It's not just that the language changes, EVERYTHING changes. Literally as soon as we had crossed into Vietnamese soil, the landscape transformed from undulating hills to steeper ravines, unfortunately monsoon season meant that they were suffering from flooding and so consequently many landslides could be seen across the road and we got soaked. It was great to be able to read the signs as Vietnam has adopted western style script, so rather than the incomprehensible Chinese symbols we could actually read the words – not that they made any sense but it was an indescribable feeling of “thank goodness” after 7 weeks of confusion!
The buildings reminded us of old France, like you know the skinny tall buildings with balconies facing out onto the road. Except that I don't think they understood that the reason for the buildings being skinny and tall was that they didn't have much space in Paris, so seeing this type of building on it's own in the middle of nowhere is a bit weird, like it's supposed to have something next to it but there's just a rice paddy, and a water buffalo and nothing else for miles around. I also have to mention that the houses were decorated wonderfully but only on the front elevation, the sides were just left rendered making it seem even more like the neighbours juts vanished.
We thought we had left the scammers behind but our first encounter with a taxi driver left a sour taste in our mouths and reminded us to be wary. We had shared a taxi with a nice American couple to town as we got dropped off in the middle of nowhere cos the tour company think we'll stay in their hotel, luckily when we paid Karl had his wits about him and realised he'd been short changed by 100,000 dong. It took about 5 minutes for the driver to give us the money as he was insisting the change was right! This is only like 4 quid or something but they bloody well rely on people being exhausted from a super long uncomfy bus ride and dealing with a new currency at silly o'clock in the morning just to make that extra buck! Be aware!
All this was long forgotten however when we met up with Cris and Rich in Hanoi that evening. It was so lovely to catch up and get the news from home. The streets are hectic with mopeds and cars whizzing about all over the place so we retreated to a restaurant and had a nice dinner for 6 (the American couple joined us) and tasted the Vietnamese grub, it was delicious! Not a bone in sight which after China was a welcome relief! We chatted for hours and even had a nice drink with Cris and Rich by a lake which set the evening off perfectly.
The next day we headed out on the “must do” tour of the Perfume Pagoda which is the most
famous pagoda in Vietnam where thousands of Vietnamese people go on a pilgrimage every year. I'd ask you to imagine a tiny tin boat, a lady rowing in the most peculiar way, and four bewildered tourists drowned to the bone going up a river to reach this sight. Now you have a picture of Cris, Rich Karl and I on that lovely rainy day. Cris and I were literally scooping the water out of the boat with our hands in a vain attempt to stop our shoes getting completely soaked! It was really very hilarious and the “sight” was not all it was cracked up to be to be honest but it was fun getting there! Karl and I met a lovely couple, Anne and Julien from Lyon, France, and we walked up the track which the guide was trying to talk us out of and saw chickens, puppies and a great view!
We had a bit of a splurge and went on a cruise with Cris and Rich on board The Bayha cruise ship
which took us around Halong Bay which is a series of tiny karst limestone formation islands, it was top notch luxury all the way baby yeah! We had gorgeous scrumptious food, seafood and cheese for me and lots of meaty delights for Karl and we enjoyed being in the lap of luxury for a while! We even got up super duper early and did Tai Chi at 6am! Unfortunately the trip was spoilt ever so slightly by my camera being stolen from onboard which was a real downer on things. The previous night we had been partaking in a few drinks whilst watching the stars and I put the camera in our room and swapped it for Karl's as his takes better night time pictures, and the next morning whilst we were packing up I noticed I couldn't find it anywhere. Another lady had a phone stolen so not sure what happened but needless to say I wasn't very happy as Karl had just bought that for my birthday!
Anyway back on dry land and we had a great day touring the Hanoi sights with Cris and Rich
before saying our goodbyes. Anyone visiting Hanoi HAS to go to the 10p a beer corner, we can't remember the road names but there's a famous crossroads where everyone goes to get cheap beer and meet up for a chat. The weirdest thing happened, we got talking to a girl and her boyfriend and it turns out that she used to be an Italian student of Daniela's years back (for anyone confused Daniela is my dad's wife) and so Cris and I were blown away by how small the world really is. Marissa and Del were now living in Bangkok so we took their details so we could meet up again!
Little did we imagine that we would bump into Anne & Julien (from the perfume pagoda) a few
days later in Sapa and embark on a great walking tour (and the rest of Vietnam for that matter!) of the minority villages with them! We were followed by the women whose only goal in life is to sell you something. Their questioning always follows the same line; “what's your name, how old are you, are you married, do you have brothers or sisters?” followed a while after with “buy something from me, you make me very happy”.
This experience cemented our young friendship and we decided since we were going the same
way south through Vietnam and we were likely to keep bumping into each other that we may as well enjoy the ride together. And what a great experience it was! We spent the next few weeks talking about, seeking out, or eating food! Oh yeah and some travelling in between too which was awesome. The most memorable experience for all of us I'd say is when we went on a motorbike tour with a Vietnamese guy called Trang. He took us all out from Nim Binh and we visited the lesser known sights around the area such as a new pagoda being built (to be the biggest in Vietnam), through loads of rice paddies and even to his mum and dad's house for lunch! A real once in a lifetime experience, devoid of annoying tour buses and big tour groups!
We also were fortunate enough to be able to celebrate Julien's birthday en route and that was
really lovely as we went to a great french restaurant called Le Carambole where we indulged in great food and a yummy bottle of wine. The restaurant was really quaint and had a very cosy atmosphere which is sadly lacking in the majority of the other restaurants we visited in Vietnam.
Vietnam is a beautiful country but the people are a bit weird. And I don't mean that in a
derogatory way it's just that they try hard to be really friendly to you and stuff but then it seems that the minute you don't want to buy something from them, they kind of change their friendly persona into one of indifference and it's difficult to seek out the genuine friendly ones to those that just want to make money. Like for instance both Karl and I and Julian & Anne (and other travellers we have met since) were befriended by a lady / family riding a moped whilst riding on the way to some sight or other and were invited back to the house on some pretext or other. We heard from some that once in the house they were given tea and asked to wait until the children came back from school so they could practice English and as the time wore on and no kids in sight made to leave only to be asked if they happened to have an English dictionary to give them as English books were expensive! Well obviously these things don't just happen to be in your pocket when you are visiting temples and the long and short of it is that they want money and you are compelled to give them something (which is never enough) before you can leave.
Anyway I have lots more stories like that but I won't bore any readers that are still awake with them because I don't want anyone thinking Vietnam isn't a great place to visit, because it is really lovely and we would recommend it to anyone! The night buses from the Sin Cafe are comfy and safe and drop you where they say they will. Accommodation is cheap and you can get a double room in a hotel with a pool for as little as $10.00 and the food is good, if somewhat a little bland in comparison to China!
We really had a great time travelling with our new French buddies and Anne and I even convinced the boys to get up on a rainy morning at 4am to go to the My Son Cham ruins for sunrise, which obviously was not spectacular since it was pouring with rain! The ruins were cool though, very old about a thousand years I think and they were a great introduction to what we should expect from Angkor in Cambodia.
Learning to dive in Nha Trang was awesome as well. Our instructor Jenz, from the Coco Dive
Centre, was spot on and even though it was low season and the visibility was not great we had a fabulous time, we are now certified open water divers and we can dive down to 18 meters! We saw some great coral and loads of fish and sea life is even more amazing when you can just float along and look at it close up without worrying about breathing.
The only thing we regret about Vietnam is not being able to do the Mekong Delta, this is a little
bit of bad planning on our part as we overran our visa by accident and had to leave Hoh Chi Minh city as soon as we got there! We were thinking we could do a three day cruise up the river but we had to get a bus straight across the border or extend our visa (which was not economically viable for a couple of extra days), so off we went! I have to say it was a tearful goodbye for us having travelled with Anne & Julien for such a long time but they were going home to eat cheese and chocolate and we were MOST jealous!
posting what we are currently doing or have done in the last couple of days.
posting what we are currently doing or have done in the last couple of days.
(we REALLY needed a shower!) its now bright RED and looks awesome! So other than that news we're waiting for the weather to improve, yesterday it started raining and to be honest its quite cold here, but we're having fun so it doesn't matter.
