Author: Chris Greenwood

We took the train down from Hanoi to Ninh Binh, a small city about 90km south of Hanoi. We were met by a guy from the Thanh Thuy hotel which we had booked. We were told we’d be given a motorbike ride to the hotel with our bags but when question he told us that it was only a two minute ride. We arrived at the hotel and quickly checked out the hotel’s restaurant menu. We had read in the guide that weren’t really any restaurants in Ninh Binh and so most people ate at their hotel. After looking at the menu and noticing a distinct lack of vegetarian food we asked if they could make me some to which the reply was ‘no’. Unimpressed we asked if there was somewhere nearby that we could get something that I could eat and were told about a restaurant around the corner. We headed over and were met by what looked like a seafood restaurant complete with several fish tanks with the day’s menu swimming around in them. Sceptically we asked to see the menu and although there wasn’t exactly a wide vegetarian choice I was pretty sure I could get a meal and since we were all pretty hungry we took a table.

We looked through the menu and I ordered the vegetarian dish, Craig inquired about the turtle and no sooner had he said turtle (in vietnamese) the waitress called to the guy at the counter who immediately picked up the phone and started shouting turtle down the line. Realising that he was probably ordering a live turtle and that we might have to pay for the entire thing (at GBP14 per kg) we quickly made it clear that we were not interested and Craig ordered eel. Tom ordered a fish and a few minutes later our food arrived mine being actually quite tasty, Craig’s being a pile of chopped up cooked eel, head and all and Tom’s being an entire large fish seasoned and covered in veg. Tom thought that he’s need help with this but actually the fish turned out to be surprisingly unmeaty. In the evening we headed out to a popular Bia Hoi spot where we were quickly shown to plastic kid’s chairs around  plastic table and handed large glass of Bia Hoi for 10p each (alternatively a large plastic pitcher was available for 60p). The locals quickly made us feel at home by offering us their snacks (large thick rice cakes bigger than a popadom and covered in what looked like toasted sesame seeds, along with dried, toasted and shredded squid) , cigarettes and even their beer which we had no use for having full glasses. A couple of locals came over from another table said cheers and downed their full glasses, Craig followed and was given a round of applause. The toilet at our wooden poles and canvas bar was the river just behind the bar which we avoided as long as possible but eventually had to use. We reciprocated by buying our new found friends a pitcher of beer and stayed around for some more drinks the locals didn’t really seem used to tourists and we were most definately a novelty to them. Just at the point that we were actually getting quite drunk we decided to leave and paid the GBP2 bill to the owner who seemed genuinely pleased to have us as customers though this most likely because we attracted more people to his bar to observe the westerners. We headed back for an early (10.00pm) night and to sleep off the local beer and snacks. The next day we had planned an early start so we could hire bikes and see Tam Coc, an inland equivalent of Ha Long Bay and Hoa Lu the site of an ancient temple.

We got up a little later than planned the next morning but were still out on our three speed rickety bikes by about 9:30am. We were given a hand drawn map and recommended the country road to Tam Coc. In actual fact the map turned out to be more of a general impression of where we needed to go with roughly the right roads marked. We proceeded by heading in what I thought was the correct direction (west then south) and asking directions from the locals at regular intervals. Surprisingly we made pretty good time and were surprised when, cycling along the road we saw the ticket office with a woman beckoning us over. We had heard horror stories about being pestered by locals and in fact on the way in had already been chased by a woman pointing us the wrong way telling us that she’d take us their and give us a tour. We paid for our tickets, took our bikes to a place we had been told we could leave them for free and found the place where we would board our boat. Our boat was another sampan like at the perfume pagoda but this time we were joined by a guy who rowed and an old woman who had a paddle but almost immediately handed it to us inviting us to paddle. The boat ride was meant to be two hours and we started by heading along the water and through some natural caves that formed tunnels. After about 30 minutes I was getting a little bored as although the scenery was beautiful I wasn’t really at ease sitting next to an old woman who didn’t really speak and was obviously only along for the tip. We reached the end of the waterway turned around and stopped. Immediately refreshments boats pulled up along side us offering us food and drinks. Politely but firmly declined and after a couple of minutes they gave up. Our rowers, realising that we were not easy to break started to quickly row us back to the dock. On the way the woman produced all kinds of hand made good from a chest and I was expecting to bear the brunt of the sales pitch for the last 20 minutes of the ride. Surprisingly after we all refused her wares she put them away and didn’t mention them again. We got back to the dock where we were asked for a tip and seeing their lack of persistance we gave them something small.

We headed back to the hotel where we’d left our bikes and, feeling hungry, had a basic lunch a got back on our bikes to head to Hoa Lo. I had heard of some abandoned resort nearby where you could walk up the mountain and get a good view and sure enough on the way back we spotted a sign down an empty road to a ‘tourism resort’. We headed down and were greeted by a women selling tickets for admission, obviously not so abandoned! We walked into the ‘resort’ which consisted of adandoned bars and souvenir shops and even a long abandoned water puppet theatre around a pretty ornamental lake complete with statues. The place had obviously been scaled back due to a lack of visitors but they did still have a couple of staff keeping the paths clean. We walked around and then headed to the steps up the rock which was about 200m high and almost vertical. the steps had been built to allow people to get to the top. We walked up the path and quite a while later all feeling very tired we arrived at the most amazing view I have seen in a long time. I don’t really have time to explain it but I’ll put up some photos soon. It was like being perched on the top of a skyscraper and even gave me a hint of vertigo. We stayed up there until our legs had somewhat recovered and headed back to the bikes. Seeing us dripping with sweat the ticket lady offered us shade, cold drinks and the use of her fan which we gladly accepted. After this we cycled home, back through the country roads, tiny villages and stunning scenery, to the hotel. That evening we went for food at Xuan Hoa a little hotel run by Xuan and his wife Hoa and the rest of their family who were very nice and we even got a game of chinese chess out of one of the family (we lost, badly). The food was great for Vietnamese food and they were very willing to cater for me providing separate meat and non meat spring rolls for Craig and Tom and I. After dinner they brought out shot glasses and a water bottle for what they called ‘Ninh Binh water’ which turned out to be a home brew rice based spirit at least as potent as a strong whiskey. We ordered a taxi and headed back to the Bia Hoi bar. We were enthusiastically greeted by the owner who insisted on shaking all of our hands. We had a few drinks and again made a few friends but tonight we concentrated on debating nuclear power which inevitably led to nuclear weapons which caused quite a heated debate. Once the debate got loud enough that we might have been at risk of offending the locals we headed back to the hotel to finish the discussion and get some sleep.

The last day in Ninh Binh was largely concerned with how we left the city. I was going back to Hanoi to wait for Alex to arrive while Tom and Craig were heading down to Hue. This was a day earlier than we had originally planned but there was nothing more that we really wanted to do in Ninh Binh, we did actually head over to Hoa Lu in the afternoon but were not there long enough to actually see much as I had to get back for my bus. Travel wise we eventually settled on buses my bus left at 4pm and was a minibus that for the same price as leaving at the bus station, picked me up at the hotel saving me a motorbike taxi ride. Tom and Craig opted to take a brand new ‘sleepy bus’, an air conditioned coach with almost fully flat beds. Unfortunately for me my bus did not take me to the centre of Hanoi but to the south bus station 7km out of the centre of the city, however since this is the end of the Ninh Binh story I will continue in a new post.

Before going to Sa Pa I got us all to look at the plan for the remainder of the holiday as we didn’t have one and I very concerned that we had very little time so see a lot of things including the all important trip back to Bangkok through Cambodia and for me and Craig the highlight of the holiday, Angkor Wat. We sat down and had a big discussion looking seriously at the time we had left after Alex landed in Hanoi. We planned to travel several thousand kilometers in three weeks including visits to about five towns in Vietnam, a crossing to Cambodia a quick visit to the capital Phnom Penh and a journey up to Angkor Wat and on to Bangkok where both Tom and Craig were keen to spend at least three nights. I really didn’t think this was feasable unless we spent most of our time travelling and spent very little time (1 night) at the places we planned to visit. I also knew that Alex had just finished several months of solid work on her dissertation and probably needed a more relaxing holiday above anything else. We looked at where we wanted to go and how long we wanted at each place and all agreed that we had nowhere near enough time to do everything. This left us the options of cutting out a lot of the coast of Vietnam or cutting out Cambodia. While I really didn’t want to sacrifice Angkor Wat we estimated it would take 2 days travel to get there from Ho Ch Minh city and then 2 days to get to Bangkok. When you add in at least 2 nights in Angkor Wat and the 3 in Bangkok this left us about 1 and a half weeks in Vietnam after Alex arrived to travel almost 2000 kilometers and see the largest part of the country. Since we would be in a lot better position if we didn’t have to wait for Alex to arrive I offered to let Craig and Tom continue down the coast and I would wait for Alex. Thankfully they wanted us to travel together and after some discussion we agreed that the best plan was to sacrifice Cambodia, make a reasonable job of seeing Vietnam and fly straight from Ho Chi Minh city to Bangkok. This is a real shame but from looking at flights on the Internet we discovered that from another holiday in Thailand which both Tom and Craig are planning it is pretty easy to fly near to Angkor Wat straight from Bangkok. We decided to continue up to Sa Pa and make a proper plan when we got there but after discussion with Alex booked flights straight from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok as these might sell out.

We decided to get the night train to Sa Pa as it is a 10 hour train ride and a soft sleeper cabin only costs GBP 6 per person. The Hanoi guesthouse booked this for us as well as a taxi to get us to the train station which is luckily not too far from ‘home’. We were led to the train by a local kid who gave us no choice and was sorely disappointed with his 5000 dong tip (still pretty reasonable when you consider that many people get only 30,000-40,000 dong for a days work!) . We were in a four person cabin with the 4th person being either a Vietnamese businessman or a Japanese tourist. Either way he was as friendly as you can be while speaking not a single word of English and our 3 words of Vietnamese only solicited more smiling and head nodding. He did however lie down and turn off his light the second we left the station so we made a sharp exit from the cabin and went to look around the train. We walked down the train for several carriages until we encountered a guard who I think told us that there wasn’t a dining carriage or if there was we weren’t allowed to go there so we headed back the other way. Being first class our carriage was number 1 so we headed forward and found a storage carriage complete with floor space, guards and an open side. The guards wouldn’t let us sit down so we considered bribing them but having no cigarettes or spare drinks and worrying that money might get us in trouble we opted to head back to the carriage and sleep. Sleeper trains that I have travelled on in the past have been slow, quiet sedate affairs that mean you get at least an okay night of sleep. This train was a whole different story, it travelled at what felt like breakneck speed (probably only 30-40mph) and bumped, jolted and rocked pretty much constantly. Surprisingly I managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep, I only woke up a few times! Craig slept like a corpse as usual but unfortunately Tom didn’t sleep to well and was slightly rumpy the next morning as a result. The train arrived at Lao Chai, the nearest train station to Sa Pa, at 5:30am and we all staggered off the train half asleep to look for our pickup. Expecting a sign saying Tom Hopkins we were surprised to only see a sign saying Thomas held up by a driver outside the train station so we flashed the business card for the Royal Sa Pa Hotel, he told us to get in his minibus, we confirmed the price for the transfer (about 80p) and we climbed in. After waiting for the rest of the people that he was picking up we headed out of Lao Chai to start the 30 something kilometer transfer to Sa Pa. The road was small and mountainous but this didn’t stop the driver overtaking on blind corners (at slow speeds but still bloody dangerous). It was obvious that they had had some pretty heavy rain the night before and we regularly had to swerve to avoid rockfalls and mudslides that often covered most of the road. Eventually just over half way to Sa Pa our minibus came to a halt behind a queue of other minibuses, lorries and cars. The driver got out to investigate and after 5 minutes with no explanation we followed. We walked to the front of the queue to investigate. We saw some half finished concrete reinforcements that were being built to stop the rockfalls and mudslides. The heavy rain had washed lots of the recently disturbed mud over the concrete barriers where it had headed down and pooled in a low part of the road. The mud had been deposited on a 10-15m stretch of road and was about 1ft deep. One of the minibuses had tried to get through and had sunk into the mud only 2 metres into the muddy area. Motorbikes being lighter and better able to avoid it were just about getting through but were still struggling. At this point we resigned outselves to either a long walk or a long wait. Since it was raining and a walk could take hours on roads that were unsafe we opted for the long wait and estimated that it would be at least a couple of hours before we could cross. Luckily due the road works there was a digger at hand and it started scooping mud out of a section of the road. We thought this would still take ages but were amazed to discover only 30 minutes later that the digger has cleared enough mud for vehivles to start to cross so we climbed back on board and successfully crossed the mud. We arrived in Sa Pa 20 minutes later and were dropped off at the Royal View hotel which looked very expensive and most definately out of our price range. Our bags were whisked into the Hotel by a porter and we were asked to check in. Upon check we discovered that the booking for Thomas was only for two people and we insisted now for the 3rd or 4th time that we were booked into the Royal Sa Pa hotel not the Royal View hotel.  They insisted on calling our guesthouse in Hanoi who explained the situation to them and we were told clearly that we hadn’t already paid for our stay. We knew this already but it became clear that they were convinced we were on some pre booked tour like everyone else. Yet again I showed them the business card of the Royal Sa Pa hotel and pointed to the map clearly showing that we were not in this hotel. They suddenly realised their mistake and took us by minibus to our hotel, the cheap hotel in their family of hotels. We checked in to the correct hotel and were given a choice of rooms, one higher up with what we presumed was a better view but a double and a single bed and one lower down with the single beds. I hadn’t slept well in the massive double with Tom so wasn’t keen to repeat the experience but Tom and Craig wanted a good view so we checked out the room. The bed was a small double and the view was of the street rather than the surrounding countryside so we went for breakfast as the other room was still in use. After breakfast we went for a walk to look for a good tour agency and found Handspan travel as recommended in the guidebook, Tom was keen to do a 2 day, 1 night trek, Craig was willing to go with the majority and I, while willing to do the 2 day trek was concerned that it might be a little too hard sell touristy, and more importantly was very unwilling to go too far from a decent western toilet as my stomach was giving me some pretty serious problems, I won’t go into detail. Since it was the morning and we had most of the day we were keen to do some kind of day walk for the first day as we had 1 night already booked at the hotel. We were told that mine and Craig’s trainers weren’t up to the task while Tom’s being more sport trainers were okay. I headed back to the hotel to use the toilet and on the way was given the key to the downstairs room with the 3 beds. I visited the room which was big and had a great view so accepted it pending Tom and Craig agreement. Tom and Craig came back to the hotel and discovered that the hotel offered the same treks as Handspan travel for half the price. They also could hire wellies to me and Craig very cheaply which meant we wouldn’t have to buy walking shoes.

Our first trek for one day was with Hwan a guide provided to us from the hotel and was a day of walking around the countryside visiting villages of the White, Black and Red Hmong peoples who are ethnic minorities living in the area (the colours are of their traditional dress not their skin). The walk was good fun, if quite relaxed, but when walking through villages we were hounded by local women trying to sell us their home made traditional clothing. The women were persistant and would not take no for an answer. I found it easiest to resist having experienced this sort of persistant selling in Africa many times. I also knew from experience that if you bought something it would not satisfy them and they would just try to sell you more until either they ran out of goods or you ran out of money. After the walk we went into the town for some food where Craig tried wild pig (the more exitoc meats he wanted to try were unfortunately sold out) and I had some surprisingly good pasta as my stomach was still rough and they’d run out of tofu! After food we found a bar with a darts board, pool table and a computer where they encouraged you to choose your own music from a wide range of MP3s. We discussed what to do the next day. Tom had gone off the homestay idea after the persistant tactics of the very people who’s guest you would be and we could all see that as a captive audience we would very likely all come back dressed from head to toe in traditional Hmong women’s clothing. We decided to take another day walk followed by the night train back to Hanoi. The Royal Sa Pa hotel where we slept was an experience. The sheet on the bed was clean but the cover on the pillow and duvet (it’s cold in Sa Pa) looked and smelled like they hadn’t been changed for a while. We opted to sleep in our sleeping bag liners. The second days walk was much more interesting with fantastic scenery and a more challenging route. Unfortunately it was full of tourist groups and this time the local women actually followed us from the town along the whole walk trying to sell us their goods. Once we got near the end of the walk the most persistant of them insisted we bought something since they had walked all this way with us! Tom and Craig broke just after lunch and once Craig expressed a slight interest in a shirt one woman was selling they were litterally mobbed by over 20 old women all thrusting various overpriced but admittedly beautiful and skillfully made articles at them. I made a hasty exit, left them for dead and took a picture of them being surrounded which I’ll post up here when I get a chance. After about 5 minutes Tom and Craig managed to escape with their wallets only 100,000 dong lighter (about GBP3) and a couple of beautiful if useless items of clothing. To be fair Craig actually got quite a nice shirt. The second day’s walk was with a lone American woman in her mid twenties called Julia. She was very nice and we had quite a chat. I think she had been on her own for quite a while though as even when talking to me she did almost all the talking! We went for some dinner again to the same place as before with Julia joining us where I had a nice Tofu dish at a decent price. Unfortunately they were still out of the really exotic meats so Craig had to settle for venison. After food we headed back to the hotel for a transfer back to Lao Chai for an overnight train back to Hanoi, soft sleeper again that we booked through the Royal Sa Pa hotel. We got to the train to discover that our 20 dollar soft sleeper was actually the 13 dollar hard sleeper with 6 beds per cabin rather than 4 meaning that the bed was much like a coffin that you had to slide into sideways. Since there was also no luggage space Craig and I both had to sleep with our feet on top of our bags. We arrived back in Hanoi at 4.30am and got a taxi to the Hnaoi guesthouse to pick up some clean clothes. Since it was still closed and not wanting to wake the night receptionist we sat on the steps and watched Hanoi come alive in the morning. They guy opened up the guesthouse at 5:30am I used the time to write my previous post. Our next destination was Ninh Binh a small city south of Hanoi we decided that we would all go there together then after 3 nights I’d come back to Hanoi to meet Alex and Tom and Craig would continue down the coast a few days earlier stopping on the beach for a few days on the way (something that they were really keen on but I knew neither I or Alex would be). Before leaving we complained to the Hanoi guesthouse about the rip off train booked through the hotel that they had recommended. The Hanoi guesthouse are very trustworthy and Thin the lovely lady who works on reception in the daytime immediately phoned up the Royal Sa Pa hotel to complain for us. The hotel refused to refund our money and there is nothing more that we could do. Thin also waived the hotel’s commision on the next train ticket that we bought which was a very nice gesture. 

It is now several days later I have returned from Ninh Binh which I will write about later and upon my return I was told by Thin that they are going to refund us a further 50,000 dong since we were ripped off. They will take this money out of tour money that they owe to the Royal Sa Pa hotel and if the hotel doesn’t like it they will end all ties with the hotel! Whis now means we had just over half the money that we were overcharged by returned which is a nice bonus since we’d already written it off to experience.

Well I have been writing for a couple of hours now and am very tired and hungry I hope to write about Ninh Binh later or tommorrow so that I am up to date before Alex arrives as once she gets here I will have even less time and a busy schedule to see the remainder of Vietnam.

Well we’ve now been in Vietnam for several weeks and we’re all getting a little tired of the food. In comparisn to Thai food it is bland and seems to be very similar no matter what restaurant you go to. While we have heard a lot of positive things about Vietnamese food it seems especially hard for me as a vegetarian to eat a varied diet. For example the average vietnamese vegetarian dish is tofu in a tomato and onion sauce. This is actually very nice when done well but after eating it on a regular basis it gets pretty boring. So to finish this rant on Vietnamese food on the evening after we spent the day at the perfume pagoda we decided to go for an Indian! We ate at a restuarant called Tandoor which is owned by a family who also own an all vegetarian Indian restaurant. Bearing in mind I haven’t noticed anyone looking at all Indian in Hanoi the food was excellent. It was also the first time in ages that I have eaten from a metal tray segmented for the different curries, raita, rice and naan. In fact I think that the last time I remember doing this was with the Olivers at some long ago Hari Krishna meal. After food we went for drinks  and an early night as we were all pretty tired. Hmm all this happened a week ago as i’ve been unable to bring this up to date for a while so my memory isn’t great. I’ve just realised that in my last post I said we went to Sago for food but it doesn’t really matter as everything I’ve said here happened I’m just not 100% sure as to when. 

Anyway the next day was a pretty slow one. I think the days of early mornings and not particularly good sleep were starting to get to us so we had a bit of a lie in. In the afternoon we went to the Army museum unfortunately by the time we got there it was getting a little late and it closes quite early, we did however still get to walk around some of the museum and see the impressive collection of US aircraft and vehicles both complete and wreckage that were captured the by Viet Cong.

After the museum we sipped Italian sodas and played chess and chinese chess at an upmarket cafe (hence the sipping) in the grounds of the museum. Shortly after we arrived in Hanoi Craig bought a cheap travel Chinese chess set that were are using to learn how to play. It seems like a pretty good game although I find learning very frustrating as I want to start employing clever strategies but find myself spending ages just trying to work out how to move the pieces. I can’t yet spot where I am vulnerable without a lot of effort which makes the game very hard. Playing Chinese chess has made us a few friends with the locals who often seem very keen to offer advice or play a game against us (they always win easily even when the three of us play together). After we were finished in the Army museum cafe we headed to the road to look for a taxi however this being rush hour it took us quite a while to find an empty one. We got in and Tom told the driver that we wanted to go to I-Box, a bar on the way back that while usually too expensive for us to drink in was currently in happy hour where beers were 2 for 1 making them a reasonable price. After driving for a few kilometers we realised that we were going the wrong way and questioned the driver. It turned out that he thought that Tom had directed him to the airport an hour’s drive. That could have been a very expensive taxi! We eventually arrived at I-box and ordered a round of beers and a couple of half price Mojitos. Once we had finished our first Mojitos we asked for the second ones (we bought two and therefore get 2 free). To cut a long story slightly shorter when happy hour finished and the bill arrived we were charged for 4 mojitos and got 2 for free, this seemed odd as we had only recieved 4 in total so we questioned the bill and were informed that the first 2 mojitos were doubles which we had requested. We hadn’t and furthermore since when can you get a double mojito? Tom and I who had had the first 2 mojitos had wondered why we were feeling surprisingly drunk on only a couple of drinks so once we saw the bill we realised that we had in fact received double mojitos. After a lot of arguing and a talk with the manager well handled by Craig, the most sober of the three of us, we had the drinks reomoved from the bill and paid the price we had expected to pay. After leaving we had a bit of an argument because Tom and Craig seemed to think that the place was intentionally trying to rip us off whereas my opinion was that it was their mistake due to the language barrier. When we left our waiter looked a bit upset and was very keen to make it clear that it was a mistake and wanted our confirmation that the cocktails had actually been doubles rather than singles and that they were not trying to rip us off. Luckily when we could see that we weren’t going to agree on this we ended the argument decided not to fall out over it and go for some food and soft drinks! While eating we watched part of a Vietnam vs Qatar football match on TV. After food we went for drinks and football at ‘Le Pub’ as England were playing Israel. They had a big screen so we spent the evening watching the game with some fellow English people.

The next morning Tom and Craig got up early to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. I slept in as this is the one sight in Hanoi that I am saving for Alex’s arrival. Afterwards we went out to a local grilled fish only restaurant that Tom and Craig were really interested in. Afterwards with my stomach giving me some ‘issues’ we went to Papa Joe’s a place that also served western food so that I could eat something that was hopefully calming on the stomach. After lunch we went to a tailor to get me a suit made. We had already been in for a quote and I could get a suit made with two pairs of trousers for about GBP60. This seemed like a good idea and even if the quality wasn’t great it would still be very cheap. After designing my own suit we went for a few games of pool where we won 3 games each! We had pizza in the evening at Sago, our regular haunt then headed back to the Hanoi Guesthouse for the night train to Sa Pa.

So we got up early this morning and got a 7:30am taxi to the bus station that serves the region where the Perfume Pagoda is found. The Perfume Pagoda is the tourist name for a large number of Buddhist temples located near the town of Chua Huang 60km southwest of Hanoi. When we arrived at the bus station we were hassled before the taxi even stopped with the doors being opened for us by touts keen to sell us trips to anywhere in the region. I was expecting this but didn’t know how bad it would be but I think it came as a little shock to Craig who is still new to this. Although the touts were pretty aggressive once you said no enough times and walked off they eventually started to leave us alone but I have to say I haven’t experienced anything as bad since I was in Africa and certainly nothing approaching this in Vietnam. We eventually managed to get directions to the correct bus from the one kind soul who you usually find in these places who sees you as more than a walking dollar sign and speaks a few words of English. This guy even told us how much the bus would cost (about 60p for 60km!) so we wouldn’t be overcharged! Once we boarded the correct bus we got seats and waited. The bus left pretty quickly but moved at a speed of about 10-15mph. We prayed that this wouldn’t be the top speed of this bus but as we slowly trundeled through the suburbs of Hanoi with people literally hopping on and off we got slightly worried. Luckily as the bus reached the outskirts of the city it picked up speed. Just over an hour and a half and a lot of people later the ticket man signalled that we had reached our stop and we got off in the middle of nowhere. Of course this being Vietnam we were immediately approached by motorbike drivers keen to drive us into the town about 5km away. Since we didn’t have the time to walk we were pretty much a captive audience and so took a very expensive 5km ride into the town (possibly called Chua Huong though we can’t remember). On the plus side we rode down peaceful country lanes surrounded by hills making for a beautiful trip! When we got into town we were met by a young woman who rowed the sampan boats required to get to the perfume pagoda. We were also met by the local ticket tout who had seen us coming into town and followed us to the boats. The ticket tout didn’t speak any English but the boat woman did. She explained in English that we had to buy tickets for the perfume pagoda from him. She told us that he would ask for a lot of money but that we could haggle down to $6.5 between us for the trip. In return for this the woman explained that the tout would pay her very little money for rowing us around for the day and made it clear that she expected us to pay her the extra directly. Since the boat woman was the person we’d be spending the day with and she’d told us how to save money we haggled with the ticket tout down to the price we’s been given which was actually less than quoted in the lonely planet. We bought the tickets from the tout and saw that we’d actually paid less than the face value of the tickets.

Since we were short on time we opted for a short tour of the temples so we boarded a boat along with our boat woman and her friend and they started rowing us up the river. We all wanted a turn at rowing so Craig volunteered first. The boats are small flat metal boats with two very home made wooden oars that are fixed to the boat by some twisted material. The oars are at the back of the boat and you row facing forward. This is actually very hard Craig gave it a go but, going forward was unable to make any progress much to our amusement. Craig then turned the boat around and started to row facing backwards. This was a little more successful but we still didn’t really head in the right direction so I took over. I decided to just row like you would in England and face the back as Craig had had more success this way. Rowing was very hard as the oars were uneven so you had to constantly correct the direction. It took me a couple fo minutes but I managed to establish a slow zigzagged route in the right direction. Since I was actually making some progress they let me continue and we slowly made our way upriver. Because of the way that the oars are attached to the boat I had to stop every couple of minutes to level the oars. After 5-10 minutes I let Tom take over, he was possibly the worst of the three of us and we span around and hit the bank a few times. I started shouting directions since I was facing the direction that we were travelling and Tom able to slowly start heading upstream. After a few minutes the girls decided we better hurry up as another boat passed us so one of them took ones of the oars from Tom and together they rowed us upstream. On the way we talked to the girls and established that they were both 22 year old children of local farmers who didn’t want to farm and rowed the boats to earn money for school. They both spoke quite good English and were fascinated by our phrase book.

Eventually we arrived at the end of our boat journey where there was a shop which sold us some water and some noodles. A very old man was hanging around the shop who seemed very interested in me. He told me that I’d live to 91 and make lots of money. He also told me that I was interested in sports and music. Everyone said he was a little mad and to ignore his ramblings! On the boat the girls had also studied all our palms. They told me that I’d have a long life and would succeed at anything I wanted to. They told both Tom and Craig that they would have a career change and some illness but live long successful lives with plenty of education. We’re not convinced but now its written down at least we can check it in 50 years time!

After some food the girls took us for a walk to the temples. We went to 3 temples in all each of which was very different. Two of the temples were inside caves and we were shown how to make a buddhist prayer and to leave joss sticks. The third temple was the biggest and was filled with carvings of buddha. We were given plates of fake money and sweets to leave as offerings at certain places around the last temple. To get to the temples we had a walk over hills along a path that has been used for centuries by monks visiting the temples. The view was stunning and I’ll upload some photos when I get the time. Once we had finished the walk we went back to the boat. The girls told us we could save money by getting a bus straight from the town and therefore avoid the expensive motorbike ride back to the bus stop but the bus left at 3:30 so we couldn’t hang around. The girls rowed us back to the boat dock where we were picked up by motorbikes that were directed to take us to the bus stop in town (a mere 30,000 dong together rather than 120,000). Before we got to the boat dock the girls stopped the boat to negotiate payment. They said because they knew we were students they only wanted one months school fees for each of them ($80 between us) we explained that we couldn’t pay this as we weren’t rich and eventually agreed to pay them about $10 dollars for each of them. While this was probably still a bit high we knew the money was going to them not a tout and we’d had a much better day that if we’d gone on an organised tour. They also saved us a few dollars by telling us how far we could haggle down the tout and by saving us an expensive motorbike journey out of town.

We got on the bus and paid an even cheaper 15,000 dong (less than 50p) and headed back to Hanoi. I was very tired and fell asleep. Tom and Craig started playing chinese chess which got them some interest from the locals. I awoke as we were arriving in Hanoi. The bus made lots of stops coming into Hanoi and about 3 stops (but still a significant way) from the bus station the bus stopped everyone got off and we were expected to aswell. We had no idea where were we are we were off the central Hanoi map in the guide and we were surrounded by guys offering us motorbike rides. Not keen to take a motorbike on a long trip through the city we walked out of the small bus station/stop to try and get our bearings. Luckily after about 5 minutes of wandering around we were able to flag down a taxi to take us back to the Hanoi guesthouse on Bat Su (luckily a really easy street name to pronounce).

After arriving home (or as close to a home as we have here) we headed out for some food at Sago cafe near the Hoan Kiem lake we we have been a few times for the cheap food, cheaper beer and good service. By around 9pm Tom and Craig were shattered so we headed back for an early night and while they went to bed I went on the Internet and wrote my previous post.

Anyway I’m writing this at 7:00am (I started at 5:30am) we’ve just got back from Sa Pa after an interesting but enjoyable experience and where, for the first time we were actually ripped off (but only by GBP3 each so its not the end of the world) I will write about that in a few days time while I wait in Hanoi for Alex to arrive (I’m very excited) but for now I’m very tired (falling asleep in front of the computer in fact) and we are heading out to Ninh Binh today so I better go and repack my bag!

Well I think for once this may be actually be relatively short though I’m sure I’ll find plenty to fill it. Well the last couple of days have fun though not as action packed as previously, I’ll pick up where I left! After writing my last post we went out to the Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi. This was originally built by the French to house rebels and political prisoners. It is situated not too far from our guesthouse so we walked down there. When were arrived we realised that only one side of the triangular complex remains as the remainder was demolished in 1993 to “further the cultural development of Hanoi”. In actual fact what was knocked down was replaced by a high rise concrete hotel and business centre! What remains of the prison has been well converted into an interesting museum showing the conditions the prisoners had to endure, the “comrades” incarcerated there and the daring and often successful escapes made by the political prisoners. The prison was later used to house criminals and during the Vietnam war, American POWs from airbourne divisions that were shot down nearby. The rooms, cells and solitary confinement areas were augmented by gray realistic models of prisoners shackled as they would have been. The whole experience tried to really make you feel what it was like for the prisoners incarcerated there and achieved this while not going over the top. The remaining section of prison also acts as a memorial for those that died there either from disease of by being sentenced to death by guillotine. For the entrance price it was a well thought out museum unfortunately disadvantage by only being a third of the original prison.

After this it was time for lunch, Tom wanting a change from Vietnamese suggested a Tapas place around the corner recommended by the guidebook. On the way to “La Salsa” we saw a gallery dedicated to Vietnamese propaganda posters which we had a look in and eventually all ended up buying a print of our favourite posters. I had been feeling a little off all day with a headache that felt much like a sinus headache and had dosed up on pain killers before leaving home. By the time we left the gallery my headache was returning with a vengeance and I was starting to feel very short on energy in the slightly dizzy “not sure I want to walk very far” kind of way. Luckily the Tapas place was around the corner so we settled in for some food and a soft drink.  The Tapas was expensive and obviously came in small portions but was delicious and for the first time in a more expensive restaurat I felt it was actually worth the premium. As I said to Tom and Craig I imagine the items that were stored in oil and herbs and/or garlic were probably imported and therefore more expensive anyway. Regardless we all enjoyed the food and it was still very cheap by western standards. After some food I also felt a lot better. In the afternoon we wandered around the area as it was one that we hadn’t previously been to and stopped at an upmarket bar during happy hour for ‘buy one get one free’ beers. This made the beers the same price as we were used to (less than 50p each) rather than, shock horror, almost a pound each! We only stopped for a few beers (they’re all pretty weak over here anyway) but I still had less as I wasn’t feeling 100%. For our evening meal we decided to go to an upmarket collection of street kitchens where you can sample the food that you see on the streets with (almost) none of the upset stomach worries. Unfortunately the vegetarian selection was poor but I went more out of interest and because Craig and Tom were keen on some fish. The place was very nicely done out, wasn’t filled with tourists (only half filled) and I did manage to get an acceptable if not particularly exciting meal. It’s a shame there wasn’t more of a vegetarian selection as the staff were great the food I got was good quality and Tom and Craig were both very pleased with their selecton of mackerel with chili and salt for Tom and blood cockles for Craig. Having never had cockles before we didn’t have a clue what to do with them but I had a guess which I’m pleased to say was confirmed to be correct!

After food we headed back closer to home for a beer and a game of cards but I quickly realised that I wasn’t feeling good at all so at the early time of 20:30 I headed home leaving Tom and Craig at the bar. I got back to the guesthouse to find that our key wasn’t there as we’d forgotten to give it in and I didn’t have it but luckily they used another key to let me in. In the end I didn’t get to sleep until pushing 23:00 as even at the best of times I’ve found it pretty hard to get to sleep out here. I awoke to 00:45 and realised that the light was still on and Tom and Craig were nowhere to be seen. Upon realising this I was pretty worried as we had planned an early night due to a 6:00am start the next morning. I went downstairs to find that the night receptionist was locking up and going to bed in reception so I headed back up to the room to consider my options. I eventually decided that since nowhere stays open later than about 1:00am (officially there is a midnight curfew on bars) I may as well wait up for them as I wasn’t sure if they’d be able to get in and I didn’t fancy the idea of them (no matter how remote) of them having nowhere to sleep. I headed out to the balcony and watched the street waiting for the sound of English voices. It was actually pretty interesting watching the late night last traffic go by and sure enough 20 minutes later Tom and Craig wandered around the corner looking for the guesthouse. They looked pretty worried when they saw the lights off (we had never been back quite as late before) but I shouted down that I’d make sure they could get in if they couldn’t wake up our receptionist and sure enough being used to letting in people who stayed out late he came and opened up for them as soon as they knocked on the door. I was only really worried due to the next morning’s early start as for a normal night they weren’t really that late but more than anything I was glad that they were okay. It’s funny how your mind tends to prepare itself for the worst in these situations considering the worst things that could happen and what to do in each case, not pleasant but I blame an overactive imagination! It turned out that the guys had found a late opening bar with a pool table, met an American guy to play a few games with and lost track of time. Had I been there I would probably have done the same!

Unfortunately while Tom and Craig fell straight to sleep (probably aided by a couple of beers) I, having already had two hours sleep couldn’t sleep for a good hour so by 6:00am was feeling a lot better though pretty sleep deprived. Alarms were set for 6:00am as we had decided to take a trip to the Perfume Pagoda, a 60km trip out of town. While this may not seem far we opted to do the entire trip by public transport rather than taking a tour. We did this more for the adventure than anything else, while I have had my fair share of less developed public transport systems due to my time in Botswana, Tom and Craig hadn’t and wanted to rough it with the Vietnamese people. Anyway since its pretty late I’m going to publish this now and then start the story of the Perfume Pagoda in a new entry to finish off tomorrow when I can take my time over it!

Goodnight.

Well we have now arrived in Vietnam. Our flight here was delayed by three hours so, by the time we got to our hostel everywhere to eat and drink was closed as almost everywhere in Hanoi closes up by midnight. We are staying at the Hanoi guesthouse as recommended by a guy in STA travel. It seems pretty nice although our room consists of one single and one very large double bed. As a result Tom and I have been getting a little closer than we’d like but I guess sacrifices must be made. I seem to have given my cold to both Tom and Craig unfortunately. Craig seems to have shaken it off quickly but Tom has had a couple of days of feeling rough. On our first full day we decided to walk around Hanoi taking in lots of the sights and experiencing a little of the local culture. We sampled some of the local beer and went to a performance of Vietnamese water puppetry! We bought the tickets in the afternoon but when we came to go to the performance despite the fact that we had walked past the place several times we got completely lost (hard when its nearby next to a huge lake). In desperation we all hopped on the back the local motorbike/moped taxis and got there in about 2 minutes. This is something I would not consider in any other country and requires a little background explanation. Hanoi’s traffic is like no other countries, for a start there are almost no cars on the roads, everyone rides mopeds or motorbikes all of which are small and low powered. The traffic system is completely chaotic with people driving in all directions with no respect to lanes or sides of the road. While this may sound incredibly dangerous it actually works in your favour safety wise, due to the chaos it is pretty rare to exceed 20mph with the average speed being about 10-15mph. As it happens the speed limit for towns is only 40km/hour and still only 60km/h for the highways! To prevent accidents, indicators, flashing your lights and the horn seem to be used almost constantly to signal resulting in an ordered chaos that appears to be safer than anywhere else. This ordered chaos also requires a new system of crossing the road. Instead of waiting for no traffic (there’s are always a multitude of bikes passing) you just make sure there are no cars then step into teh road and walk slowly across in a horizontal line presenting the smallest face to the traffic. As long as you walk slowly the bikes part around you and you walk straight across the road. This was understandably terrifying the first few times but because everyone does this drivers are expecting pedestrains (and are already travelling very slowly) and it appears to actually be quite safe!

Anyway I have been distracted by the description of the traffic system so back to the maroinettes. I have to admit the actual puppet show was a little odd but since it is a tradition that goes back to the 11th century we thought we couldn’t miss it.

For dinner we went to an all vegetarian mock meat restaurant as mock meat is a speciality of Vietnam. The menu specifically said that everything was vegetarian and they listed sections of checken, pork, beef and shrimp. We ended up ordering about 10 dishes as they were quite small and we wanted to try a variety.  The food was actually pretty good, I liked the chicken, pork and beef but the shrimps I wasn’t so keen on. As it happens Craig reckoned the shrimp tasted just like the real thing but a bit less fishy, he liked the others but could tell easily that they weren’t meat. It looks like I have made the right choice being a vegetarian! (not that I was in doubt).

In the evening we sampled the local Bia Hoi, very cheap beer (15 for a pound) which is very fresh and really quite good. we also bought a few very well copied books at very cheap prices including the new lonely planet that has only just been released. This seems like a pretty good way to meet the locals and we ended up getting a inpromptu Vietnamese lesson. Since we could stay more than two nights at our guesthouse we opted to go on a tour to Ha long bay. 

As I write this we have almost finished in Ha long bay and my blog is now 3 days out of date, as once again what I’m seeing is so new and exciting that I have written way to much and am almost out of time. I still want to write about what I’ve seen of the Vietnamese (very friendly) and my experience of the culture but time is almost out so I’ll use my last few mines to start writing my next post and hopefully publish it soon, that is of course if I can find the time! Before I go please excuse the horrible spelling and grammar so far, the keyboards here are beyond terrible (I’ve thrown away better ones) and I barely have time to write, never mind proof read as I sit here sweating buckets (literally).

On the second day Tom took me to a cheap mall called MBK. It is huge and has a great food court you can buy almost any food and where Tom and I ate random Thai food from a vegetarian stall. After food we met Craig along with Bow, a Thai medical student that that Craig is friends with. Bow speaks pretty good English and led us on a tour through what seemed to be 3 connecting malls starting with MBK (the cheap one) and ending with Siam Paragon (the biggest and most expensive in Thailand). To put this into perspective Siam Paragon is like a six storey version of the Bullring in Birmingham. Bow seemed very nice and was more than happy to lead us around and answer all our questions. One thing that I learned that surprised me is that Thai students have to be back in their accommodation by 9pm and aren’t allowed any guests at all. Tom and Craig luckily didn’t have to respect the curfew but they did have to plead with house keeping so that I could be allowed in to see their room. It’s too bad and has basic air conditioning plus its pretty cheap to stay in and has an ensuite. In fact if you overlook the dated decor its pretty reasonable. I took some interesting night shots from the balcony which I have also uploaded.

For my second night in Thailand the guys decided to take me on a typical Thai night out. Not the tourist kind but a night out as experienced by the locals. We started off with Thai food at Ana’s garden which as a restaurant that has been built around the trees and plants that were already there giving it a relaxed disorganised feel. The food was excellent and we all split 5 Thai vegi dishes so that we got to taste a good selection. Craig has been very good at putting up with eating vegetarian so that I can try more which means I must have tried 15 or so dishes so far. Anyway after food (and beer) we went to a club called Ice bar to experience Thai student clubbing. Ice bar was unlike any club you would ever see in England. Firstly when you arrive you are escorted to a table by several staff. This is necessary as it is incredibly dark. In fact all the staff carry torches so that you can read the menus. Another unique thing about Thai clubs is that there are no dance floors, Everyone just dances and tries to avoid hitting the tables. Drinks wise you are meant to order a bottle of Whisky and then order mixers when required. We opted for the smallest (700ml) bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label and cola and soda water to mix. The staff bring your drinks to the table and pour you a drink with your required mixer. Everything is done to maximise your comfort and minimise the effort that you have to put in. When you glass is empty it is instantly refilled. Not being used to this system it can be a little uncomfortable to have a staff member standing by you all night but we made sure they got a reasonable tip and they all seemed very appreciative. The music was mostly live and played by what can only be described as a Thai rock with punk influences band. the music was actually pretty reasonable if a little generic, though I imagine that not knowing the language probably didn’t help. Tom and Craig said that it was pretty good that night normally the music is more Thai pop which from what I’ve heard seems pretty poor. The night was actually pretty good fun and it was nice to be in a club where we didn’t see a single other westerner!

Okay well I was going to stop here but since I have a few minutes left I may as well use them! So the third day was pretty relaxed, we all felt pretty wrecked from the previous night so went for the greasiest 2pm breakfast food we could find. This turned out to be a pleasant little restaurant 30 seconds from where we are staying where we got a fried English breakfast adapted for Thailand. Not something I’d want too often but interesting and very good for a hangover I also had a banana smoothy which was delicious! Craig had stuff to do after breakfast so Tom and I took a water taxi to Kho San road (not the correct spelling, just a guess) which is a hub for backpackers (here backpacker and tourist seem to be entirely interchangeable). It was an interesting place but really just too touristy, and on the bright side this time the sex trade was absent. As we were about to leave I experienced my first torrential Thai rain which flooded the street and pavement and left us stranded in a bar for an hour (I guess it could have been a lot worse!) Our evening was pretty low key, Thai food was good, Tom was a little down as he had plans cancelled with his girlfriend and we were all pretty tired. We went to a posh looking bar and Craig and I discussed morals, politics, the state of the UK and communism at length.

While Bangkok is an amazing city unlike anywhere else I have been before  has also left me feeling troubled. The gap between rich and poor seems to be so much wider here than anywhere else I have been to. I would love to talk more about this but I am out of time. We fly to Vietnam tonight so expect an update either very soon or not for quite a while, depending on the availability of internet access. Also after having no mosquito bites so far one of the little bastards just got me 6 times on the leg, I did manage to kill it though!

Well here I am in Thailand! I got onto my plane with no problems in Manchester and headed to Doha. I have never been to the Middle East before so landing in Doha was quite an experience. Coming down to land I could just see a massive expanse of flat white desert surrounding a city of ordered white boxes. Upon landing I could see that the white boxes were in fact decorated with arabic writing and Middle eastern architectural features. The flight to Doha was about 6 and a 1/2 hours and unfortunately I got almost no sleep despite my best efforts. Doha airport was new, very clean and had lots of seats but only being there for 1 and a 1/2 hours I did very little exploring. The flight to Bangkok was another 6 and a 1/2 hours and this time I did mange a whole hours sleep admittedly split into 10 minute chunks. Qatar Airways were fantastic, the staff were courteous the vegi food was actually surprisingly good and the entertainment system had almost 100 on demand movies plus TV shows and music all on demand and pausable. I have to say I barely took advantage of this though as i was trying to sleep.

Upon landing in Bangkok I got my bag and got though immigration really quickly and met Tom and Craig. We then took a taxi to the hostel to check my stuff into our triple room. The taxi driver seemed to take great delight in pointing out the lady boys shouting “lady man, lady man” and honking his horn when we passed one. Once we had checked in we walked into the room Tom looked for the light switch but before he found it I could just make out one very large bed in the dark. Tom turned on the light and confirmed my suspicion. Luckily seconds later as I was just about to initiate the “who sleeps in the middle” conversation the girl who checked us in ran into the room behind us to say she had given us the wrong key! What a relief that was! Our new room has 3 beds! Last night after warning the guys that I was pretty tired we went out for a beer to a local bar and then went on to the sky bar. The sky bar is an open air bar on the roof of the 64 floor state tower. A beer was about GBP5 so we only had one but it was worth it just to look out over Bangkok. Probably the scariest part of this is that the barrier stopping you from falling off was (very think) glass. But the fact that you are aware that you could easily jump over was enough to make me feel pretty uneasy. Hopefully I can upload some photos that I took up there.

After the sky bar we went to a tourist area where we hoped we could find a restaurant still open. On he way we walked through a market where I was warned we’d get hassled by the local sex trade. Sure enough we were greeted by lots of locals waving menus in front of us and inviting us to watch a local specialty that I assume wasn’t a stimulating table tennis match. Actually the hassling wasn’t too bad, a polite no thank you usually did the trick.

We found a restaurant and had a light meal of very fresh superbly spiced Thai vegetable dishes which I can’t describe but was very tasty. By this time it was after midnight but I was surprisingly awake (I guess it was early evening English time). The guys decided to finish the evening by taking me for a reflexology foot massage. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive but they took me to a place that they’d been before where a foot massage really would mean a foot massage. Actually it was an hour long and included a quick shoulder and neck massage but was really very nice and very professional. Anyway by the time we got out of there it was pushing 3am so we headed home to bed.

This ends the story of my first night in Bangkok. I don’t intend to write nearly as much or as detailed again but since this is all new to me it pretty exciting. I’m about out of time now so I’m going to have a quick go at uploading some photos of the sky bar and where we are staying.