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When we left our hotel in Hanoi we had literally just stepped outside when we were whisked away on motorbikes, no time to discuss - as I turned the corner the last thing I saw Sians little worried face as I sped off into the crowd of motorbikes through the Hanoi streets. We thought we might never see each other again but I had the passports and she had the ticket so we wernt going anywhere without each other! I felt surprisingly safe on the back of the motorbike, there was only one hairy moment when the driver answered his mobile in the middle of possibly the busiest square in Hanoi, but I just thought it was hilarious!! Got dropped off down a back street and the driver sped off without saying anything, Sian luckily arrived 5 minutes later. We got talking to a dutch girl Linda who was equally as confused as we were but she at least seemed to have a proper ticket whereas me and Sian had a scrappy piece of paper which was handwritten?!
After alot of confusion and being hearded from place to place we finally got dropped at the bus 'station' which was way out of the city and seemed to be some sort of rubbish dump/building site but by this time we were just grateful to see a bus so we just hopped on!! What we thought was going to be a 12hour journey turned into a 18 hour bus ride, torrential rain and a traffic jam in the middle of the night slowed us down slightly ie alot and to make matters worse when we finally arrived in Hue the weather was even worse so we spent the day in the Backpackers Hostel watching the Rugby, eating and reading! We made friends with some English sisters Hazel and Nina who had also been on the bus and stayed in a dorm(with other people this time) and only making it out to run to a bar at the end of the street for a change of scene. Afterwards we headed back to the hostel for happy hour - buy one get one free cocktails and got talking to some other girls - the owner ended up extending happy hour to happy hour and a half thanks to ''the 6 hot girls in the corner'' then he plied us with gummie bears shots which were nasty but did the trick! Apart from this Hue was a bit of a write off - we were on a tight schedule so we stayed that night but left for Hoi An the next morning although left Hue with the sun shining, typical!
Arrive in Hoi An early afternoon, really chilled out feel. Nice weather so hire bikes and head down to the beach - the map said 4km itb seemed alot longer than that, nice ride though! As we were riding this old Vietnamese man obviously didn't like us over taking him so he started a race with Sian, it was hilarious seeing Sian racing a man probably nearly 4 times her age down the street, luckily Sian won but it was a bit of a close call, the man was so sweet!!! Beach is really lush, white sand, palm trees, really big waves! Had sunbathed for about 45 minutes when the sun disappeared behind a cloud - this seems to be a recurring thing with us,great!!! We end up sharing a 4 person room with Linda and this Swiss girl Bettina, she was abit of an odd one but its all experience! Hotel has a pool in the entrance which is a bit random but a selling point for us!n Head out for dinner in the evening and wander to the Old Quarter. It was like walking onto a film set, really old buildings, no street lights, no cars or scooters and the whole road from left to right was lit by red Chinese lanterns, it was lovely. It turns out that it was the night of the light festival which happens once a month- we were told it was happening in 2 days but turns out we had timed it perfectly. Walk across the Japanese Bridge built in 1590 and to the river where there were open lanterns floating. Have a boat ride up and down, when we got to the end we all let our lanterns that we had been given out into the river along with our chosen wish, it was all very lovely until it poured down and everyone ran for cover, we think they were going to light up the main bridge but couldn't because of the rain - still nice evening.
Still raining in morning so ruins our beach plans -head out to see the sights of the old town, go to a local temple - a man working there took a liking to us and insisted on arranging us in a few positions for photos, he made me bang his gong and put my head in it (no pun intended!) Main excitement of the day was that me and Sian had shoes made for us!!! we knew you could get clothes made for you but as we were leaving that evening so we didn't think there was anyway we could but we ordered them at 9 am and they were ready for 4 o'clock, sian got sandals and i got puma style trainers made, they are proper bling, i feel like becks as they have Laura on the left and Starkey on the right shoe - pretty naffy but how often do you have shoes made for you??!!The other 2 got dresses made.
Found a cafe that served amazing desserts, the chocolate mousse was the best Ive tasted(apart from A.Starks) and the lemon tart was pretty good too, me and sian were in our element! After all the excitement of the day so far we had a bit of time to kill before we left so me and Sian decided to treat ourselves even more and blow some dongers on a well deserved (maybe not the typical traveller thing to do) body scrub. It was hilarious if not surreal, we were taken into a room, told to strip and put on see through paper pants and shower caps and lie next to each other while we were well and truly scrubbed and buffed with milk exfoliater and then wrapped up in plastic like chickens and left to lie for 15minutes, then Sian was shipped off to another room and I was left to sweat it out for easily another 15minutes. Turns out Sian was bathing in a warm tub of lemons, bamboo and various grasses then I just got the dregs of her bath after which was luke warm by now, I was just glad it was her in there before and not some random stranger! Afterwards we still didn't feel like we had indulged enough so I had a facial and Sian had a foot massage, very naughty but lush!! Leave for Nah Trang that evening and arrive 5.50 the next morning.
When we arrived we couldn't believe how many people were up and about, check into a hotel for three, Bettina stayed behind in Hoi An for another day. Slept for a few hours then headed to the beach. There was a cable car at the far end of the beach and we set of thinking it wouldn't be that far to walk, we ended up walking for an hour in the heat of the day. As we walked it didn't seem to be getting any closer, we started to think it might be a mirage! Eventually made it there and Sian decided it would be a good idea to take a small short cut down a hill, falling and scrapping her bum and leg, its still really scratched and painful, silly! When we went up in the cable car we were able to see the detour had saved us less than a minutes extra walking haha!
Went on the cable car over to VinPearl Island, brilliant view - apparently the longest cable car across the water anywhere in the world. Went to the Waterpark over there and the Aquarium which was pretty cool; nemo fish, cat fish embryos, turtles, sting rays, sharks and seahorses (as well as a women dressed as a mermaid?!) Get cable car back and decided to get taxi back. Go out for dinner, then for cocktails in Red Apple Club - see a dutch guy that was on the bus with us and try and set Linda up with him, doesn't work! Linda does snorkelling tour the next day and we head down the beach, true to form about an hour in it starts raining,g-reat! that evening head over to backpackers hostel to meet up with Nina and Hazel who arrived today, walk into their dorm and couldnt believe that they were sharing with Bettina! All go out for dinner nearby as pouring then to a couple of bars, say goodbye to the girls and leave for Mui Ne early the next morning.
Get picked up at 7.45, big bus with us as the only travellers on it - only about 6 people got on board all day, all Vietnamese and all travel sick as not used to public transport!Get to Mui Ne, beach resort and check into hotel, me and Linda go for a walk in the evening, not much to see as only has one main road and we are staying on it! Wake up at 4am the next morning, we've booked a jeep to take us to the sand dunes to watch the sunrise, head out to the white sand dunes first which were really impressive - 'Sahara of Vietnam', lovely then to the Red Dunes, stopping off at a fishing village then walked through a fairy stream for a nice view of the surrounding area, sleep for a couple of hours when we get back as feel we've done a whole days work before 9am! and then lay by the pool, me and sian have decided to carry on to Ho Chi Minh tonight so say goodbye to Linda. As we are getting on the bus she gave us a bag of presents and a sweet love note, we will miss her!
Arrive in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City early evening, the traffic here is even more insane than Hanoi but because its a bigger city, it doesn't feel so claustrophobic and we have no trouble crossing the roads, get stuck in! Check into a back street hostel, staying on the 6th floor - no lift so carrying our bags up was fun! Head out early the next morning, the city has a really nice feel about it and really easy to walk to all the sights on foot, go sightseeing with Michelle, a girl from Harrow and Martin, we met them in Nha Trang - Go to Ben Thanh Market - right up mine and Sians street, lots of souvenirs and colourful material, nice shops, head to see opera house, post office which had lovely architecture abit like grand central station, committee hall, Notre Dame Cathedral where we saw 2 couples who had just got married, took a few snaps! Then headed to the War Museum- really interesting to learn more about the Vietnam war and lots of photos and stories, also people that had been born with severe deformities as a result of agent orange, the toxic chemicals the Americans had dropped on villages in Vietnam were there at the museum too.Very informative.
Starts pouring with rain so get a taxi back to near our hotel and watch the Rugby Semi final in Spotted Cow Bar - having never watched a game in my life I was abit unsure about it but ended up really getting into it, we had alot of time for the All Blacks doing their hacker hacker dance before the game started! Michelle really pleased when NZ won as she is leaving for NZ in a couple of days so should be a wicked atmosphere there for the final!Go out for dinner in the evening, very excited when we find a pizza hut doing a meal deal for 39,000 dong - just over a pound and even more excited when the waiter said our food would be out in 17minutes and it was!(although it was a shame when our pizzas arrived with cheese sauce base not tomato sauce!) Say goodbye to Michelle as she leaves in the morning.
Book a tour for the next day to the Cui Chi tunnels - the tunnels where the Viet Cong hid from the Americans in the war. Stop off at the main Cao Dai Temple - a religion that's takes from other religions such as Christianity, Buddhism and is followed by 5 million Vietnamese and founded in 1926 - they are required to pray 4 times a day 5am midday 5pm and midnight for an 1.45minutes at a time-Praying for nearly 8 hours a day! The temple was so impressive, beautifully ornate and colourful with amazing carvings, gorgeous patterns and tiling, we were allowed to watch the midday service from the balcony upstairs, the worshippers all dressed in white apart from the high ranking ones who dressed in red, yellow and blue - the 4 colours of cao dai, glad we went there. Then we got back in the minibus and headed towards the Cambodian border to the tunnels(saw the biggest pig ever - it was like a horse!). We see the traps the Viet Cong had set for the enemies, got to climb in a small entrance into the tunnel and have pictures taken and then head down into the tunnels - the guide said they had widened the tunnels by 50% for tourists but we couldn't believe it when we got down there, you really had to crouch down, a few women from our group didnt fit in!!It was so humid, we were really sweating, i managed to get to the end of the 100metre on my own, the only time I got abit freaked out was when 3 bats decided to join me down there and were flapping around my head!
Head back to the city and stop off at a tea and coffee shop for a 'free' drink so we would hopefully buy something - I ended up trying egg tea which I had been told was kind of like a frothy cappuccino but was literally a boiled egg flavored like tea, it wasn't nice! Outside the shop there was this metal bowl with handles that was filled with water, one of the vietnamese girls rubbed the handles for a few seconds and the water vibrated and jumped around like a fountain in the bowl, quite a few of us had a go and nothing happened but I was determined to do it and after loads of tips and encouragement I did it, it was really strange but cool! Leave Ho Chi Minh on the sleeper bus that night, it was just me, sian, a Brazian/Italian who said he worked for the Brazilian government?!(we wernt convinced) )and about 20 vietnamese/cambodians - we made it to the Cambodian border really early in the morning but had to wait ages for it to open. When we eventually went through to the visa checkbit there was abit of a hold up as at passport control they had stamped our passports saying we got into Cambodia on the 16th when it was the 18th so it looked like we had already been there for 2 days which we obviously hadn't, someone had got their numbers mixed up! Finally made it in to Phnom Penh 12 hours later, another stamp in our passports!
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