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Long time no entry - Vietnam Vietnam!
Arrived in Hanoi after a 26 hour bus journey in which i was subjected to some truly horrific asian music - think the asian versions of celine dion & aerosmith played continuously and randomly throughout the night! It took about 3 hours to get across the border since it was so disorganised, everyone kept queue jumping & the vietnamese borders officials were on power trips, extorting money, which i was soon to learn is a vietnamese past-time!
Stayed a couple of days in Hanoi at friends of the family where I had some serious luxury! Gorgeous apartment in the french quarter, walking distance from the lake in central Hanoi, where i had a free pass to come and go as i please, along with my own private jacuzzi...
Disappeared off to Sapa up near the Chinese border in the far North for a few days - blissful to leave crazy Hanoi behind, with its motorbikes and haggling! Hiked around the local villages and enjoyed the mountain air. Spent time with 6 Canadian and American girls who i have ended up seeing around all of Vietnam - such a backpackers trail!
Went off to Halong Bay after a brief stint back in Hanoi watching the locals do thai chi, aerobics and general stretching at 5am...gorgeous gorgeous bay, very magical, particularly at dusk when the sun is setting. Cracking crowd on my boat - whipped out a guitar and bought shedloads of vietnamese red wine - de lat, & got pretty pissed! Absolutely retarded tour guide - very rude & disorganised, but it is unfortunately the only way you can do Halong Bay, so i had to suck it up and refrain from punching him!
Hitchiked from Halong City to Hue in central vietnam, since there are no direct buses, and i was not going back to Hanoi for a third time! Pretty manic and at times rather dodgy - got on a local bus to Ninh Binh, then on the back of a motorbike, where i got dropped off by the side of a highway in the middle of the night! I was told to wait for a bus going to Saigon/HCMC (the other end of Vietnam!) and try and flag it down! This i did and ended up getting perved on by one of the bus staff who only had one arm bless him, but then he ended up inviting me to a massive, slap-up dinner with all the bus drivers for FREE! this is an amazing feat in vietnam because nothing is ever free - it is one of the most captialist communist countries i have ever been in! After 11 hours on this bus i was dumped off 14km outside of Hue at 5am - i then got onto yet another motorbike in the rain & finally got to my hostel! Mission accomplished - don't try this at home!
Hue turned out to be quite a rainy, crumbling old city, split in half by the Perfume river. I wandered around the old citadel & cycled out several km to some of the temples and mausoleums, Tu Duc's in particular. Rocked up at a random temple in the pouring rain by myself and ended up getting invited to another slap up meal with the monks and several vietnamese families who were there to celebrate one of the 6 death days that happen a year! Got a tour by the monks afterwards, since they have a policy that anyone in the temple on these 6 days gets invited to join them! Sweet! They couldn't believe it when i said it was pure chance i rocked up then!
Next vietnamese instalment is coming soon...
Iona xx
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