Ha Long Bay

Well, now I have a lot of catching up to do, being now on the plane leaving Katmandu, so yeah, lets back up about 2 weeks + to the time just before a bad thing happened on my holiday. (The loss of my camera.)

But, here are the few shots that I do have.

We organised the tour through Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, pretty much the only backpackers in all of Vietnam with the exception the new Hue backpackers. (owned by the same company… )

It’s probably the most ritzy tour around for young people and it’s on the classy Phoenix Cruisers. The first night was on board the boat, and the second night of the three day tour is on the biggest island in the south of the bay called Cat Ba island. Its not really all that far from Ha Long city since the boat we were on was lucky to do more than about 6 knots at full steam.

The boat itself was 3 stories high above water, with the lowest level being for the crew and our sleeping quarters, the second being the large dinning room, and the third being the sun deck (see below).

Here’s our boat being overtaken by others.

The view was spectacular, these giant limestone cliff/islands everywhere.

All I could think of though, was attempting to boat around Ha Long bay on a boat made out of a scooter Top Gear style.

And, well, after this, my photos are gone, I had pictures of Nick having drunk himself to “the best time”. A few other great pictures, involving the use of a water bottle filled with not-water (but vodka), and other good things.

The following morning, we had to be up early, well, after having gone to bed at ridiculous o’clock, and I had the best night sleep with the air conditioner in the room having leaked all over my bed. We’re talking bucket loads of water dripping onto the bed, and my laptop… Hooray… good things to discover at 3am in the morning on a boat in the middle of a bay.

Anyway, we found ourselves on Cat Ba island at about 9am about to undertake a trek up a massive hill to a great lookout. The lookout had a big metal tower. It must have been a ridiculous age, the metal was well and truly rusting, the stairs made of just two metal rails, and the top step that was not there, was at one point of its life made of wood. Was somewhat disturbing.

Hrmmm trying not to dwell on the lack of photos, BUT, I did take an awesome photo of me on a motorbike that I hired in the afternoon of me in the mirror while driving. Just imagine awesomeness and it’ll be pretty close.

Good times were had by all if only I had pictures. Moving right along. Got back to Hanoi that night, and took an overnight train to Sa Pa for a two day trek. Of which I DO have some photos plus Nicks.

Flight to Vientiane

I’m writing this now, whilst flying over the hills/mountains between Hanoi and Vientiane in Laos. It’s all the more fun because right now Nick is currently in a bus, and has been for the last almost 24hrs going to the same place. Now, having told a number of people that I was doing this, the general impression I got was that the extra $140 I spent was totally worth it. Keep in mind it’s only a US$14 bus trip vs US$154 flight.

But now as I sit here after my delicious in-flight meal I starting to believe them. I also got to sleep in a bed last night, Nick slept in a crowded bus with the A/C off packed to the rafters with animals and locals.

In other news, just before I headed to the airport, I bought a replacement camera, a IXUS 95IS probably for more than i would have paid back home, but now I can restart the chronicles of my journey, and in a random pleasant surprise, discovered I had a few more pictures than I thought on the other memory card I’ve been using, including some from Ha Long bay.

Here is my nice little plane, it’s almost empty too, I have 1 person sitting within 4m of me. I’m sure Nick is in a similar boat.

My leg room, (I got an exit row).

 

The view as we leave Hanoi, it was pretty hazy outside.

Yes, I even read the in-flight magazine, (as Sam and Harry suggested.)

My Lao’ian in flight meal, (the Beer Lao was served moments after).

The weirdest part of the journey was that since there was only 3 crew on board, the second pilot performed alot of the inflight service. Not sure what would happen if the other pilot had a Heart attack right now. :S

  

Ah well, that concludes this update, since I've discovered a few photos from Hoi An, Hanoi and Ha Long, I will update on them soon enough (went back and did them before finding internet and posting this so look below), plus I have a number of photos I took with my mobile phone from my Sa Pa trek through the northern mountains of Vietnam and the hillsides covered with Rice Paddys.

UPDATE:I’m now in Vientiane, found Nick fairly easily after running into other people from his bus who knew him, and am hopefully heading to Vang Vien tomorrow sometime although not sure how.

Hanoi – Uncle Ho’s “resting” place

After my worst sleeping bus experience to date, Nick and I arrived into Hanoi on the 25th of May. We made our way to the famous Hanoi Backpackers. The only backpackers we have found in our trip through Vietnam, and one that comes highly recommended from everyone that has been there. And it was good, although a little overpriced, the people there are all like minded and the roof top bar and organised tours are all great fun. On Sunday arvos they even have free beer (useful for keeping ones mind off lost camera’s I’ve heard – but I digress).

After arriving frightfully early for what seems like an all too frequent a circumstance on this holiday, we headed out into town to see the sights. First stop was the big lake in the middle of town “Hoan Kiem Lake” which has two temples on islands in the middle. The one in the picture below is Thap Rua - the Tortoise Tower:

 

The Ngoc Son Temple is accessible by a bright red bridge shown below:

Here is an interesting statue just near the lake, one that clearly demonstrates the communist side to the city.

At 10am that day, we found a pub, (we were travelling with another aussie girl named Lisa and two kiwi blokes Andy and Sam. The pub was called “Le Pub” and whilst not the cheapest place in town for drinking, it was air conditioned which is always a bonus. So we started a game of 500 and tried out the local brews.

On the way back we tried some interesting street food and DIDN’T die, although I did take a photo in case I did.

That night, we went out for drinks with one of the workers at the hostel, who showed us the local markets Bia Hoi, (draught beer) and then onto Flannigans the Irish pub in the area and friends with the Hostel’s owner. At midnight, police came into the pub and closed it down, (apparently a normal practice).

The following day nice and early, we took a bus to start the Ha Long bay cruise.

I did miss out on the “opportunity” to see Ho Chi Min’s embalmed body since it is only on display for a short period each morning and not on Mondays. But yeah, not sure how that goes as far as resting places go.

Hue – Nams Old Capital

(Note: with the loss of my camera, all photos in this post are courtesy of Nick)

Arriving into Hue, the bus stopped outside a hotel that was associated with the Bussing company (fairly common practice it seems) and we decided that we’d pay there price for a seemingly alright room.

We wandered around town, found the “Busy” section, which was all fairly quiet, and had some dinner, I ordered a “Mixed Hot Pot” which is essentially a giant pot over a burner put on the table in front of you, and you cook your meat until cooked in the soupish broth.

The mixed meats were as follows:

 

After dinner we found a local night club, “Apocalypse Now” (it seems that Apocalypse now and Good Morning Vietnam are common names for restaurants and clubs). As the only westerners there and with the place only full of about 8-10 people Nick and I played pool against each other joined with one of the Vietnamese waitresses each. After best of 3, turned into best of 5, and then still losing, I started to learn a bit of Vietnamese from the staff there:

The following day, after our first and only night in Hue, we headed out for breakfast, when we came back to the hotel to check out, Nick commented that it was dodgy that just as we walked in, the receptionist made a quick phone call. As we walked up the 7 stories of the hotel, I started to think I should start running up, as I got to our floor, there was a very nervous looking youngish looking man trying to get there key ring out of our door and pull it closed. He was empty handed and after a quick assessment his excuse for “fixing our hot water” didn’t really stick, but he didn’t seem to have taken anything valuable. Even though I had my laptop all but in the open although high up on a wardrobe where I assume he couldn’t see it.  We checked out, took anything of value with us and left our bags “safely” in the hotel lobby.

This is a picture I also took on my once mine camera, I still find it quite amusing that the new and the old clash so often here in Vietnam/Asia. The straw hat wearing workers under a monstrous bridge crossing the “Perfume River” in Hue.

And then you get the cyclo drivers that seem to double as truck drivers, carrying everything from full size fridges and furniture to this one, carrying a huge number of push bikes.

The Imperial city, one of the few sites to see in Hue initially came off as pretty but fairly small, then you start to realise, it’s in fact massive, whilst mostly in ruins, you can wander around the entire thing and access almost everything in the walled area.

The ruins, whilst expansive, had hidden jewels (not literally :P) in numerous places:

Big lakes/motes around the palace too filled with big fish and lily's. Not that I would go swimming in there.

Reconstruction work was going on everywhere, but it seemed like there was a lot more to be done if it would be returned to it’s glory days.

We returned to our hotel that evening, and prepared for our big overnight bus trip to Hanoi, the real capital of Vietnam.

Hoi An – A Tailors Paradise

Around the 23rd of May early in the morning, (dates are starting to blur already… :S) we arrived in Hoi An off the overnight bus from Nha Trang. Its a town famous for it’s glorious beaches including it’s proximity to China beach (the beach used by marines for R&R during vietnam) and the streets and streets of Tailors offering custom made suits, dresses and shoes for anyone asking and the money to pay for them.

The beaches are about 3ks outside of town, so we hired bicycles for the first time since we’d been in Vietnam. For the low price of just $0.75 for the day.

Amara, Nick and I arrived at the beach to be greeted by what seemed to be a compulsory parking area for bikes and motorbikes. We later worked out, the asking price of 10,000 VND is very flexible and Amara who stayed in Hoi An longer than us refused to pay more than 2,000 VND for the remainder of her stay.

The ride to the beach was along a quiet road that followed the river that runs through Hoi An:

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The beach was similar to Nha Trangs, with beautiful clear water and straw umbrellas for hire.

We decided to ride a bit further North of the main beach and encountered another path back to the city riding past rice paddy’s being tended to by water buffalo and countless straw hat wearing workers.

Eating dinner in town was a classy affair, overlooking the beautifully lit river I suddenly changed my entire opinion of the city with its French style architecture and shops filled with paintings, Chinese style lamps and other nick knacks.

 

Returning through town we discovered a dessert bar that served some of the most delicious pastries and desserts I’ve tasted in a long time and all in the price range of $2-3.

A bunch of kids thought that they could take me with there plastic swords, I didn’t have a bar of it and showed them who was boss. Nick was there to take a photo.

 

I had a lot more photos of Hoi An, but these will have to do, the daytime Hoi An was “less” beautiful when you could see the colour of the water and other less appealing details, but overall the town was quite fun, and the people very inviting.

I didn’t really want to carry around a suit or other custom made clothing for the rest of my holiday so didn’t bow to temptation and get one made. BUT, I did end up getting a satchel bag made to my specifications after struggling to find a simple shoulder sash bag at the countless numbers of bag shops that are scattered across Vietnam. Mainly since they all have “North Face” knock offs that are all reinforced with foam and the like making them much to big to fold up into nothing in my bag. After two nights and three days there, Nick and I headed to Hue.

The Real Easy Riders part 2 – Nha Trang

After our eventful road trip we arrived in Nha Trang at around 5pm, met up with Sam who had been put on a different bus company for some reason, and found ourselves a hotel. I think our first night was fairly quiet after a tiring few days.

 

The next day was all about the beach, there isn’t many surf beaches in Vietnam, but they certainly have a nice outlook even if they are ferociously hot. (Even now, as I sit in Hanoi now at 8pm I’m have sweat dripping off me)

 

The biggest downside to Nha Trang as beach is the constant hassling by street sellers, even if you’re asleep on a sun bed they will attempt to wake you just in case you wanted to buy another pair of fake Ray Ban sunglasses. Or as I have mentioned in an earlier post threaten to kill you or de-man you if you don’t buy something from them. I did buy one thing though, for $1 I got a whole pineapple that had been nice cut up and served in a plastic bag. They do it all while sitting in front of you and even cut out all the slightly deeper bits of peel with a spiral shaped cutting technique.

Saturday night was the night we had been planning for for a while, it began with 2hrs of free beer or spirit mixers with any meal.

Me battering with a street selling child over a fan, that I didn’t need nor want, but she still felt compelled to hassle me while I drunk my free beer.

It then progressed into the organised pub crawl by local canadian-expat Gerry for his birthday. Things after that begin to get a little Hazy.

This one in particular I have little recollection of partaking in, but the photo says I did.

Straw beach hats were distributed to all on entry to the highlight of the evening, the Sailing Club.

The night was themed with a Hawaiian theme and Vietnamese dancers put on a bit of a show.

   

Andrea and Amara used their charms as pamphlet distrbutors during the day to get free entry and free drinks.

 

The night ended around 3pm, good fun was had by all, Sunday turned into a relaxing hangover curing day, and as such, no photos were taken. Enter Monday and the return of the Real Easy rider team as we made the trip to Ba Ho waterfall about 27km North of Nha Trang on there national highway.

Similar to the Mui Ne trip, this one followed the coast closely for much of it with spectacular views of fishing villages and sheer cliffs besides water.

In this photo, I believe Nick is taking a picture of a dead pig on the beach below, I didn’t feel the need to take a photo of this one.

This scooter was dressed up to look like an awesomely fast race bike. It wasn’t.

Along the way, we lost Sam with what he suspected was Malaria. (it wasn’t just a slight cold but he needed to sleep it off anyway). Andrea, Amara Nick and I continued on found the waterfalls through an intricately poorly signed series of unsealed roads and minor creek crossings. (I felt very adventurous… haha)

After a 10-20minute hike we found the falls. The heat left us desperate for a swim.

The water was superbly cool and I enjoyed the slightest bit of a chill for the first time since I’d been in Vietnam.

 

With a final glance of the water, we made our way back down the mountain, and promptly found ourselves as hot as we were before the swim. Gotta love hot weather.

Tuesday, we took on the infamous Nha Trang boat cruise and snorkel trip. Who would have thought my pale skin could take this much sun…

Here is Sam and Nick waiting while the boat departs from an overfilled marina.

There is an island here that is accessible by a cable car, and we’ve since found out has a great water park. Ahh retrospect is annoying at times.

We took the Mama Linh boat tour as it was reputed to have the most young people, and was supposed to be the most fun. It turned out alright, although our friendly vietnamese guide was sure to tell us she wasn’t “Mama Linh”. You’ll not how she is wearing so much clothing, everyone here is paranoid of the sun since it darkens there skin, as such they tend to go around in huge amounts of clothing including gloves and masks to avoid any exposure.

Lunch was served a banquet fit for many more of us than was on the boat.

After lunch the “entertainment” started. Enter the impromptu rock band. Hilariously enjoyable.

They had drums made of buckets complete with a kick pedal arrangement.

A guitarist, and two lead singers.

Nick was called upon to sing Waltz Sing Matilda to which he did quite admirably.

 

Sam did a less good rendition of Yellow Submarine, their choice for a British Song. As it turns out not many people know much more than the chorus of that song – me included.

(note the hole above Sams head, it was for “tall people”

Then we were all asked up to dance on the tables, I barely fit, well I guess I didn’t. I had to pretty much be on my knees to fit between the tables and the roof.

Then the swimming began. Right next to a fish farm. Water parasites anyone? Or other dodgy water born stuff.

The floating bar was a bit of a let down at first, haha, but it turned out alright once everyone was in the water.

Pale skin that doesn’t tan, versus Andrea and Amara’s which does.

The beach cost 40,000 dong to go ashore, so people just jumped in and swam around the “toll booth”.

 

 

After that we returned to the mainland, and had a quiet night out. The next morning, I went SCUBA diving for the first time overseas, went with a mob with the creative name called “Scubadiving” run by a bunch of French and French canadians. Was a good dive with a really nice boat, but I had a bit of a problem with the path they chose through the water, preferring to rush over the reefy area and explore the plane sandy bottom further offshore. The reasoning they gave was that the reef was fairly shallow at between 5-10m and they wanted to take us deeper. Stupid frenchies. Anyway… Was a great dive and then on that Wednesday evening, the real easy riders was disbanded and Nick Amara and I took the bus to Hoi An, and Andrea and Sam headed to Saigon. The night bus was good, slept really well and woke up in the small town of Hoi An with little or no difficulties.