Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hello again!
Hope everyone is well? We've just spent 2 weeks in Vietnam, so here's a catch up...
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City after another comfortable flight from Bangkok, and we got picked up by a non-English speaking bloke, although with a nice car! We were totally overwhelmed by the number of motorbikes on the road, there were literally thousands! They came from every direction and there did not seem to be any laws on the road! Traffic lights were being ignored, they were driving down both sides of the road, and if the road was blocked they would use the pavement! It was insane, and at first we couldn't stop laughing, but it became nerve racking! We got to our hotel, which was down a really dodgey looking alley way, but was fine. However we were plonked on the top floor again, so 8 flights of stairs with our big heavy bags, was not fun! Although one of the staff carried mine (Ali) for me, only gentlemanly i feel, and so I enjoyed a nice stroll up them!
Then next day we went to visit the sights around the city. We were walking along the road towards the Reunification Palace, dodging the motorbikes along the way, When we were stopped by yet another person with a cyclo (a bike like a rickshaw but the passenger sat at the front rather than behind the bike). There were 2 of them working together, Dinh and Thanh. They said that we could pay them what we liked and they would take us around the city to all the attractions. (With hindsight this was a little naive of us!). So we jumped on and weaving through the traffic, and paying no regard to traffic lights,they took us to the Jade Pagoda (A temple), which was a little disappointing to say the least! Especially after the beautiful places we had been to in Bangkok! Next we went to the Histroy Museum, which wasn't great, but we did get to see a dead body! It was a mummy of some significant person! Unfortunately as we arrived at the museum Andy decided to nose dive out of the cyclo onto the corner of the curb, cutting his hand and chin. Dinh very knindly went and bought some antiseptic stuff, so all was well, apart from a little hurt pride! We also went to the National War Museum, which was very interesting although quite disturbing. Dinh and Thanh then decided to stop for a drink before they took us back to our hotel, where they produced a bill which was a lot more than we had expected, or would have paid if we had known. So after a little negotiation we got a little bit off, but were still left feeling a little sour.
The following day we went on a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tour guide was a little irritating, after every sentence he would say 'Stand', meaning understand! We were also a little confused as to where his loyalty lay, as he was very patriotic and yet had apparently been an American Soldier during the war?! The bus unexpectedly stopped half way there and took us to a factory that had all victims of the war working in it, "Handicap Handcrafts". There was something very wrong about the whole situation but also very interesting and the handy work was very impressive. The tunnels were interesting, but our guide couldn't seem to cope with such a large group as he would not wait for everyone to catch up and group together so most of the time you only got the end of the info! We were allowed to go along 120m (out of a 250km network) which had 3 levels; 3m deep, 5m deep, and 8m deep. They were very hot sweaty and claustrophobic. Having finally asured our guide we did not want to pay extra to take a boat back to the city and that even if the bus was going to take 2hrs, then 2.5hrs and then 3 hrs (he kept increasing the time tring to persuade us!), we were still going to take it! much to his annoyance!
The next day we went down to the travel agents to get the bus to Nha Trang. While waiting our fears of not being safe from the motorbikes anywhere were confirmed when one of the staff rode her bike through the shop to park it in the back! unbelievable! On the bus we met Greig and Ellie (Ellie is from Newbury! and Grieg from Glasgow) we recognised them from our Cu Chi tunnels tour which was funny! The bus was an hour late arriving so we guessed our pick up was not there so got a taxi, not realising our hotel was only 600 yards down the road! oh well! The manager was lovely and really friendly. We went out for a really nice dinner and then ended up in a bar for "happy hour" and got a bit drunk! My (Ali) drinks were more like pure vodka than vodka and orange! We decided to have a beach day, as we had done 2 major cities and so were a bit tired! It was very nice relaxing and getting back into our books. Although we were constantly hassled by hawkers, and one lady was so persistent, that i ended up in tears laughing as Andy was constantly saying "No thank you"! The following day we had a walk along the beach front and tried to find the war monument but failed! There wasn't much we could do as it was their Reunification Day and so a public holiday! We went back to the hotel to get our stuff as we were getting the overnight bus to Hoi An, and the manager gave me a hug goodbye! How sweet?!
The overnight sleeper bus was ok, although Andy couldn't move as the beds were not made for Western people! Hoi An was a lovely old trading town which has orignal wooden fronted shops and so is a UNESCO World Heritage site. There were lots of craft shops and museums to walk around. We also got some clothes made for us while we were there which was cool! We went to an old merchants house that had been in the same family for 7 generations. The house had survived numerous floods some reaching almost the second level. We also crossed over the Japanese covered bridge, which was interesting.
Once in Hue we had a massive bust up with the bus company as they said we had different tickets to what we paid for. I didn't know whether i was going to cry or knock the bloke out! So infuriating! And surprise surprise guess who was grovelling and realised it was their mistake!!! Andy handled him so well even when he was being shouted at and called a liar! Eventually we got what we wanted though! Wasn't much to say about Hue, the first day we ended up bumping into Greig and Ellie and drinking all afternoon! With me then wondering why i felt so rubbish when we went to bed! The next day we went to the Citedal, which was basically the ruins of the old palace. It was nice to stroll around and not be hasseled by hawkers!
That night we had a pretty tough bus journey to Hanoi, 13 hours, and the bus set-up was different so we had even less room. To the point where I slept with my legs in the aisle! We also had the bus driver accepting extra people along the way for cash in hand so they were sleeping in the aisles! At 7am we got dumped on the side of the road by the river not even sure if we were in Hanoi! But thankfully we were!
We decided to go straight to the Chinese Embassy to get our Visas, as we only had a few days till we left for China! We arrived, filled out the forms went to the desk to be told we needed to have accomadation in China, we said we knew this and we had filled in the details on the form. No, we needed a letter from the hotel, with the booking details, and it had to be stamped. We asked how we were supposed to get this considering we were backpacking and they just shrugged! So we left feeling pretty desperate. We sent an e-mail explaining the situation to the hostel in China, and sent a fax, and Andy tried ringing them but no one spoke English who was available! So we just had to wait hoping they would respond to the e-mail or fax. Thankfully that evening they e-mailed us back with a photo of the required letter and all important stamp. As the Embassy was only open in the mornings we had to wait until the next day, when thankfully they accepted our forms and all our paperwork. (All this was very irratating as we had been checking their website for the entry requirements and thought we had everything, but found out this was new protocol, but they had not been updating any of their info on requirements so lots of people were in the same situation and some being refused entry!). However we finally got it all sorted and picked up the visas the next day. All the confusion did mean that we were not able to go to Ha Long Bay, which was a shame. We were in the old town of Hanoi, which is set around a lake, which we walked around a couple of times. There was a small Island in the middle which housed supposedly a stuffed turtle found in the lake, although we think it's fake! There was a story that the turtle swallowed a golden sword.?! Coming off the lake were hundreds of little streets and alley ways with all little craft shops. The shops were really long and narrow, and meant you couldn't really go in them but just look from the street.
Finally it was time to fly to China...
- comments