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Following on from our last blog of Vietnam, we headed to the central mainland and the beautiful town of Hoi An. We arrived sleepily at our hotel very early (7am) after riding the night bus. We were VERY happy to be told we could check in so had a catch up on sleep before hitting the town for a wander. The town was very quaint with lots of tailor shops and little restaurants. The river front was lovely and all set up for the Lunar New Year with lanterns everywhere. This was quite a sight at night time and had a romantic feel to it. The next day we did a walking tour of the Old City taking in some of the temples and old houses. At one of these Steve had a go at clay pottery on a wheel... not as easy as it looks but very amusing for me to watch! Let's just say it wasn't a Patrick Swayze moment We spent the evening having dinner on the river front and buying Chinese style lanterns from one of the many night stalls. The following day we strolled around the market which was quite pleasant as traffic is prohibited. I had a nice summer dress fitted and made at one of the tailor shops and we had an amazing Vietnamese BBQ meal at a restaurant near our hotel. It was so good that we decided to take a cooking class here the next day. Our teacher Binh was very patient with us and showed us how to cook some amazing traditional food. We also persuaded her to show us the BBQ marinade so watch out back home as we will be using this for sure!! We were planning on celebrating the Lunar New Year but sadly for us the heavens opened so we had a night in with some of the lovely Dalat red wine! The next day we made the decision to post back a lot of the souvenirs we had picked up on our travels... just under 8kg... oops! The post office lady did a fantastic job at packaging all of this and we HOPE to see it a month after we get back
From Hoi An we took the bus to the next destination Hue. We spent our full day there walking around the Citadel (where you can see Vietnam's largest flag pole), a Museum and shopping mall/markets. I also made the difficult decision to purchase a new hat (mine has been with me since a flea market in Rome so hard to part with!) My bartering skills are getting better and I bagged it for $5.
We then made our way on the final bus journey to Hanoi. Again, straight off of a sleeper bus and a bit dazed we were bombarded by offers for taxi rides. We took one but soon realised we were being screwed over as the 'Meter' was conveniently covered with our backpacks and the driver tried to charge us nearly 500 dong ($25) for a 5 minute journey. Luckily Steve stood his ground and we managed to get it down to 300 but still hugely overpriced... lesson learnt here that they really can be conniving little s***s! We arrived to find our hotel was not quite like the pictures and we had to endure a very mouldy room for the next 3 nights. Then again, we had roughed it in a garage so who are we to complain!? After catching up on some sleep we spent the next few days exploring Hanoi, doing walking tours of the Old Quarter and seeing the sights. We also used this opportunity to check out the main man himself Ho Chi Minh at the Mausoleum. Believe it or not, after being dead since 1969, they still have him on show when his actual request was to be cremated! It was quite a creepy experience to say the least.
We decided to make an overnight trip to Halong Bay which is about 3 hours away. This involved a boat cruise around the many limestone outcrops in the bay. Although the weather was a bit drizzly it still was quite beautiful and had incredible views. We visited a cave named the 'Surprising Cave', and had a go at kayaking around the floating fishing village. I am quite clearly a pro, even though Steve felt I should paddle harder... this results in splashing and possible capsizing so I preferred my 'gentle' technique! We made a few friends on the trip as well and had a quiet evening trying to fish for squid off of the back of the boat (but failing miserably) and playing cards and chess. Waking up the next day anchored in the bay was quite cool to see first thing out of your cabin window! We made our way back to shore and then began our 3 hour journey back to Hanoi. However, our minibus decided to get a puncture so this delayed us whilst we stood roadside during the change over. The driver hadn't exactly pulled over safely so we watched open eyed as vehicles flew past whilst he was in the middle of the road!
Our last night in Vietnam we spent mooching the streets, bartering for some more artwork (Laura loves the piece we bought, Steve said it can go in the toilet!), and our final day we sat roadside drinking very cheap beer and watching the craziness of street life in the city, before heading on to a 28hr bus journey over the border to Luang Prabang, Laos!
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