Author: Chris Greenwood

We have arrived in Bogota, Colombia. More about that later, I really want to use this post to document some of the fun we had in the week or so prior to our departure.

I had a nicely phased exit from work. Thanks to the Cunningham’s wedding I was able to do a three day week and then finish on a two day week. On the Tuesday night of that second to last week I had a great night out with the work team, followed by the wedding two days later. Finally we had a party in London for friends attended by some of our closest friends from work, university, London and even a few school friends. Even though it was all a bit last minute and hectic, it was a lot of fun spending a few nights surrounded by some of our favourite people. To top it all off I was presented with a huge pile of gifts from my work colleagues including some very useful items (new flip flops, awesome portable BBQ, disposable ponchos, US Dollars) as well as some amusing but slightly less useful gifts (rubber duck, fake moustache etc). That weekend we went up to Nottingham for a leaving party with the family, and to deposit my car safely on Dad’s drive. The party was a roaring success and a great way to see everyone.

Continue reading “So it begins…”

After a year or so of procrastinating Alex and I have decided to take some time off work to spend 6 months travelling around South America. You are probably reading this because we’ve given you the web address so that you can keep up to date on our exploits! Since we haven’t actually gone anywhere yet I thought I’d answer a few questions that have come up when we’ve told friends and family about our plans.

Why?
This is an easy one. We’ve both loved travelling since we spent part of our gap year in Botswana. For me this was an experience that totally changed my outlook on life and made me a happier, less material person.

Continue reading “Chris & Alex’s Travels”

We arrived in Hue and checked into our hotel, Binh Duong 1. We had been offered a basic double room for $8 but decided to splash out and go for the $12 room that contained a computer with internet access as I was getting very far behind on this blog. The room was on the top floor of the hotel, was very clean, well equipped and had a great view. We left the other six of our group downstairs to decide where to stay, giving them our room number so they could get in touch. About an hour later we had a call on the room phone from three of the guys who had decided to hire bikes for an hour for a quick ride around the citadel. We decided to join them and paid for a half days bike rental though this only came to 15p! Our hotel and pretty much all hotels and restaurants are located on the south side of the river in new or European city and the main city itself is across the river. The entire old city on the north side is enclosed by a 20m thick wall that run around the city in a square with each side of the square being 2.5km long. We cycled across the bridge and through one of the gates into the old city. Inside the old city is 2 further walled areas. The first that you reach is the imperial citadel which would have been used by the mandarians, civil and military noblemen as well as everyone who served the emporer. Inside the imperial citadel is a further enclosure called the forbidden purple city. This area would have been used solely by the emporer, his wives and concubines. In fact the only men allowed inside the forbidden purple city who weren’t related to the emporer were eunuchs.

Continue reading “Hue”

So a minibus eventually picked us up from our hotel around 30-40 minutes late. We were one of the last to be picked up so they were probably delayed by a few people on the way. We were taken to the sleepy bus which is a full sized coach fitted with rows of nearly flat bunk beds which convert into seats. We got on the bus and found ourselves a couple of top bunk beds next to each other near the back of the coach. The beds around us filled up with other people many of whom were on their own and within a few minutes we all got talking, sharing stories of travels. We talked for a few hours an eventually the lights were turned off and we went to sleep. Nobody slept particularly well but I did at least get a few hours sleep. We were woken up at 6:00am by traditional Vietnamese music and a video on the TV. Soon after we stopped for breakfast at Dong Ha. While eating we were approached by a guy who offered us a DMZ tour. We had planned to tour the DMZ from Hue but looking at the map we could see that Dong Ha was very close to the DMZ and Hue was another two hours down the coast so we’d have an extra four hours travelling time to see the DMZ from Hue. Before we got on the bus I’d had an e-mail from Tom saying that they had done a really good DMZ tour from Dong Ha with a guy who’d approached them at their breakfast stop. When I mentioned the names Tom and Craig  to the guy he beamed with delight and repeated Tom and Craig, it was the same guy who they’d taken the tour with. I knew he probably wasn’t just making this up as he could actually pronounce Craig, something almost nobody here can (including the Americans we have met). We were due to be picked up by our hotel from the bus in Hue but the restaurant owner offered to call and cancel the pickup so we agreed and along with another of the giys we had met we decided to do the tour. Alex and the other guy, Luke got back on the bus to get our stuff and at the same time persuaded another five people to join us. We unloaded our stuff from the bus and the eight of us watched our bus to Hue drive off. The tour guide was called Hoa and spoke pretty good English. He gave us about an hour to have some more food and wash, change etc and then when we were ready all eight of us piled into a minibus. The first stop of the tour was the former US Con Theiu firebase. While there was not actually much to see at the firebase apart from one concrete bunker what was so amazing to see was the vegetation in the DMZ compared to the surrounding areas. During the war the US napalmed the entire south side of the DMZ to prevent the Viet Cong hiding in the dense forest. This conbined with the agent orange that they sprayed completely destroyed all plant life and even now over thirty years later the vegetation still looks very young an unestablished despite massive government planting schemes. The concrete bunker at this firebase was one of the only ones that was made of concrete and was reserved for the high ranking officers. Everything else was constructed from sandbags and our guide picked found a few partially filled sandbags from the thousands that litter the area. The area that we were in has been cleared of mines by Australian, French and British mine clearing teams but our guide jumped into a pit and picked up a couple of obviously preprepared mine detonators that had been found in the area by locals. Evn though we knew the area was relatively safe we still followed the guide’s path exactly and didn’t stay from the tourist trail. The bunker was pretty interesting, pockmarked with bullet holes and with the word California scratched into the concrete by a soldier during the war. After seeing the bunker we headed back to the minibus and drove on to a North Vietnamese cemetary where over 10,000 north vietnamese troops were reburied after the war. Seeing the endless rows of graves was a pretty sobering experience as you can see from the photo that I have put up in the DMZ gallery. Throughout the day while driving around in the minibus we would often stop to looked at bomb craters left in the land. Some were as big as 15m wide and the guide told us that they had been as much as 10m deep though were only about 8m deep now due to erosion. We also stopped at one of the small pockets of natural jungle that hadn’t been too damaged by the bombing which was a stark contrast to the rest of the scenery and even this was filled with massive craters. We were told that in the area just north of the DMZ 7 tonnes of explosives were dropped for every person living in the area. After these sobering facts we headed over to the Ben Hai river which formed the border between North and South Vietnam. We were taken to, what was at the time the only bridge over the river which was fenced off when Vietnam was divided into North and South. The bridge was a reconstruction of the original for tourists and as a memorial as the orginal was blown up by the US during the war. We were told an amusing side story about how a mini war was fought across the river with boths sides competing to have the tallest flag and the loudest speakers spouting propaganda across the river. Our next stop was the Vinh Moc tunnels. These tunnels were one of over 100 tunnel networks built by the local population as the only way to escape the bombing. The tunnels are 23m underground at thier deepest and comprised of three stories of tunnels including a meeting area, a maternity ward (where 17 babies were born, all of which apparaently survived the war), kitchens and tiny rooms where whole families spent months at a time. The tunnel network had not been enlarged for westerners as it was built bigger than the Cu Chi tunnels down south but there were very few places where I could stand up and in most areas had to walk in a seriously hunched up position to avoid banging my head on the hardened clay roof. We saw rooms on all three levels and in total spent about 45mins to an hour underground with one break outside at one of the seventeen exits. You don’t really realise how deep underground you are until you reach a ventilation shaft and look up, which makes you very glad that there are backup exits! The tunnels did have electric lights in some places but these had been put in to recreate the dim lighting conditions that the original paraffin lamps had provided and a torch was still necessary in most areas. Luckily I was given the second torch with the guide carrying the first which made the whole experience a little easier. Nevertheless after almost an hour we were both glad to see daylight again and wouldn’t have wanted to spend much longer underground. Our last stop was the partial remains of a rusted US tank on the side of the road at what had been another US firebase. There is very little to see at any of the old US bases as what was left over after the war including the many of the mines and unexploded ordnance was scavenged by local scrap metal sellers causing hundreds of casualties.

We headed back in the minibus to the cafe where we’d started the day for some much needed lunch and, when we were finished we climbed aboard the same minbus for the trip to Hue. We left the guide in Dong Ha and he instructed the driver to take us to Binh Duong, the hotel we were booked into in Hue. Hearing that we were booked in, the other six of our part decided to stop there to check it out. The ride to Hue was an interesting one with the second person on the bus trying to persuade Vietnamese people on the roadside to climb into our already full minibus. Luckily for us she was mostly unsuccessful.

When we got to Hue I followed where we were going on the map as I usually do so that I know were we are and sure enough not far from our intended hotel we veered off the route that I thought we’d take and stopped at another, shabby looking hotel. We were told to get off and assured this was our hotel. When I explained that I knew that this wasn’t the hotel we were told that there were police over there and that the minibus couldn’t take us any further! Of course the owner of this hotel immediately came out offering us seemingly excellent rates and a couple of our group were tempted but I said that I wouldn’t consider anywhere that I was dropped against my wishes as the minibus owners had obviously pulled this one on us to earn commision. I could see from the map that we were no more than 15 minutes walk from the hotel we had booked so I lead our group over to our hotel on foot. On the way we were hassled by a guy who wanted us to stay with him but when he realised I was set on the hotel I had booked he fetched an employee of our hotel who led us to the right place. It turned out that the cafe owner in Dong Ha hadn’t phoned our hotel at all despite the fact that I watched him do it and a guy from our hotel had waited for us at three buses in the morning! After hearing our story the hotel were very greatful that we had sought out their hotel anyway and we checked in.

The DMZ day tour was great fun and fascinating lead by our knowledgable guide it was a shame however that the minbus crew decided to try and scam us at the end of the day but at least it all turned out fine!

As I write this we are waiting for our bus out of Hue to Hoi An so unfortunately I am still 3 days behind however Hue was amazing, we had a great time with our new found friends and I’ve made notes so I can write about Hue later. We are hopefully meeting up with Tom and Craig for 24 hours in Hoi An and you’ll hear all about it though probably in a weeks time!

I have just put up 6 new galleries containing over 100 photos taken over the last couple of weeks. For some odd reason the photos have uploaded in reverse order so you may want to start from the second page of each gallery (if present) and work backwards! Since they appear to the right of this in alphabetical order rather than chronological order I have provided links below so you can view the galleries in the order that they were taken.

Hanoi & the Perfume Pagoda – Tom, Craig and I at the Perfume Pagoda and the surrounding days in Hanoi.
Sa Pa – Tom, Craig and I trekking in Sa Pa in the cold, mountainous north of Vietnam.
Ninh Binh – Tom, Craig and I head south from Hanoi to Ninh Binh, a small town with some local sights.
Hanoi with Alex – Alex’s first few days in Hanoi
The Demilitarised Zone – Alex and I take a diversion on our way down to Hue to visit the Demilitarised zone.
Hue – Alex and I in Hue (pronounced Hway with less emphasis on the H), the old Imperial walled citadel and beautiful city in central Vietnam.

The photos of the DMZ and Hue are ones that I haven’t talked about yet on the blog as I am still a couple of days behind but expect updates soon!

A short while after my previous post Alex came through customs, tired but excited to see me. I was very excited to finally see her and very relieved that she made it through three flights and four airports without running into any problems. I had arranged an airport pickup with the Hanoi Guesthouse who were there with Alex’s name of a piece of paper waiting to take us back. We arrived back in Hanoi and we unpacked Alex’s stuff, she showered, changed and we headed into Hanoi in the late afternoon so that I could show her around the old quarter. We immediately went for a light meal at Cafe Sago as we were both starving and walked around stopping off at a few bars including I-Box, and the City View cafe which is in the same building as Legend beer but on the 5th floor and has great views overlooking Hoan Kiem lake. My plan for the evening was that we’d go for dinner at the mock meat restaurant so we wandered in that direction however due to our late lunch at Sago neither of us were hungry. We walked past the mock meat place and saw that it was open until 11pm, it was only 9pm at the time so we went nearby for a couple of drinks. We returned at 10pm for some food to find that they were closing early. By now it was pretty late to get food in Hanoi and I knew from experience that if we didn’t find something quickly everywhere would be closed. We opted for Tandoor and Indian restaurant nearby that I’d been with Tom and Craig that served some surprisingly good quality Indian food and had a good vegetarian selection. I have to admit that coming from Birmingham where a good curry is always nearby and where in the last year I have made some really good curries, I have really missed a good curry partly because in Vietnam the food is often quite simple with quite a bland taste compared to what I’m used to. This isn’t really a criticism of Vietnamese food but is more down to the fact that, as a vegetarian, there isn’t a lot of choice for me! Anyway so we ended up at Tandoor, not really a good introduction to Vietnamese food for Alex but it was a very good meal. After food I introduced Alex to the joys of Bia Hoi at our favourite street bar and we had a few beers each for about 30p in total and eventually headed home. It was great to see Alex and although we had been in touch so knew the broader details of what each other had been up to it was great to catch up and compare our experiences of the last three weeks.

The next day I let Alex sleep in a little as she was quite jet lagged and, after the flight, needed to catch up on some sleep. We eventually staggered (I walked, Alex staggered as she was jet lagged and still behind on sleep) out of our room at midday and caught a taxi to teh army museum. I had been before with Tom and Craig but because we got there really late we had missed everything to do with the America Vietnam war apart from the captured planes and helicopters outside. It was great to see the rest of the museum as although the Viet Minh’s campaign against French occupation was interesting it is not something I really know much about, or didn’t before visiting the museum! Anyway we took the museum really slowly as the heat was really getting to Alex and she was also still very tired. After the museum we headed over to the very nice but expensive cafe in the mueum grounds for a drink and a relax before finding a taxi back into the old quarter of Hanoi. After a drink we wandered out of the museum and on the way one of the motorbike taxi guys saw us taking photos of each other infront of a MiG and offered to take a picture of both of us. We posed for the photo said thanks and wandered out of the museum to look for a taxi. Of course by now it was rush hour so a taxi was both very hard to find and not particularly convenient as at rush hour they have a lot of problems getting down the narrow streets of the old quarter. After about 5 minutes of looking for a empty taxi and failing the same motorbike taxi guy drove over and offered us a lift. We refused but after another couple of minutes without any luck on the taxi front we gave in, haggled down to a reasonable price and jumped on. Normally I avoid motorbikes wherever humanly possible but it being rush hour and due to the fact that he said he’d take both of us on the same bike it seemed like a good way for Alex to experience a motorbike taxi. Sure enough due to the rush hour traffic the motorbike didn’t make it above bicycle speeds and we made it to our destination in about 5 minutes. Our destination was Fanny Ice cream a french ice cream parlour that sells ice cream in loads of flavours that would challenge even Australian ice cream in Amsterdam! (anyone who lived with me in Amsterdam would know that this is very high praise from me). Amongst all the usual flavours was sticky green rice which is actualy very tasty. After ice cream we sat by the lake for a while watching the people of Hanoi go by before heading over to I-Box for some half priced and therefore affordable happy hour beers. The staff at I-Box have a habit of putting free snacks in front of you while you drink. For Tom, Craig and I it was peanuts with an unusual spice. For Alex and I they put little baskets of popcorn in front of us that seemed to be flavoured with something spicy which was delicious. During our three small beers we managed to get through six baskets of popcorn with the staff happily replacing them the instant that one was empty. We felt a little bad but they kept on putting them in front of us and we were starving so couldn’t resist it. After this we headed over to the top of the lake to change some money and them upstairs for some homebrewed beer at ‘Legend Beer’. unfortunately the weiss beer was off so we had the dark which was still great. We headed to ‘Whole Earth’ the mock meat restaurant for some really good dinner and Alex’s first experience of Vietnamese mock meat. After food though it was still pretty early but we were tired so we decided to head to ‘Red Beer’ a microbrewery/bar where the beer is brewed right behind the bar. We planned to stay for just one drink but just as we were about to leave it started to rain as heavily as it did in Thailand and pretty quickly the street was flooding. We stayed for another beer and it eased off a bit but we could see that it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon and the bar started to close up (at 10:30pm!) We braved the rain darting between overhanging balconies and planning our route to cross the road where the puddles wouldn’t soak our shoes. Of course this being Vietnam the locals spotted an opportunity and within 2 minutes we were approached by a young guy selling plastic bag ponchos for a dollar (16,000 dong) each. He knew that we were a captive audience and we knew that he’d paid no more than a few thousand dong for them (at most)  so we offered him a reasonable price and when he refused walked off. Sure enough 20 seconds later he came back with a better offer and we got ourselves 2 ponchos for less than a dollar, he still seemed pretty pleased with the money and headed off to try and make some money off some richer tourists. The plastic poncho even went over my small backpack so we got home a few minutes later relatively dry! When we got back to the room we headed out to the balcony and stood under the covered part to watch some of the most impressive lightning I’ve seen since the night that Tom and I spent in Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica.

It rained for lots of the night and we awoke at 7:00am to a cool morning in Hanoi. We got up early to take a trip to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum which is only open from 8-10am. We had breakfast and grabbed a taxi before 8am. When we arrived we joined the back of the huge but fast moving, mostly Vietnamese, queue. We were led in a long line through security checks where we had to hand over all bags and mobile phones and cameras and eventually headed into the mausoleum. We walked as if in a procession in absolute silence around 3 sides of a glass case containing the embalmed corpse of Ho Chi Minh. It was the quietest and most respectful I’ve seen the Vietnamese be and it was quite obvious that they were awestruck, quite understandable when you read about him. After the mausoleum we continued on to Ho Chi Minh’s house and his stilthouse where he lived from 1954 until his death in 1969. We decided not to go to the museum after as we were both feeling pretty rough and not in the mood for a museum. We grabbed a taxi back to the Hanoi Guesthouse and packed up ready to check out. We relaxed for a while and Alex grabbed some more sleep while I read until 12pm when we checked out and dumped our bags at reception. Next we headed to my tailor as I had an appointment to pick up my suit. The suit was finished and looked excellent. I tried on the now finished jacket which fit as if it was made for me, probably because it was! I paid the last 50% of the full price (GBP30) and we headed back home. Tom managed to bring a little bit too much stuff travelling with him so to bring the weight down he had left some with me in Hanoi to post home along with my suit. We packed up the box with Tom’s stuff and my suit and headed to the post office to send it. On the way to the post office we stopped at the currency exchange to change my remaining dollars and plenty for Alex so that we didn’t have to worry about money in the smaller towns. We changed money with the girls behind the counter who I’d dealt with quite a few times over the last few weeks. After we changed money the girls thanked us profusely for all the business we’d given them. They seemed really greatful and I think that because I’d been in with Tom and Craig and then Alex they thought that I’d brought both sets of people to them. We stayed and chatted for a few minutes and I explained that I was leaving today and told them our plans. It was nice to realise that had recognised me all along and really appreciated my business. We headed over to the post office in a good mood. When we arrived at the post office with my sealed box we were asked to fill in a multitude of forms including 2 inventories of the box contents. I listed the major items in the box but not having looked through Tom’s stuff didn’t list everything. When we eventually got all the forms filled in they took my box and told me they’d have to open it to confirm the contents. They then proceeded to unseal the box and unpack all of my carefully packed items and go through each one to translate my English inventory into Vietnamese. Luckily all the major items were at the top and somehow once she had translated the listed items she ignored the other bits and pieces of Tom’s and repacked the box. I made sure that she packed it back well and sealed it properly. After 30 minutes of the ‘sending a box’ process we were almost finished and she weighed the box, (6kgs in total) charged me GBP15 and after gettting me to write the to and from addresses on almost every side of the box we were finally able to leave and get some lunch.

We went to everything bun for lunch a noodle place that we had been to before and was quite expensive but I wanted Alex to get some good quality interesting Vietnamese food and this was the perfect place. I helped Alex choose the roll your own fish rolls dish that Tom had eaten previously. When it arrived I showed Alex how to make the rice paper rolls containing fish, fresh veg and some really tasty salad leaves. She really enjoyed the experience and I was pleasantly surprised by the fish which had loads of meat where Tom’s hadn’t been great. After lunch I took Alex for a walk around the lake, something we had never actually done and on the way we stopped at the temple for a look around. After the temple we continued slowly around the lake, stopping for photos and to sit in the somewhat peaceful surroundings. We stopped at Fanny ice cream as we passed, then at Hapro for a sandwich and a drink. We realised that the bus to Hue was picking us up soon so we headed back to the Hanoi guesthouse to catch it. We decided to get the sleepy bus as although we would have preferred the train the train was $29 compared to $12 for the bus. The bus was late and while we waited I chatted for Thin about life in Vietnam, and Nam Dinh where she originally came from in the countryside. As we left I gave her an envelope that I had prepared containing some money and a note that I’d agreed with Tom and Craig days before. It wasn’t a lot of money to us though on our budget it wasn’t insignificant but we all felt that she had really gone out of her way to help us out and although we’d agreed it beforehand in the end it was mostly covered by the money she’d got us back after we were ripped off by the hotel in Sa Pa! I told Thin not to open the envelope until after we left as I didn’t want her to feel obliged to thank us for it but I hope that it helps her out a little as she really deserved it.

I was really quite sad to leave Hanoi as it had been my base for almost 3 weeks and although we spent over a week of that travelling to other places it was nice to always have somewhere to leave luggage and come back to where I was sure that we wouldn’t be ripped off and could really relax. It was also great to get to know Hanoi a little better than the average traveller as by the time I left I knew my way around so well that I appeared coinfident of where I was heading when walking around and was barely hassled. I will miss Hanoi and Thin but we still have plenty to see and do so must move on!

I arrived back in Hanoi while it was still light, something I was keen to do as the bus stations are often pretty intimidating in the light and I didn’t fancy passing through on my own and in the dark! I arrived into the bus station and was pleased to see a taxi very near the bus so I ignored the husslers and headed straight for the taxi. The driver didn’t speak any English and it quickly became clear that he didn’t know where to find Bat Su, the street where I was headed. He asked a friend before we left the bus station and all seemed okay. Everything was okay and after over half an hour of squeezing through Hanoi’s rush hour trafffic we made it to Hoan Kiem lake only ten minutes walk from my destination. This is where it went horribly wrong in but proved to me that it’not just the tourists who get horribly lost. Headinmg toward Bat Su he took a wrong turn and completely overshot the guesthouse we were now on the north side of the guesthouse on streets I didn’t recognise. Further more many of the narrow streets were so rammed with people bikes and motorbikes that every agonising wrong turn took an age. The driver eventually admitted defeat and stopped to ask direction, repeatedly. We slowly homed in on my destination and eventually made it. The taxi was the cheapest metered one I’d seen so rather than getting away with a very cheap ride I ended up paying about what I’d expected to. I headed into the Hanoi guesthouse pleased to see that Thin, the fantastic day receptionist/hotel manager was still there as I had only booked this night at the last minute and, being full, I was being put in their sister hotel 100m down the street.

The sister hotel is actually nicer than the Hanoi Guesthouse in terms of the room interiors but it didn’t feel quite as clean and my small room didn’t really have a proper window. The Hanoi guesthouse is still far preferable thanks to the extremely well cleaned rooms and the excellent staff who really seemed to go above and beyond the call of duty to look after you and don’t try to push tours or other services.

I went out for a cheap and tasty dinner at the mock meat restaurant followed by drinks at Cafe Sago looking out over the lake. I finished the night with one expensive drink slowly sipped in Minh’s Jazz club where some pretty reasonable live jazz was playing. The Rugby world cup match with England vs South Africa was playing at 2.00am and, having nothing planned for the next day I stayed up to watch it. I shouldn’t have bothered as England were destroyed by South Africa though I thought the score of 0 to England was a little harsh and while they did deserve to lose I thought they deserved at least a few points.

On the second day I got up surprisingly early bearing in mind the late night, sorted out my bag as I now had not a single piece of clean clothing and took my laundry to the Hanoi guesthouse. I checked out of my temporary hotel and into the Hanoi Guesthouse where I was given the best room in the hotel, a double on the top floor with a huge private balcony complete with a stone table and stools. For dinner I went to Baan Thai, a thai place for expats thais that we had been meaning to check out. The food was excellent and reminded me what I missed about Thai food the fresh vegetables with plenty of heat and a taste I haven’t had in any Vietnamese food. I finished the night with a home brewed belgian beer in the Red Beer microbrewery bar and then went to our favourite spot for a couple of disgustingly cheap bia hoi.

Anyway I had better go I’m writing this from the airport as I wait for Alex’s flight which is landing about now. I got the local bus here which was both very cheap and almost impossible to track down so I left plenty of time and got here an hour early. I’m very excited about seeing Alex even though its only been three weeks I have missed her a lot. Okay really better go now.

Chris