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We actually made it up!Ha Long Bay here we come.4 hours on a bus all the way to Ha Long where we were due to spend 2 days and 1 night on board a boat cruising around Ha Long Bay and stopping off at certain destinations.
This was one of the first trips that the organisation actually wasn't too bad and within about 10mins of waiting around we were on board our boat.The boat was pretty swish and for $45 including food wasn't too badly priced either.There were I think 14 people on board our boat so there was plenty of space to wander round and chat to others.Whilst we were floating out to the 1969 limestone islands we sat down and had some lunch.For our $45 we had the 'better food' and a nicer boat and actually they were probably right the rooms were very nice and the food weren't too shabby either.There was chips, tofu, fish, chicken, spring rolls, pineapple and a few other things that i probably didn't even know the name of J I bit the bullet though and tried tofu, pineapple and fish.I've never had any of them before but still...found the fish tasted like the sea, tofu was a weird rubbery texture and the pineapple seemed a bit stringy, but i did like it.
Later we arrived at an island where we jumped off and had a look around a pretty cool cave.It was found in 1993 and was huuuuuge.But what i didn't like about it was how it was ruined with loads of multi-coloured lights, genuine fake waterfalls and how every bloody rock looked like a dragon! Maybe if you squint your eyes, turn the lights off, stand on 1 leg, and stick your finger in your ear, maybe.So we had a walk around a couple of caves for about an hour but once you have seen 1 cave you have seen them all.
The tour guide had told us he was going to take us to see some special sights, one called the 'kissing rope'.I immediately replied with 'sorry?'....'the kissing rope'....'i thought that's what he said', got a few laughs from 3 aussie girls me and Dan wanted to set the foundation with before returning to the boat.
Two of the guys on our boat were stopping on 1 of the islands in a hotel so we dropped them off sailing through the stunning scenery just taking it in with the warm sun beaming down on us whilst we chilled out on the roof deck.By this time me and Dan were on our third beer, drinking one inbetween stops where we could fit 1 in.It was 1 of the earliest times we had started drinking on this trip, 11:30 but you have to drink it whilst it's cold so we got going on running up our nice little tab we had.Whilst taking in the scenery on the roof deck we got chatting to an irish couple, middle 20's who had been travelling for two and a half years and nearing the end.They were a lovely couple and our conversation brought the boat together and soon the aussie girls joined our conversation.Me and Dan had a couple more beers and we all headed down stairs for our dinner.Can't really remember what there was but i think i was just picking at a few things.We had laid the foundations with the aussie girls by this point and joined them at the dinner table.
The sunset and the chat got going.Our Israeli seemed to tag on with the others for the evening whilst the party group (me, dan, aus 1/2/3) invested in a bottle of rice vodka.Me and Dan drank most of it (of which Bridget had paid for) J and we sat upstairs drinking and chatting until about 1am.During that time me and dan had been dared to jump off the boat naked....so we did.It was freezing and thats not me making any excuses there but we soon jumped out wrestling our shorts back on.The guide came out along with Nadi (Israeli friend) and laughed at us lol.Good times.During the day i had forgot i had still got my boxers on and when me and Dan were swimming off the boat around sunset and without your mum there to tell you what to pack you forget don't ya?So i was now commando in my only pair of shorts.These shorts were the only ones that needed a belt to hold them up and again ihad no belt!I had to constantly hold them up, so you may see a few pictures where i'm holding them for dear life.
The following morning we had been told that we could kayak at 7am is we wanted.We thought he was joking, but as i got up at 6am with no hangover what so ever to watch the sunrise and take a few pictures i was well up for a little kayak in the fine misty rain.During sunrise i sat on the top deck again with the others listening to the birds sing and looking at the stunning views just a little bit more.IT was so peaceful and i could of woken up to that every morning.Dan was still in bed gone 7am and when we were asked about kayaking i went and asked him "meh, nah my ribs hurt"...i get that alot by the way.Well i wasn't going to miss out on this so I went and asked the girls if 1 on them would come with me and yeeee Bridget came and we had a good kayak through a cave and watched some monkeys climbing up and down the rocks.
The rest of the day was spent heading back checking out the local fishing tribes that float on little plastic drum islands they have made.Alot of them live on there all their lives and are very hard up.The government is trying to get the kids to go to the mainland for education but as they don't want to leave their parents they won't go and have therefore created the smallest most basic floating school there possibly could be.Its for the 20 kids that live in the floating village.
When back on the islands we had some more food before getting the bus back to the hostel for another 4 hours or so and had to be quick getting ready as we had booked a train ticket to head down to Hué in central Vietnam which would take 11 hours on a sleeper train.We had enough time to all grab a shower before being whisked away to the station.At the station we grabbed some food.Me being me went for ritz cheese crackers, dan being dan went for a whole roasted chicken and sandwitch which then made me notice the chicken drumsticks that were looking pretty tasty.Whilst dan was waiting for his whole chicken i asked the lady at the stand, who spoke no English at all, "can i get 2 drumsticks please" pointing at both the drumsticks and the menu...straight away she replied with "Nooooo" and burst out laughing.Was it a joke, i don't know, but i never got my bloody drumsticks from the silly woman.Ah well, don't even like drumsticks :/
The train weren't too bad at all.Much better than i was expecting and are soft sleeper train was basically 4 beds in a tiny space, just enough to lie down on.Me and Dan were in a different compartment to Nati and we were sat on the top bunks, whick are actually better but the problem was below us were a Vietnamese family who had 2 beds for mum, dad, and 2 young children.It was a squeeze but even though they are young, they should not be aloud to shout to talk to you when they are about 6 cm away from you.Very rude, but we have found that about the Vietnamese so far.During the train we headed down to the first carriage which was a bit of a communal area.We were carriage 11 and it was probably a 1/2km walk down the train through annoying doors and scooterling past trolleys, people, giant bonsai's and chickens.When we got there we were disappointed, warm beer and noodle's were practically the only thing on sale and everyone in there were Vietnamese but we felt we had to stop for a beer and did so!Nadi tried the train food which was only one option; noodles and dog (beef).It looked and tasted just like super noodles so it wasn't too bad at all.We headed back to our carriage to find the family below us asleep so we chilled out before getting our heads down on a slightly bumpy train.I was surprised how well i slept, only waking up a few times, where as Dan didn't enjoy his kip and he's usually the one that can sleep anywhere!
Shortly after getting up we arrived at Hué a place we would spend 1 night before heading south again.We had done a bit of research before hand and found a good place to head towards 'Hué Backpackers Hostel' but when we got there they were full and waiting on possible checkouts at 11am.The guy who ran the place was a top man though and after some breakfast (beans on toast for me) he came over and said there was no room but if we popped over later he would get us a free beer.I asked him where he wouldnt recommend that was cheap and he said there were rooms over the road for $12 a night (for 3 people) so that was cheaper than the backpackers hostel.Even though we were just over the road we spent all our time in the backpackers lounge with free wifi, decent food, cold drinks and a good atmosphere with people to talk to.
During the day we decided to get motorbikes to just cruise around the town.Nadi had never driven a motorbike before but like me and dan, we hadn't really either in Chiang Mai but managed to get the hang of it pretty quickly.He went for a manual, being cheaper, as did me and Dan and 10mins later when they turned up with the bikes they went through the instructions again but still Nadi wasn't confident so i showed him exactly.I explained about the neutral and gear, the footbrake and how to change up and down gears.I then started my bike, put it into gear and pull off as i was soon expecting him to, right o! I made Nadi change his flip flops first to wear trainers and when he returned he fired her up, put her into gear and i explained her should check behind him and SLOWLY accelerate.He never!He went straight in balls deep, turning the accelerator too much and flying off down the road.Not only that he panicked and tried to stop himself by holding the break with the accelerator still on and his feet dangling down to stop.Within the space of 7 or so seconds he had nearly hit my bike, 2 people, a car and a hotel :D He poo'd himself but for everyone else (excluding the bike owner who was watching) it was proper funny.The bike was taken straight off him and he wasn't even given the option of trying a manual.It was even funnier watching a girl the next day have a go and seeing his face whilst she pulled off in poetry. The owner then wanted me or Dan to take him....but neither of us were comfortable on them with the extra weight on the back as they aren't as easy to drive and the streets aren't very safe as it is and i wasn't taking a gamble for him.
Me and Dan set off to the train station to get our tickets first and after 15mins of messing about with rubbish staff, locals pushing in and bad English we got our tickets and went for a drive.The roads i found very dusty, slow and a lot less rules than in Chiang Mai so we didn't bother blisting it and just went at a steady pace with the flow of traffic.There were several times we wasn't sure if they were legal turnings but ah well.Me and Dan stopped for lunch at a fancy restaurant with waterfalls and nice scenery...following our candle lit dinners we have been having.We then walked to the old Imperial city in Hué which was the kings home for the 19th century.It was pretty big and quite impressive and currently being restored back to its former glory.
After visiting the old imperial city we picked up our bikes and had a bit of a drive around checking out a few temples on the way.There were a couple of near misses; mine being that Dan doesn't know where his indicators are and so when i was following him i never knew which way he was going to go.With the traffic here being a free for all you can easily get stuck behind or inbetween a few vehicles but still only me meters from each other so when Dan turned right at a cross roads i was boxed in and lost him.But because of this i tried to turn it round quickly before he was long gone and in doing so was riding my bike like a bull.It all ended ok and i caught back up with him but the funnier moment would be on the way back when i followed a car through a red light.Over here they have a time on them of how long is left it will be on red or green so everyone knows what they can get away with and jump red lights so when i followed a car, dan followed me and when the 50 or so bikes revved their engines heading straight for Me and Dan i accelerated by the side of the car, making it quite easily.Dan on the other hand seemed to be dancing with some of the other drivers in the middle of the crossroads cornered with police officers lol.We were expecting to be chased by a few siren, so we stuck our foot down as fast as we could.....only joking, we just trumbled back to the room where we found Nadi looking a bit bored which gave us another chance to laugh at his riding skills.
Later that evening we went for a drink over the road at the Hué backpackers hostel where there was some real atmosphere and to also grab our free beer.After a couple of beers and a pretty unsociable evening it was bound for the most boring night of the trip so far and i had decided to head back to the room.With us all being tired we weren't really talking much or up for making a night of it.Dan some point had acquired a 500 dong note which is usless in Vietnam as they are all rounded to the thousand.Because of this we thought it was be funny to get 1 of the cyclo drivers to take us to our hotel (straight over the road) for 500 dong (1.7p), he thought we were taking the piss and went back to his spot on the side of the road.Nadi really wanted a go on a cyclo so he asked if he could take the driver for a spin and so he did, taking him round the block, in the mean time Dan was riding a local on a motorbike down the road and then was offered a free trip round the block "for fun" so we could follow Nadi on the cyclo.Well that was the start of a very eventful night.Me and Dan were on the back of these motorbikes being driven around the city stopping off at w**** houses, nightclubs and whatever he could find.After repeatedly telling him he was wasting his petrol and i wasn't paying him anything he then took me on a guided tour of the city for about 10mins eventually after repeatedly telling him i wasn't paying ending back up at the corner of our hotel.I got straight off, gave him his helmut, and walked off to the hotel whilst this guy was shouting "money, oi money".Obviously i told him where to go and headed up to the room where Nadi was waiting.He had paid 10,000 (35p) for taking the driver round the block lol loser.Dan however didn't return.It was funny for about the first half an hour, joking about how he must of stopped off at one of these places, but 30mins after and trying to ring him i was getting worried.I changed my top (from a bright red to a bright yellow) thinking it wouldn't draw attention to me haha and went outside the hotel.Immediately they were waiting for me and shouting "you owe me money", but not knowing where Dan was i made them tell me where he was...which they told me he was at the backpackers bar.Why he never rang me to let me know i don't know, but he was safe and i was now in need of a beer.Dan had been dropped off and then hassled so the aussie guy who ran the backpackers hostel told him to go in there as they aren't allowed to go in.Dan had also been given another free beer on the house and had a couple with the aussie and a Scottish guy he had met.This led to a night out so we headed to the infamous bar Brown Eyes with the slogan "open 5am or until the last 1 drops". The aussie guy seem to keep handing us free shots of stuff which were quite nice and being English we didn't turn it down.I think we left about 3-4am as there weren't many people left by that time.Nadi had left about 12:30am with the excuse "I'm just going for a walk", okaaaaay....night then.
The day after i woke up at 12:01 and our check out time was 12 with a notice that if you are late you will be charged half the room rate.So by 12:15 we were all down stairs packed.We weren't charged and made our way ver the road where we spent the whole day sat around on the internet and deToxing.Our train was at 7:58pm so we chilled and had a few games pool before catching our train to Da Nang.We caught the train down to Da Nang as we had booked a flight from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City for £23.It was the same price as the train but we would be able to go to the beach in Da Nang rather than get a rubbish night sleep and waste a day travelling and another sleeping.It also gave us an opportunity to leave Nadi as he had booked the sleeper train J.
Arriving in Da Nang we headed for an address we had previously found that wasn't a complete rip off.We got there at 11:30pm and there was a language problem with the man on reception so i was having to write or point at everything.When i pointed at a double room he looked at me a bit funny and for the next 20mins whilst we were looking at the room he was laughing at us all the time, thinking we were a gay couple.Now its not the first time we have had this, along with being swingers, brothers, best mates, the lot but this time we couldn't explain ourselves and even in the morning he was still chuckling to himself.It didn't help that they had twin rooms and our choice was the double...now even you think we are gay, but it was all about the price 100,000 dong difference (£3.35) J so we slept together as we do most nights now it seems.
In Da Nang our plan was to head to China Beach, the famous American playground during the Vietnam war but after getting taxi prices it was $10 each way (scam) so we didn't bother and just chilled again.We probably wasted the day again, but ah well.We sat in a cafe for a few hours and everyone that went past seem to stare at us like celebrities.Kids were coming up to us and saying "hello" with huge smiles on their faces.Girls were going "you're handsome" and it seemed as though we were celebrities down to the fact they don't get many western people there.This explained the language barrier we constantly had and even pricing up a taxi I had to speak to someone on the end of a phone to translate price and place of where we wanted to go.We grabbed our flight at 8pm and took off for an hour flight to Ho Chi Minh City.The airport was small and only served one hot meal, though it teasted ok, bit like super noodles and rubber if you've ever tried that.The plane was immaculate and so much nicer than the cheap low budget flights you get back at home and as soon as we were up were were coming back down again.
At the airport two German girls asked us if we were heading to District 1 and if we wanted to share a taxi with them.After looking at our hostel booking form we were and got in the taxi with them.It saved us a bit of money so we weren't bothered and arrived at our hostel about midnight. We were contemplating going out or whether we should stay in and save money for a change, i left the decision with Dan which isn't usually a question with him and is more of a when but this time he held back and we stayed in.6:30am in the morning the door went.We were in a 4 bed male dorm and when the 3rd person arrived he were a bit unprepared.Not introducing ourselves and having stolen his pillow we went back to sleep.
The plan for today was to head to the War Remants Museum which was within walking distance of where we were stopping.As i always say though 'its only within walking distance if your walking in the right direction', we weren't.Probably after over an hour of walking in the wrong direction (4/5km) in the heat of Ho Chi Minh City which was about 35 degrees we gave up and jumped on a motorbike taxi that had spoken to us and obviously followed us waiting until we took a wrong turn.We did actually get there in the end though and after a beer we entered the museum.The museum was good, again one-sided, but what do you expect from the Vietnamese and we had been told from before hand that the images in the museum were proper lump in the throat stuff.It was probably no different from many other cinflicts or war with all the torture that happened but to see the images in front of you and thinking about being in that position you can see why it made a lot of people cry.There was a guy walking around selling books but this guy had no lower arms past the elbow.Obviously he wanted pity with the story he had them blown off by a land mine, which is probably true but when he approached you and made you shack the stub on his arm it was a bit demoralising and there was no need.I had also watched the guy about 2 mins before get money from someone else and so figured he wasn't really hard up compared to alot of others who have been in the unfortunate position as him and decided not to give him anything.
On the way back we had a look at an old government building where the south Vietnamese government were once housed when the country was split into democratic and socialists.The plan then was to head to the supermarket and buy a few things.I well wanted some chocolate ice cream so that was at the top of my list along with a crate of beer.Me and Dan split a crate of Tiger beer (24 cans) 2 last us 2 nights so we would have our own little prelash later that evening before heading out.I also got home branded vanilla, chocolate oreo's, home brand rits with cheese and plain ritz.Dan invested in some dairylea cheese chunks and some choc fake oreos aswell.They went down a treat but were all gone later that evening.The prelash was good and gave us an opportunity to introduce ourselves to our room mate, Patrick.Another guy came to the door aswell called Pri, who was looking for Patrick but was in the shower so he sat down and we got chatting.Turned out he knew Nadi and most of the group we had got to know back on the slow boat.He and the rest of the group all had the same opinion on Nadi so it was quite funny joking about all that.
About 10:30pm we grabbed some food and headed to the bar.We had been told by someone the drinks aren't that cheap, hence why we had a prelash, but still went out for a couple.The clubs weren't that great, 1 half empty and the other full of teenage Vietnamese so we soon gave up and headed back around 2am as we had to be up for our trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels at 7:30am.Patrick was also doing the trip the same day so every set alarms in the hope 1 of us would wake up and could wake everyone else up, which worked, though at one point i didn't think Patrick was going to get up.
I enjoyed the Cu Chi Tunnels.We go to see how they set traps against the Americans to protect their land and also dug these tunnels out living in them and using them tactically to kill the Americans that wanted to wipe out the area.There are about 250km of these tunnels at 3 different levels going to 10meters deep at times.They are dark, hot, small and narrow but just big enough to crawl through.They would pop up in area's where the American's were, shoot, and disappear down these tunnels or have a firing squad set up if they decided to enter.After a few hours wondering around learning about Cu Chi we took the bus back.Already dripping with sweat from the 37 degrees temperature we got on a bus that was like a sauna with neither air con or blowers that worked.We had to sit on this for an hour and half.Most places wouldn't let you travel like that as it was dangerously hot but i sat through it dripping with sweat the whole time and got back to the hostel.We booked our bus for the next day heading to Phnom Penh in Cambodia and paid for our accommodation.
When we arrived the first night the security guard took our booking form and at the time we didn't think anything about it and as we had it backed up online we weren't too fussed but previously during the week we seemed to have been repeatedly scammed by the woman that owned it.Firstly it was the Cu Chi tunnels which suddenly were $4 more because of the new year but turned out not to be when having spoken to Patrick who got it at the normal price.Secondenly our change for Cu Chi which she seemed to always add up wrong with 1 minute it being 180,000 the next 190,000. Thirdly, paying for drinks which were 8,000 each and only getting 2,000 change instead of 4,000.It always seemed like she was just not good at maths but speaks with Pri and Patrick it turned out the same thing had happened to them.Me and Dan weren't expecting to have an easy ride paying for our accommodation that clearly stated how much was left.The left to pay was 718,200 which we were going to pay 720,000 for both of us.After repeatedly tapping away at a calculator she ended up with so many different number ranging from 400-600,000 each as the room price stated on a board was $8 (160,000 a night) = 480,000 each (448 after our deposit) but that isn't the price on hostelbookers that we had booked it through.Conveniently they never had our booking form and there for had to get it loaded up on screen and showed the woman."o yes, ok then"....went back to the desk and she wrote down we owed 782,000.She had decided to miss the 1 out of the 718,200 and make it 70,000 more and i wasn't having that.I argued it was 718,200 not the 782,000 she had said and she went mental.Shouting, kicking up a fuss, "i pay this, i do this", "room $8!" and a lot more rubbish for about 5mins before getting the security guard and her son (think it was family run) who she was going mental at aswell.So we showed her the form again, along with her son explaining which bit we had payed and which bit we owed them when all of a sudden our booking form turned up.She still went on and on and i even told her "your making yourself look a fool now" lol and she was....trying to fiddle us out again.Then her son had said something and she was like "ok ok, i thought this".They had a giggle and made a genuine fake apology.I was pissed off at this point and didn't want to hear the s*** she was coming out with and just told her to hand the passports over and give me our receipt.A similar thing had happened to Patrick.He arrived at 6:30am, having woken us up and she tried to make him pay for 3 nights, which he refused.Its a shame really because with a little bit of work it could be a decent place for travellers but there is no need to have hissy fits all the time and fiddle customers out.Pri also found that 1 minute she would be happy with you and the next either ignore you or be rude towards you and when i watched her i noticed the same thing.I've never given a rating for a hostel before but i may just give this a huge no for anyone thinking about stopping there.
It was new years eve in the Chinese year and after over a week of seeing things for sale, burning stuff and the buying of flowers it finally arrived.Me and Dan drank a few beers, grabbed some food and had a game of pool, with a couple of beers thrown in there as well.I won, whey and we went back and watched men in black whilst drinking the last our of beers.11:45pm we headed out, following the crowds to see the new years celebrations.There were tens of thousands of people out watching the firework display across the skyline.It seemed everyone had driven down and parked up waiting for the show to kick off, the roads were covered with traffic jams of people waiting for midnight.The fireworks lasted about 10mins and were alright but the mayhem after was the fun bit.Thousands of bikes trying to get out, crossroads were jammed and we risked life and limb to cross the roads.Pretty crazy but good fun at the same time.We got an early night as our bus was leaving at 6:15am to Phnom Penh which Patrick was also on.
I'm currently on the bus now and i'm glad to say it has air con and hasn't been a bad ride at all.Its 6 hours to Phnom Penh and even the border crossing wasn't as stressful as it has been in other places thought our first sight of Cambodia (no joke) was a guy lying flat on his back on the side of the road bashing the bishop......
To be continued.
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