Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hello :) so yesterday was our final day with everyone before Flo and I officially 'went solo' and it's safe to say we were pretty sad to wave them all off. Before that though, 8 of us decided we wanted to go to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and, having walked for hours the day before we thought we would spend some of our budget on a taxi. Somehow or other we squished 8 of us into a 6 seater, not to be recommended anywhere but Vietnam and ended up paying less than 25 cents each. Man were we gutted we hadn't splashed out the day before!! The weather has suddenly taken a steep drop in temperature but we were naive enough to think that 13 degrees in Vietnam would be considerably different to the same temperature in England so we trundled out in jeans (shock horror) and flip flops and a tshirt. I added a scarf for extra warmth and then proceeded to spend the rest of the morning looking like superman in an attempt to keep warm...
Heading to the mausoleum Gunnar caught sight of a passport photo place and, as he was having a minor panic about not getting into Laos without 2 passport photos, we managed to lose the other 4. The day was starting well. Finally we got into the area, through security (well Hanne and Gunnar both got stopped because they were carrying bananas. These were confiscated slash Gunnar's were eaten as per usual- rules here are crazy) and finally we were heading towards pickled Ho Chi Minh..!! After more walking (!) we reached the building were he was and despite being told off for talking, crossing our arms and putting our hands in our pockets we made it in for the allotted 3 minutes and were successfully creeped out in that time. I kept thinking he might wake up or move or something and although it was kinda cool, my over riding feeling was this is so strange!!!
We came to the conclusion that it really was too cold to do much more and headed for an early early lunch so that we weren't as rushed as the previous day. Unfortunately as its Chinese New Year EVERYWHERE is closed. We finally found a restaurant which was filled with westerners and had a delicious final meal together. Before long it was time for goodbyes with some continuing to Laos whilst others were going back to Bangkok to either continue their travels or go home. As Flo and I trudged off to or new accommodation we felt a little lost without our friends, especially the tailor band (you know who you are), and we came to the conclusion it was going to get a little getting used to!! We reached our hotel without any trouble (note: tess and Flo can succeed on their own) and despite the receptionist speaking next to no English and confusing the living day lights out of us we survived. Unfortunately our blog is going to be a little bit dull from now on as we didn't realise all the shops and restaurants shut for a whole week over new year. Hanoi is a leetle dead. We managed to sit in the Vietnamese equivalent of Starbucks for 3 hours or so planning the remainder of our trip and making use of the free wifi. Amusingly we keep bumping into the same people including 2 girls from our group who we thought had left. We even saw two Icelandics who we'd previously seen in multiple locations through Vietnam. It's a small world. In the evening we headed out, armed with all the layers we owned, to see the fireworks. It truly was crazy out on the streets as despite their being hundreds of thousands of people everywhere the traffic continued meaning it was slightly manic. We have found that with only 2 of us it is considerably harder to make an impact when crossing the road but don't worry, we're persevering and I promise I do look. Sometimes!!!
Today has been pretty quiet again. We have managed to get a little shopping in but we don't want to exhaust our options so we're pacing ourselves for the next few days! We leave Hanoi on Wednesday for Luang Prabang and everywhere opens again on Thursday. We're patting ourselves on the back at how brilliant our planning is. At the moment we're back in the coffee shop, using their wifi and attempting to amuse ourselves. We're praying everything starts to pick up again soon!!!!
Tess and Flo xx
Ps. Just want to give a final shout out to our awesome group who kept us sane for 3 weeks. If you're reading this we literally had the best time and if any of you non Brits are ever in England just give us a shout!!!
- comments
Jodie Sounds like you all had an amazing time in Vietnam, have enjoyed reading about what you all got up to and wish I could have stayed for longer - literally! look forward to hearing the rest of your adventures!
YKW Knew you guys would be om by yourself!! xxx
Gunnar Þórsson Hey I'm reading this! Had proper fun time :p Seeya yet again in Koh Phangan: )