Morning, so why beep beep I hear you ask from across the globe. Well as mentioned before, there are no rules to driving over here - except to beep you horn at every passing vechicle, person or animal... even if they are no where near you. Yes this does not sound that annoying, but try sleeping on a uncomfy bus with a megaphone beep beep horn and then maybe you'll see why we hate beep beep horns soooo much! Anyways back to the adventure that was Vietnam.
So we arrived in Danang after a 13hour sleeper train journey and then got the bus to Hoi An. Now Hoi An definatly made up for the icky journey as the fishing town is soooo picturesque. The buildings are a burnt yellowy colour and it has a river running through the old town with fishing boats bobbing along making the town look very tranquil. We soon realised that this town had sooo many tailors, where you could order any clothes in any fabric and have them custom made especially for you - a shopaholics dream one might say! So Lou and I proceeded to think very carefully about the most practical things we needed...erm which of corse involved pattern dresses, some even made from silk... an essential for backpacking yes? In the evening we had a lovely meal and our first dessert of the trip! ( we are sooo easily pleased)
The next day we had to go and collect our clothes and make sure they fitted right, unfortunatly I had taken a turn for the worst and was not feeling my best - the dresses soon cheered us up though. Whilst the rest of the group decided to hire bikes to explore the town more I really needed to go back to the hotel to lie down, so Lou (being an excellent nurse) and I started to trek back to our room. After about an hour we realised our 20minute walk had gone a bit wrong as we arrived back at the tailors from where we started... not great in the heat especially as I was trying extremly hard not to throw up in the street!! Eventually we managed to get back via the doctors where I was given medicine (I know everyone is sighing a big sigh of relief.) In the evening Lou and the rest of the group went to a cooking class. It involved exloring the local food market and then making salad rolls, crispy pancakes, mango salad and chicken marinade. Lou assures me that she will be cooking all this when we get back to anyone who is willing to try it!
We sadly waved goodbye to Hoi An to start our journey to Hue. We travelled up Hai Van pass (seen the top gear episode where they go up here on motorbikes?) which had amazing views. Once we had arrived in Hue (which is actually said like who) we went on a motorbike tour. Sorry if I go on a bit at this point as this is a major highlight of the whole experince so far. We were on the backs of bikes (and yes dad we had helmets on) and were driven around by locals - needless to say there was a lot of smiling, thumbs up and nodding. When we first started I was gripping on for dear life, but soon realised how much fun letting go was and proceeded to wave my hands around in the air for most the ride - I know so cool right! We visited alot of places including the emperors tomb 'Tu Duc Tomb', Ho Quyen where there use to be elephant V tiger fights and a pagoda where the young monks trained and lived. Our local tour guide really made this a tour we wouldn't forget as he put on a one man show and acted out different scenes showing the different parts f the history of Hue. We also stopped at a place where they made the cone hats and incense - Lou had a go at making some incense and seemed to do a good job. That evening we visited a restaurant that is run by a family that are deaf and dumb, they allow their customers to right messages on the walls and ceilings as this is very visual for them. Lou and I left our mark too! This was an amazing day and an experince we won't forget in a hurry.
We were meant to leave the next day but unfortunatly the flooding had stopped any trains running so our only option was to fly out the next day. At the time this was a bit of a bummer but after hearing horror stories of trains being flooded and people on buses drowning I think we were all relived to by pass such an experince. Lou and I decided to explore the shops of Hue a little more - not one of our best ideas as the market was so claustraphobic with it low roofs, maze like alley ways and 'intereasting' smells. We got out of there pretty sharpish. By this time we were in dire need of water so headed for the supermarket, where we proceeded to walk around gormlessly in our fruitless search. All in all a pretty non-eventful day but all part of the adevnture I suppose!
We arrived in Hanoi after a short flight and transfered to bus for a 4 hour journey to Halong Bay. Lou and I had a balcony over looking the beach and the islands which was amazing! We then went on a private boat tour and had a late lunch of various sea food which was yummy. The boat took us to the caves in Halong Bay which were spectatular, we also visited a floating fish farm nestled amongst the smaller islands. Here Lou very bravelly held a massive crab which looked part ailen part sting ray - sooo brave!! We then meandered through the islands as the sun was setting, a truely magical day.
After travelling back to Hanoi the following day, we had free time to explore the city. We took a wander around the streets and realised we were a tad lost so decided to get a taxi to the lake to go on pedallos. Our cab driver was very funny and played some 80's asian pop - we think he enjoyed our singing and dance moves. That evening we went to drink 20p beer on the street sitting on plastic chairs - a different kind of experince! We then proceeded to a local Vietnamise bar where we stuck out like sore thumbs, however we were soon accepted when we danced our little hearts out and sang along to the english tunes. A funny night was had.
Our second day in Hanoi was a little overshadowed by tiredness, but we put on a brave face and trekked down to the 'world famous water puppet theatre show' - Now when you see something that is world famous it is not too silly to expect something amazing. Hmmm oh how you are wrong, Lou spent the whole show laughing and I nearly fell asleep. It was a very odd show with no story and puppets in water for some reason oh and was in Vietnamise so we understood nothing. Again I think we will just have to put this one down to part of the experince.
So that was our time in Vietnam, we were often stared at or laughed at which was sometimes uneasy, we bartered hard at the markets (even over knickers - some how I have lost 6 pairs of undies in the space of three weeks, our theory is when we put our clothes into the local laundrette they keep a pair??) and survived floods. I can't say it was my favourite country but we definatly had some of our best memories made here.
Lots of love to you all
Steph and Lou x x x
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