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We ha
ve spent the last few weeks working our way up the coast of Vietnam, from Saigon in the south to Hanoi in the north. After the smoothest ever border crossing into Vietnam we arrived to the mad Saigon. There are so many motorbikes, it is ridiculous. Even walking on the pavement or through alleyways you are still at risk of being hit by one! They don't stop either so if you want to cross the road you just have to go for it and hope everyone goes around. Seems to work but it does take some getting used to. We had a lovely few days there including a trip to the Mekong delta to see everyone living and working on the water there. Unfortunately we had been out til 4am the night before so the 6am start was a bit of a killer, but once we woke up we had a good day.
From there we went to Dalat in the mountains, where the rain began. Not much to see in Dalat itself but the surrounding countryside is really nice so we went on a tour with easy riders...2 men with 2 motorbikes and me and Laus perched on the back. Very entertaining! They took us all over, visiting villages to drink rice wine with the chief (who also took us into his house, sat infront of us and sang us a song!), we went to flower farms, coffee farms (coffee is so good even I am drinking it), temples and lots of good view points. After couple of days here we moved on the the beach in Nha Trang...but it rained for 2 of our 3 days. That then became dangerous because if it's raining in a beach town, what else can you do but go to a bar?! So after a heavy few days at the beach we moved on to Hoi An. It is so pretty here, it is a world heritage site. It is like a run down french village. We had to be strict with ourselves there because there were so many clothes shops where you could get clothes tailored, could have spent a lot of money. We met up with some friends there and enjoyed the nightlife. We went on to Hue next but this was where the rain was at it worst! It poured! We were determined not to let it stop us though so we hired bikes, which amused the hostel staff a lot! We managed 4 hours and were soaked. It is tricky cycling with all the motorbikes at the best of times, never mind in the rain with your hood up. I definitely went through a couple of red lights but no one seems to mind. They also don't mind if you drive on the wrong side of the road.
After Hue we got a night train to Hanoi. We had bought some crackers and a mars bar for the evening but I wasn't feeling well so there was food left which Laus put on the floor under her bed on the train. In the morning we looked in the plastic bag and found the packets had been nibbled through and there were animal droppings in the bag!!!! Disgusting! Took us all day to get over it. We stayed at Hanoi backpackers hostel which is basically one big party.
We booked onto their tour to Halong Bay which was a 3 days. There were 60 people going and it was pretty mad. We arrived on our boat in Halong Bay and while sailing out we had lunch and lay on the deck and the party started there. Soafter a few drinks we then all go kayaking to a beach. Amazingly everyone managed to stay in their kayaks. Back on the boat we had an amazing dinner and then played drinking games and had a party. We got a knock on our cabin door after only couple of hours sleep to get us up for breakfast. This is when Lau discovered she had no flipflops...the only pair she bought with her. We searched the boat but they were no where to be seen so she spent the rest of the day barefoot. From there we went to Castaway island where we stayed in huts on the beach. There we did high speed tubing which was ace but hurt quite a lot when you fell in. After a BBQ I headed back to our hut and found on my mattress standing on my mosquito net...a dog!!!! It was really dark so I didn't realise until I was right up close so I then screamed and hit my head on the low ceiling and an american girl in the next hut had to come and get rid of it! I did not appreciate that. But the bonus of the evening was when Lau found her flipflops on Castaway Island behind the bar...far away from the middle of the sea where she had lost them. Mysterious. (But actually a girl on the boat had found them and put them in her bag to find out whose they were, amazing!!)
After this trip we then went to Sapa, right in the north up in the mountains where the scenery is amazing. Unfortunately it rained our first day so we saw more cloud than anything else, though it did clear up in the afternoon. We trekked all day, which was a mud slide in places, and then arrived at a village where we stayed with a family for the night. And yes, more dogs. Nightmare. They cooked us a lovely meal and then were pouring out the shots of rice wine. They call it wine but it is a spirit. They made a fire and we made pop corn with their dried corn. Another bit of trekking in the morning and then back to Hanoi on a nigh train. That afternoon we flew into Laos, still scarred by the Cambodian border experience, we decided to treat ourselves to a flight! Before we left we met some people and went for dinner at one of the street restaurants. We had been to another one a few days earlier where you get your meat and veg and a stove and cook it yourself and it was really good. But this one, we couldn't tell what most of the meat was but there were a few whole frogs legs and definitely a few organs!!
Next stop Laos, get ready for stories of tubing, massages and hangovers from hell...
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