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i have made it one piece to vietnam!
my china tour ended in guangzhou last friday, it was really sad to say goodbye to the tour group :( they were the loveliest people. we had a nice farewell dinner at a restaurant with pigs intestines, feet and other yummy delights on the menu and parted ways. rachel came and met me on friday also :) guangzhou wasnt a very nice city, very busy and dirty and not much going on in it so we wanted to get to vietnam as soon as possible. it did however have a tesco! was so random but we didnt waste any time in going in. iv never been so happy to see a crusty bread and lurpack butter and cheese slices! without my tour guide i realised just how difficult it is to communicate what you want in china, the language barrier is huge! but somehow we managed to eventually get a night train to nanning (still in china) on sunday. we were running around the station trying to find our train and the train staff kept pointing us in different directions, it was stressful and im pretty sure my face turned purple from the heat and the worrying that we were going to miss the train and be stuck in guangzhou!
like guangzhou not much happens in nanning but we were in a lovely lovely hostel and there was a mcdonalds down the road so was all good (i dont want to eat another mcdonalds anytime soon as had way too many in china). we met some english guys on the train that were going the same route so was nice to have a group, especially since we arrived in nanning at 2.30am and had to walk to the hostel! we went to a 'restaurant' in nanning where all i could eat was fruit as the 'mineral water chicken' was literally half a chicken in water. head, feet, brain, organs and all. one of the guys ate the brain and another ate the top bit of its head - way more adventurous (or crazy) than me!
tuesday night we got our second night train from nanning to hanoi. was just falling asleep when 5 chinese officals in green suits and hats came up to us and asked to see our passports. they then started speaking in chinese and told us to get off the train with our bags! we panicked - thought we must have done something wrong and that we were getting arrested or something! turns out we were just at the chinese border immigration and had to get our bags scanned - phew! we got back on the train and fell asleep to then be woken up at 1am for the same routine at the vietnamese immigration! sigh! final wakening was when we had arrived at hanoi, they woke us when we were there at 5am and everyone was off the train so we rushed off half asleep and disorientated with no vietnamese money and tried to figure out where we were. luckily i had a $20 bill that the taxi driver happily accepted to take us to our hostel.
so here i am. our hostel is amazing. its a brand new one run by two australian girls, in a great location, gives us free breakfast and comfy beds. theres a rooftop bar serving cocktails and a good restaurant, a movie room (where we all are right now watching hes just not that into you!), and they sell coco pops! would highly recommend it - its called the drift backpackers hostel.
as for vietnam, its magical. hanoi is a world away from china. the weather is beautiful, the people are the most friendly and helpful i have met, the food is a hundred times better than chinas and hanoi just has a buzz about it. the roads are packed with motorbikes and scooters and ladies with traditional pointy hats. its chaotic with a beautiful peacful lake in the middle that gets lit up at night and the buildings are all old and very european looking, you can tell it used to be a country ran by the french. crossing the road is a whole new experience on its own - you just have to not look and walk right out, look straight ahead and let the hundreds of mad driving motorbikes swerve around you! took a bit of getting used to and the locals found it hilarious at how scared we were standing at the side. last night we had the best ever spring rolls on a street stall, they were about 50p for a huge plate! theres little ladies selling fresh made baguettes and donuts on sticks that i am definitely trying before i leave hanoi.
today was the best day ever! we rented bicycles for the day and risked our lives on the hanoi roads and it was the best feeling ever! it was scary at first as the roads are so crowded and everyone comes so close to you, they also have roundabouts that you just go straight across without looking, but once you get used to it its the most fun in the world :) cycling about was the best way to see the city, we saw ho chi minhs tomb from a distance as the security guards shouted at us to stay away with our bikes! very strict! cycling is now my new favourite thing, if the scottish weather wasnt so cold in december id be trading my car in for a bicycle instead! we bought the traditional pointy vietnamese hats that all the locals wear (my one has a pretty pink ribbon that goes under your chin) and wore it on our bikes. we look just like locals now! ha. tonight we went for the local speciality dish of grilled fish with noodles, onions, peanuts and a sauce that we have no idea what it was but it tasted superb. we also had the best home-made ice cream ever in a little french-run shop: i had coconut, cinnamon and strawberry and im going back for more tomorrow! theres another branch in saigon so will be visiting that one too! we then went to see the local attraction of a water puppet show ... the word il use is interesting. it was strange and we didnt really know what was going on but it was good to see all the same. things are so cheap here, i thought china was quite cheap but things in vietnam are at least half the price.
tomorrow we are going for a 9am yoga class, which im hoping wont strain us too much! then we are going out for another cycling session and then swimming :) we are going to stay another day or two in hanoi just because its such a wondeful city and then we hope to do a couple of tours taking us to halong bay and sapa before we head down the coast.
hanoi makes me happy, cant wait to see the rest of vietnam now!
peace and love, hope all is well back home
xxx
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