October 2010
24th - Arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam at 9am after spending night at Kuala Lumpur airport. Slept like dead for afternoon and woke to sea of conical hats. Sat on foot-tall stools in evening to eat splendid noodles with beef on street. Worlds cheapest beer (Bia Ha-noi) at 50 cents negated by knee operation needed after getting up from stools. We loved Hanoi.
28th - Bus to Halong Bay for one night aboard traditional Junk and one night in hotel on Cat Ba island. Beautiful place. Sailed and kayaked around limestone karsts (rock formations) and visited caves.
30th - Back to Hanoi for one night as a stopover before overnight bus to Hue.
31st - Overnight sleeper bus to Hue. Hired bikes and got drowned as it pissed down all day. Visited Pagoda where we saw the Austin car used by Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc in 1963 to drive to Saigon before immolating (setting fire) to himself to protest the policies of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Had great gander around food supermarket and joined mad frenzied queue for freshly baked baguettes. Surreal.
November 2010
3rd - Bus to Hoi-an. Stressful 4 days in a place infamous for making any type of clothing you can imagine on demand. Helen had skirts, tops and dress made. Nick had sleeping bag liner. Helen did Vietnamese cookery course. Nick ate food cooked. And survived.
6th - Overnight sleeper bus to Nha Trang - again. Joy. 5 mins on bus and Helen hysterical over carrier bag left in lobby of hotel containing…socks. Yes, I know. Efficient hotel sent bag by moto-taxi. Disaster from Devon happy and Nick’s journey made easier. Arrived in Nha Trang at 6am to see whole town doing Tai Chi on beach and visited Cathedral to see service in progress in exactly same tone as home but in Vietnamese. Bizarre but comforting. Nice to see so many people attending, all doors open to church and plastic chairs laid on outside as all pews full.
8th - Bus to coastal town of Mui Ne for one night. Hired motorbike to see not-so-famous sand dunes. Cut short visit to first dunes (red sand) to see second lot further away (white sand) as were supposed to be better. Not so. Sand Castle empire left in ruins.
9th - Bus to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). War Remnants Museum (Vietnam war) excellent and needed two visits. Stormed the gates of Reunification Palace but sadly not successful in raising Union Jack on roof. Numerous visits to Central Market and a chance for some slow time. Both had haircuts. Helen looked beautiful with haircut from very good salon, including upper body massage for 8 pounds. Bargain. Nick’s refusal to pay much for his resulted in battle with hairdresser to not come out looking Vietnamese.
16th - Bus to grotty town of Can Tho in Mekong Delta where biggest floating market turned out to in fact be small. Unfortunately we both blinked at the same time and missed it. Kidding. It was good to see life on the river. ‘When the weather is fine, you know it’s the time for messing about on the river…’
17th - Bus to nondescript Rach Gia for stopover. Nothing to report except frenzied hunt for Snickers futile. Oh, and, bizarrely, more stares from locals as if they’d never seen a westerner before, even though tourists frequently come through the port town to catch ferries to Island.
18th - Ferry to Phu Quoc Island to spend time on white sand beaches. Adventure on motorbike in search of deserted beaches ends in retreat from incredibly poor and muddy roads, and incident with mosquito ends in broken laptop and tears. Nevertheless, it was hard not to enjoy the paradise which was Phu Quoc.
23rd - Ferry to Ha-Tien for bus across border into Cambodia. Border experience nearly enough to induce mass suicide by all passengers on bus. After grapple with usual red tape, ‘put up or shut up’ strategy forced in to effect by fitting 14 people plus luggage on minibus with 10 seats. Spent 2 nights in coastal town of Kep. Cambodian adventure begins.
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