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*China photos plus most of Vietnam have just uploaded - will add the last Vietnam photos when next at decent computer!*
Hello! Sorry its been a while since my last blog - we have been mad busy! Lots of VERY long bus rides!
When I last wrote, the next day we went to the Perfume Pagoda which was a mission to get to for what it was! Star (the friendly tour guide who took a shine to me in Halong Bay) had been emailing us about meeting up for a drink before we left Hanoi, but I'd been so busy I hadnt replied to any of them, then as we were waiting for the bus to collect us for the Pagoda Tour, Bex suddenly said ' Is that Star?' and low and behold it was him running down the road towards us - so that was a little awkward! We then had a two hour bus ride which wasnt great as I wasnt feeling too hot, then 8 of us got into a really low boat which one tiny Vietnamese woman rowed for an hour to get us to the Pagoda - poor woman, it was roasting hot and Gemma and I both got burned! Its like no matter how much sunscreen you put on in Vietnam, you still get burned! Not good! Once off the boat we had a short trek to the cable cars which were like little ovens! The Perfume Pagoda itself was really nice - in a huge cave, Gemma and I had to pull out some leggings and long sleeved tops to put on for the temple which was really difficult trying to put them on over our sweaty clothes! Great picture of it to follow! Inside there were some great natural rocks that looked like they were in the shape of different things - people etc. There were 2 rocks that you could touch in order to get pregant, so Gemma, Bex and I stayed WELL away from those (babies dont make good souvenirs!) We met two nice German lads on the tour with us, Felix and Florian - Felix had googly Gemma eyes and Florian was half German half Vietnamese and seemed a little stuck up - however we agreed to meet up with them plus a girl called Emma who was also on the tour, for a few beers later that evening. We had the whole cable car, hour boat ride, 2 hour drive back, which as I said was pretty long winded considering we'd only spent about 30 mins in the actual pagoda but it was nice all the same. We got home, had dinner and set out to meet the others about 8pm. Found the backpackers area which was rammed with people and had a few beers there, then the boys said they'd take us onto a good club - which was at the top of a hotel. However, when we got there it was so scummy that we reckon it was probably a knocking shop and we were really apprehensive about going upstairs to the club. Once we got up to the bar though it was a different matter, we danced the night away to great club anthems mixed in with Spice Girls and Britney Spears. Florian was throwing all kinds of shapes on the dance floor! Him and Gemma had a dance off and I honestly can't say who lost! Mucho entertainment all round! About 2am the Germans tried to talk us into joining them at a teckno club but we politely declined (we're too old for teckno, we're too English for techno!) and made our way home.
The following day I was seriously ill and not from the drink. We went out for breakfast and then I had to go home and lie down. Gemma and Bex left me in peace and stayed in a coffee shop all day, coming back about 6 hours later with some food for me - bless! At 8pm I managed to pull myself together enough to get dressed, we all jumped in a taxi and went to the cinema to see Sex in the City 2 which perked me up a bit! Afterwards it was straight home again to bed.
The following day was Saturday and all three of us were leaving Hanoi - Bex to fly back to London and Gemma and I were catching a train to Hue. So we spent Saturday in the coffee shop relaxing - I was still pretty poorly. At 4pm we went back to the hotel so Bex could catch her taxi, then Gemma and I went for a pedicure and then off to the train station for another overnight train. We were in a carriage with two french guys who were part of a 40 strong group of french hooligans! I was really scared but we seemed to get the older quieter two of the group thank god, however the other guys were constantly coming in and trying to have conversations with us and their English was as bad as our French! We also had cockroaches in the cabin and screaming kids running up and down the corridor, all in all not great when you're feeling under the weather.
15 hours later we arrived in Hue after a morning conversation with one French blokes who had the best English and sat bragging about different jobs he had while his mate sat behind him laughing at his bulls***!
Off the train we went on a hunt for our hotel, then decided to go exploring - in a cyclo. 2 of us in one cyclo was hilarious, we barely fit and I had to sit in front of Gemma with her legs wrapped round my waist so we could both fit in, the poor guy who was cycling us didnt seem to mind and had a nice chat with us. We went to the Citadel and walked all around for ages, got some good photos and sat and chilled there for a while - the heat was immense! We went back to the hotel for a nap and headed out again about 6pm on the hunt for some local beer and some good times. We ended up in the Hue backpackers hostel which was so cheap we got bladdered and met a lovely young lad called Louis from Burnley who has us in giggles. We aso toyed for a long time with trying one of the shots called 'arse' but I had a sniff and realised exactly why it was called arse and we declined! About midnight the youngsters headed off to a club but with me still being unwell we decided against it and instead picked up a naan bread and went home - classy girls us! Both gave a quick call to our mummys as had been away a month without hearing their voices - was the perfect ending to a great night and the last thing I remember before falling blissfully asleep was the little ghecko scampering across the ceiling of our hotel room.
The following day we were up early again (no rest for the wicked!) to get another bus to Hoi Ann. I was feeling ok that day which was good as i was fed up with being ill. The bus was four hours long but I'm loving the bus journeys as I put my Ipod in and just drift away for the journey, its like my time to think - as the rest of the time we are constantly on the go and concentrating on what we are doing or talking to other people or each other etc, so the bus journeys have been great time to relax in my own head and get a few things straight. As soon as we got off the bus in Hoi Ann we were pimped into a hotel which had a pool and was cheap so we were excited to have a pool - til we saw it! It was tiny and we didnt end up using it. We went straight out to the tailor shops which is what Hoi Ann is mostly known for, Gemma wanted to buy some bits. i was tempted, but due to heat and illness I have lost about a stone and thought there was no point getting a perfectly tailored suit if I was going to lose / put on weight which was shame. By this point I was ill again (or at least I hadnt got over the last thing) so we had some lunch and headed back to the hotel - theres not much to see in Hoi Ann anyway so we didnt mind too much. We ventured out later for dinner but home again - boring I know but we can't go out every night - us oldies cannot take the pace!
The following day we went back to the tailors for Gemma to pick up what she'd ordered (two lovely cow boy shirts perfectly tailored to her - I was jealous) then had breakfast - I gave them a 500 thousand note (about 25 quid) and they said I gave them a a 20 thousand note (about a quid) which we knew was wrong as we'd hit the cash point just before we went in and withdrew a million and I had 2 x 500 thousand notes in my purse so that was the most fecking expensive scrambled egg on toast I've ever had! We then walked around doing all the tourist stuff like the Japanese covered bridge and some old houses etc - the heat was killing us! At 5pm we were picked up for our first ever overnight bus trip - which turned out to be like a double campbed on wheels that Gemma and I had to share, it was so small that we had to spoon each other and synchronise our rolling over! Was funny though! We stopped about 11pm for a break and got pissed off as the bus driver sat there for an hour watching the football and chucking back whiskey shots - wtf! We just wanted to get back on the road! Once we got going again we fell asleep and slept until we arrived in Nha Trang at 6am so we were glad to have slept. I said a little prayer of thanks as being on an overnight bus with no toilet when you are very unwell was a very scary prospect but I made it through alive!
We went straight to the hotel which was GRIM! We were booked in for 4 nights but told the manager we'd only be staying for one - we were sharing the room with dead coachroaches and millions of ants! The only tiny cool thing about the hotel was that our room looked out onto some weird kind of military base thing with old planes parked up - its not a tourist attraction or anything so it was quite cool to see them, we took some photos. We ditched our bags and went straight on the hunt for a new hotel, found a nice one then decided to hit the beach! We were there by 8.30 and its the most stunning beach I've ever seen! Nha Trang seems to be the 'Benidorm' of Vietnam and I loved every minute of it. It was so nice to finally be on a beach by the sea and have some r&r after weeks of total mayhem! I was in heaven! We stayed on the beach all day, the women come round with fresh seafood and cook in in their little makeshift grills in their baskets, just how I remembered it done in Thailand and it was glorious! The sea was lovely too, and cooled us down! We left the beach at 4pm and guess what - i was fecking well burned AGAIN! So burned that we stayed in that night with border line sun stroke - in our ant infested hotel room.......good times. We slept for 12 hours....
The next day we got up and took all our stuff to our nice new hotel after a tearful farewell to our ant friends. We went out and booked bus tickets to our next stop Dalat and enquire about tours, we kept ourselves busy inside places as were too burned to go out in the sun again. That evening we decided to get a taster of the night life and went to several different bars, which served 'buckets' of lethal cocktails for about a quid which we took full advantage of, I really did think we were in Magaluf at one point though. We managed to pick up Ireland (Jesus - not real name but looked like hime) and Canada (Tim) and headed off to another bar on the beach which was awesome. We all had a good giggle and then against the advice of our Lonely Planet book which tells you to steer clear of the beach at night, I decided a nice little swim at 4am would be refreshing so thats what I did - it was lovely! Although slightly embarrassing walking back into my hotel soaking wet - ah well!
Next day we went back to the beach and laid in the shade all day so it was ok. I bought an amazing book off a beach vendor called 'The girl in the photo' which is about a young girl in Vietnam who became famous during the war when a photo of her running naked and terrifed after being scalded by a naplam bomb was published in all the news papers over the world - the book is incredible, touching, sad, horrifying and I'm unable to put it down. We chilled that evening with some films in bed.
On Saturday my illness was completely cleared up and burn had gone down, so we hit the beach with sun block and spent the day there again. That night we were out again for a beach party which was good fun - back in the place on the beach but they'd constructed a stage and were playing all the club classics, gemma and I danced our bums off on the sand in the middle of it all til the early hours. Bliss.
Following day we were rough gettiing up for a 7 hour bus journey to Dalat. We really felt like true travellers for the first time after a 7 hour bus journey (which again ws fine) then walking round with our backpacks trying to find our hotel (rather than just jumping in a taxi like we normally do) I navigated on the map for the first time and didnt get us lost - phew! We had a cheap dinner of a french stick which cost us about 17p and was lovely - I knew we were true travellers then! We spent what was left of the day chilling out as we were too hung over.....
Next day we went on an organised tour of dalat which was fun and well quite strange in some places. We went to this waterfall where you had to take a toboggan type roller coaster unless you wanted to trek miles - and it was awesome! We also went to the Valley of Love where there were lots of Vietnamese men dressed as cowboys ready to have their photo taken with you on their horse - for a price! We went to a Pagoda and some little s*** tried to give Gemma a lecture on wearing shorts in a Pagoda - while his friends loked on giggling. We apologised but he was intent on having a little rant so we walked away, only for him to follow us and ask for a photo. Gemma and I burst out laughing and said no, although I very nearly told him to eff off - the cheek! Our tour guide was a really lovely Vietnamese man who talked us through loads of history and we discussed all the differences between our culture and his - and then in the Valley of Love he told off a young couple who were having a bit of a cuddle - even in the Valley of Love its not a done thing here to have public displays of affection! He told us about his fiance who he's been seeing for TWO months, and then took the piss out of our accents but he was a nice guy. Also at one of the sights we got chatting to a group of about 8 little kids who were testing their english on us and very keen to know our names and repeat them again and again - they were so sweet and funny, we asked them if we could take photos with them and they were so excited! they made the day for me really.
The following day we got a 9 hour bus here to Saigon - which is now known as Ho Chi Minh City - its crazy here although not as crazy as Hanoi. I really like it here, its a lot more built up and developed than Hanoi - there are actual proper shops and everything (how exciting - we're already been round them all!) and it rained in the afternoon which cooled things down a bit. We walked around a bit and in the evening headed out to the nearest bar - we're in the centre and lots of back packers around. We got chatting to two awesome lads from Cambridge and spent the evening drinking with them - til 3am which was bad as Gemma and I were supposed to be up at 6 today to go on an organised tour of Saigon and see everything but we couldnt get up!
So instead we got up about 11 and went to meet Dan and Phil for breakfast in the pub we'd all been in only a few hours before! We've spent the day walking around the city, went to the War Museum which was totally totally harrowing......It of course was very propergandery but some of the stuff we saw in there......I'll never forget. I was chocking up bit time looking at some of the photos...awful stuff. We then went on to some Palace thng (sorry can't remember the name right now!) which was slightly dull but we were very naughty and took some photos at desks and stuff that you werent supposed to sit at - oh well!
Afterwards we got lost and walked round for a while, then found our way back and went for icecream.
The lads have gone back to their hotel, we've come back to ours, I'm writing my blog now and then going upstairs to pack my bags as Gemma and I are on the 6am bus to Cambodia! Bye bye Vietnam! However, first we are gonna have a few hours of sleep and meet the boys in the bar at midnight for the footie - at least that was the plan. We were told the match was on at 7.30pm British time which would be 1.30am here - and Lucys just told me its on at 3.30 your time - whoops! Maybe Gemma and I will nip out on our own to cheer the England squad on - we have no way to contact the boys as you dont bother exhanging details with travellers! Oh well! If the match had been at 1.30 we were just gonna stay up til 6 and sleep on the bus...so we will see what happens.
I'm so looking forward to getting to Cambodia tomorrow - Vietnam has been an amazing experience and I'm so glad we had lots of time here. Other travellers we have met say Cambodia and Laos are even better - so I'm looking forward to seeing if thats true as Vietnam has been incredible.
So anyway thats all the news for now, next time I write I will be in Cambodia - whoo hoo!
Hope all is well at home, please feel free to stick messages on the message board or email me with all your news from back home [email protected] as its so lovely to hear from you while we are so far away from home!
COME ON ENGLAND!
Love you alll dearly
Shelley x
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