Vietnam

I travelled to Vietnam down the Mekong River and although I thought I was going to be on a slow boat the one I actually took was quite speedy but there was plenty of time to see life on the Mekong, especially once we were on Vietnamese waters closer to Chau Doc where I spent my first night.

Chau Doc is a small town with a huge market selling everything and anything. I was particularly fascinated to see that they keep most of the fish alive in containers with a small amount of water and what looked like oxygen pumps (into the water), it didn't seem fish friendly!

I took a coach from Chau Doc to HCMC and was immediately hit by the contrast being back in a huge city. At the bus station taxi drivers were ready to pounce to take tourists to their destination. I went with a driver and bartered on the price but then realised I had no money (well very little) and the amount he was asking (can't recall how much it was now) but it seemed steep. So I explained/ showed him how much I had and eventually he believed me and pointed me to the buses and told me to get the no.2. On the bus it cost 4,000 Vietnamese Dong (c.11p) and got me close to my destination. Walking down a side road I past the sister hotel to the one I had booked and so the guy drove me on the back of his bike to my destination. And that was my first time ever on a motorbike / scooter (not sure what it is classed as) and I wasn't s nervous as I'd expected. Motor cycle is the way to travel in Vietnam!

The War remnants museum tells the tragic tale of war and the impact on civilian and army lives. Not surprisingly it is quite propagandist in style, highlighting the afflictions of the US with no reference to any war crimes of the Vietnamese.

I took a flight from HCMC up the coast to Hoi An which is on the coast with the beach a short distance from the centre. Packed with shops and sellers of anything you want made to measure, a shopaholics nightmare or dream I am still undecided! The one thing is for sure, those sales people are VERY good at the sales!!

From Hoi An I caught a bus to Hue which I found uninteresting and the fact that it rained all day didn't help but fortunately I met up with Jon, travel friend of friend. I caught the overnight train to Hanoi which wasn't too bad actually!

My introduction to Hanoi seemed to start well but did not last, a nice early start, fresh shower, free breakfast and cuppa (like one I'd make at home!) at the hostel, I headed to the post office via a few of the sights and posted few things home. Then on leaving the post office I realised my camera had been stolen from under my nose which then meant locating the police station and a few hours there getting the crime reported.

Looking past the theft, an interesting city with masses of character, the roads are like a maze, particularly in the old town with each street specialising in a different product (eg Lighting, DIY, shoes, clothes, silks etc). And along every street are places serving food and drinks to people sitting on low chairs (like the children size garden furniture in the UK).

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi is quite an unusual experience - the final resting place of Ho Chi Minh in glass sarcophagus, considered one of the holiest of holies to many Vietnamese, hundreds of people queue (the queue snakes around the buildings on site like crazy) for a long time to walk in silence past the body in the sarcophagus, I even got told to uncross my arms!

I took an overnight bus to Sapa, what an experience that was, but I did arrive in one piece! Quite a few degrees colder than Hanoi, it was a bit of a shock to the system and my full bag of clothes came into use very quickly. I met up with Anouck, a French girl I met in Hanoi and we ended up travelling together for a few weeks, all the way to Bangkok.

The landscape is truly stunning, a wash of green across the mountains and deep into the valleys with forest and rice fields everywhere. The women add to the colour and show the culture still wearing the traditional dress around town and in the fields. A womens work is never done, when they are not taking care of the home or land they are selling goodies to tourists.

We took a day trip to Bac Ha for their Sunday market to see the flower women who still wear the most colourful traditional dress, it is a great sight to see. An interesting market for both locals and tourists we put our barter skills to the test and got a couple of bargains. The local produce included live stock which was quite sad to see with dogs and chicks in the mix crammed in tiny containers which gave them literally no space to move and the dogs whimpering was very sad. When the bus collected us it drove us to the Chinese border which was not too far away, just for a look at China which still makes me laugh now but of course I did get a picture!