Apr 08

We spent a few days in Hanoi using it as a base for our trips. At the start we weren't to impressed and were ready to leave. On our return though things changed as we found some 3000 dong beer in a few street cafes. 3000 dong is 9 pence, thats right 9 pence! So you could say that things were looking up for the capital. We spent the time walking round the lake, the tiny streets and went to see some water puppetry which is a crazy, weird and wonderfull traditional art form! met up with our german friends we met in saigon and enjoyed the cheap booze on offer.

On to Vientiane Laos. The boder crossing was as organised as evert thing alse in Vietnam and quite stressfull. Every one was just throwing there passports to the customes guys and pushing there way to the front. It was peeing it down and our bus just left us at the vietnam border, so we had to walk to get to the laos customs. We weren't happy! Got through though and 24 hours from leaving ha noi we arrive. Whoop whoop!

The rain came just as we decided to do a tour to Sapa.... well we were going to organise it ourselves but after excellent reviews from some Irish girls we booked a trip. 3 days trekking, 4 nights, 2 on the train and a night in a hotel plus a homestay. We sat awaiting our pick up in the pouring rain in Hanoi, after being back from Halong bay for only a few hours and crossing our fingers that this trip would be better.... or at least we would get what we paid for.
The pick up came and onto the train we went to find our soft sleeper, $10 extra each for two decent nights sleep on the train, a bargain! Well it would of been if we had one, but no Vietnam strikes again and boom, 6 people in a berth with hard sleepers, ripped off again. Not a good start to the trip!
We arrived at 6 am to be driven higher and higher into the clouds from Lao Cai to Sapa, mmmm beautiful! Despite the fact that it was pouring with rain it was incredible. We arrived at a really nice hotel which was a real treat for us and sat down for one of many all included meals! Our first trek was put back till 2pm so we explored the town, a lovely little place which reminded us of a swiss alps town.
Over the course of the 3 days we did one half day treks and two full days, they were incredible, there were only four people in our group, us and a french couple who were probably mid 50's and our guide Ben who was awesome, she was from a minority village and had left home in order to earn money to send back to her parents, hence earning double the average wage from working on the land. She had only ever been to school for a period of 9 months and had learnt english off the tourists, which had resulted in a strong ozzy accent. She was so much fun, really good to talk to and basically made the trip so awesome.
The trekking wasnt too hard just very slippy because of all the rain, it added to the fun though, Sapa in itself is kind of an odd place, the tourism seems to be having both positive and negative effects as in most places but in some ways the negative outweighed the positive which is really difficult see as a traveller when your impacting the change. The place is incredibly beautiful and has many trekking tours and homestays which are excellent for bringing money into minority villages, however alot of the local minority women and children act alongside the guides and will follow you for the whole trek, this can be both charming and slightly annoying as you have to be prepared to buy from them at the end for their help. The problem is they bring the children who should be at school and it means there are less and less people to work on the land which they need to provide food, so essentially choosing tourism over sustaining their lives through traditional means.
The homestay was a good experience, it was more of a B & B in a barn conversion but we gt to sit around the fire and watch them cook a gigantic meal on one fire for 12 people, it was delicious too! Topped with rice wine it was a very good evening!
Leaving Sapa was the hard bit, its such a beautiful place and it was incredible being out walking for 3 days away from the smoggy crazy ass cities, oh well 12 hours on a hard sleeper to contemplate it all!

After another huge journey, this time from Hoi An to Hanoi we were booked on a junk boat to tour Halong bay vietnams natural wonder. Halong bay, the bay of Halong city has more than 3000 limestone islands jutting out of the sea. The islands are lush and green and exten metres into the air, sheer cliffs shooting up straight out of the water. There are lots of caves and and grottos to explore within the islands and bay.

We arrive on the boat and set off to see a massive cave within one of the first islands off the coast, the cave although crowded with tourists was incredible and vast. got some cool snappy snaps and returned to the boat to set sail to Cat Ba island, chugging along through the limestone islands, past the house boats and local fisherman. We dock near Cat Ba island and sleep the night on the boat after a spot of kayaking. Its a shame that the weather was over cast because it would have been cool to see the sun set never mind though we spent most of the night on the top of the boat chatting.

After a rubbish nights sleep due to the heat and the sound of the rats scurrying about on deck! we set off on to Cat Ba island. Cat Ba island is the only populated island with in the bay and was the place where we would spend the night. Before that though we had a trek into the hills to contend with. Two hours of treking/climbing/scrambling to reach a look out point, the climb was fantastic and quite demanding as we were often climbing up steep cliff faces. The view was even better. We then walked round the town had a few drinks, saw some goat, rabbit, gecko and several other wines, if you wondered what these wines are, they are exactly what they say on the tin! bottles/ jars with the wine and the dead animal floating about. Lovely!

Back on the boat and back to Hanoi for the afternoon before setting off on the night train to Sapa.

We are in Hoi An, after a painful 24hour journey via Nha Trang we made it and without a sleeper! It was horrible, but so worth it when we finally got here! This is our favourite place so far in Vietnam, its beautiful, quite touristy but deservedly so. Also its the type of small quaint place we have been craving, for instance I am happy to cross the road alone here!
First day we slept, walked around the old town and finally ate some local dishes and........ found 4000 beer which is the equivalent to 12p beer! Incredible!
Our second day was much more eventful, we got up for a 7 o'clock journey with a couple of moto taxis to Marble Mountains, they were awesome, truly awesome, massive caves, pagodas and temples built on the side of a marble mountain, well there were 5 in total but we just explored one! Then we went to China beach but it was mega windy and the waves were CRAZY so we didnt get in, the taxi guy however upon dropping us off tried to charge us double the agreed price, which was the same price as our bus tickets from Saigon to Hanoi, the cheek! We stayed strong though and after some heated debate left with the original fee, though I didnt want to give him anything!
So then our faith in the good old moto taxis had dwindled we decided to walk to the beach which proved much further than we expected.... luckily it was breezy so it was actually a really nice walk by the river, beautiful! The beach was so much fun, crazy waves again, I couldn't get past the first couple of surfs as the current kept dragging me back, feeble I know! Unlucky for me I stepped on a jelly fish or some other evil stinging creature which resulted in massive bright red stingy toes!
By night, we ate cheap food, drank free cocktails and cheap beer and I collected my tailored dress! What a perfect place!

The trip to Dalat from Saigon, although long was enjoyable as we met some cool people and saw some awesome scenery as we travelled into the central Highlands of Vietnam, away from the smog and into the mountains. We arrived at around 4ish and made our way to a hostel. On route we encounted these are men on motorbikes who didnt stop talking. We ended up at the 'peace hostel' and low an behold encounter the motor bike hogs again, chilling and having a drink. These are the easy riders. We are soon booked on to a day excursion around the city and surrounding countyside.

The air in Dalat is fresh and the temperature alot cooler. We set off on the back of the two drivers/guides/comedians bikes bright and early the next morning. We are off to explore the countryside of Dalat. Taking us to an old trainstation, showing us the old French colonial buildings that are dotted around Dalat on route, we then go to see a coffe plantation, up to some high points to see some awesome views, we zip down to a local villages to mingle with the locals and then back to a crazy waterfall with vietnamese dressed as cowboys and gorillas and it has own tobogan run. The tour gets crazier as we go to the 'crazy house' a hotel built by some crazy women who designed the rooms on different animals. All very surreal Zoe loved it! The easy riders also took us to two pagodas, one which was still being hand built and crafted with ceramics, it had fantastic designs of dragons all over and the other which was in a lovely setting on top of a hill above paradise lake. Beautiful. The country side was lush and green with lots of green houses and agriculture especially flowers, which were introduced as a product when a Dutch man came to Dalat and married a local.

We then retreat home from the fresh air, winding roads and crazyness and have a few drinks with Franky who we met on the bus. before our major big journey to Han noi.