very well at finding the party (invite must have got lost in the post), we found it big time on the 3rd. Just unfortunate really that it was the night before I was due to catch a 5am train. There was vodka, dancing, more vodka, body shots, guys we met called Mick, Michael and Marco and Steve and Carly getting lost...apparently busy hugging trees and then having to be rescued by a random South African.
Hoi An
Probably one of the most beautiful towns in the whole of Viet Nam! Full of french colonial architecture and chinese assembly halls, I felt like I was in a chinese Havana, full of tailors who'll make anything you want - just give them a picture, shops selling beautiful art, beautiful lanterns and lots of beautiful other things (just had to keep thinking about having to put the beautiful stuff in my back pack and then put my back pack on my back). We got clothes made, enjoyed Hoi An specialties, went on a boat ride and watched the sun set over the river. And when the tailors would become a little overwhelming, an escape was only a bike ride away, past beautiful riverside scenery on the way to to the beach. Really though, I never tired of walking through those old streets just admiring the beauty of it all.
Hue
The former capital city. Did a a bike tour of Thu Duc's tomb, searched for the forbidden purple city (it was hard work - it's now just a big patch of grass), a pagoda, looked on as monks prayed, sang and played the drums, got my driver replaced by an aussie called Rory who only learnt to ride 3 days before (I thought our guide, Minh, was kidding when he first told me) - it wasn't so bad, a little jerky and a little more scary riding through the market, but Rory got us through! We saw beautiful countryside and enjoyed a beer at Thu's place while she set Howard's head on fire.
Hanoi
The former french capital of Viet Nam, we stayed in the old quarter where architecture was like that of Hoi An but grittier and more lived in. We spent our first few days watching the mad rush to prepare for Tet and then loved taking part in the celebrations and watching so many people having fun, keeping up with old traditions, the strange mix of fashion you'd find on the streets - berets, pvc ra-ra skirts, ao dais, england jackets and cowboy boots, hunting for pain au chocolat and early morning walks around the lake surrounded by vietnamese doing their exercises. My second stay in Hanoi (after Halong Bay), I visited Uncle Ho - it's pretty depressing, this massive structure he now lives him with tours of tourists come to visit him and he apparently wished to be cremated. He just looked old and fragile - and certainly not enjoying being gawped at by all these strangers.
As I found in Saigon while taking a break in the park, I'd find lots of vietnamese out doing their daily exercises - whole families in their PJs, playing badminton or kicking around a toy type thing, running, walking really fast, doing push ups, and little old ladies in woolley hats and quilted jackets doing tai chi (or something like it) with swords. Mostly though, I've discovered that the vietnamese are very good gyrators!! They'll gyrate their hips, their arms, their legs and even their knees! As for me, I walked around the lake a couple of times...occasionally taking a break to read or write what gyrating I'm seeing (it's ok, it's all U-rated). It would take me a whole 5 minutes to walk around that lake...and after I'd have a coffee with a croissant. I live a balanced lifestyle out here.
Sapa
After a face off at the train station with about 8 of the staff over my lost train ticket (I slept on a hard sleeper, they wanted me to pay 3 times my ticket for a soft sleeper, they wouldn't budge, wouldn't even look at me, I asked for the regulations (erm, there was none) and in the end I put the amount I originally paid on the table. One of the staff (the most sympathetic) nodded towards the exit to let me go. I was free. Later, at the hotel, I found my stupid ass ticket.
And as for Sapa - it's a beautiful mountain town, famous for being up in the clouds. We spent our first two days freezing our tits off, surrounded by mist, walking around the market looking for woolley hats and scarves and walking around the food market looking for the best deal on sweet dumplings, barbequed yams, chestnuts, beef, sticky rice and even eggs! What made it really spectacular amidst the mist was meeting some of the friendliest people I've met in Viet Nam (and there have been lots). Various hill tribes are based around the mountains. They have a different lifestyle to the majority of vietnam, wear amazing outfits with the most amazing indigo blues, reds, greens and pinks, dressed up with big earings and bigger chains. Two H'mong girls we met - Ku and Zi, along with a few of their friends including Gi, looked after us, took us for a walk around the lake, made us crowns out of flowers and danced with us at the Bamboo bar (to my dismay, we danced to techno). We watched their traditional song and dance show and learnt lots about their tribe. On the third day, me and Julia went to Bac Ha, wandered around admiring the landscape feeling like we could be in Mongolia and drank some ridiculously strong corn whiskey with a few of the guys at the hotel. On the fourth day, I went back to Sapa - this time getting a motorbike all the way up the mountain through thick fog. I was worried from the beginning - the driver had given me a helmet! I must have been out of my fucking mind, I know I like excitement in my life, but I think I need to tone it down a little. Alive and safe up at Sapa, I spent most of the day cloud watching by the radio tower before my night train to Hanoi.
Halong Bay
Halong Bay is beautiful, we sailed and stayed the night on a lovely boat which made me think of Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Carribean), admired the emerald green waters and many limestone kast formations, visited the surprising cave, played cards, kayaked in the mist, drank french wine and ate a hell of a lot of good food.
Best of all...we met some really fabulous people, travellers as well as the locals. Vietnam has amazing scenery and a fascinating people
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