Relaxation, Rivers & Reunification

We rolled into Nha Trang on our sleeper train which wasn't quite as nice as the previous one. This was mainly because a number of locals get on the train with no tickets and try to take peoples beds or have more than one person per bed. Trying to communicate to them that they are in your bed was a bit of a challenge!

Nha Trang is a fairly modern seaside resort with a lovely great big beach and numerous attractions to see. Whilst here we cycled to the aquarium, pagoda, giant seated Buddha, towers and the mud baths. The mud baths enabled us to relax for the afternoon whilst getting thoroughly cleansed in various mud baths and mineral pools.

We also spent one day out in a boat snorkelling which was really cool although at the last sight there were loads of tiny jelly fish that stung is while we were swimming back to the boat! The rest of our time in Nha Trang was spent lazing on the beach in the sun! Sadly we had to move on, and we decided to risk a 5 hour sleeping bus to our next stop, Mui Ne. The bus wasn't quite as bad as we thought it would be, although the beds are designed for much shorter people and we did get shaken about a fair bit!

We arrived in Mui Ne with expectations of a vast white beach (this is what lonely planet had told us!). Unfotunately these were not met as the area has been consumed by seaside resorts which back directly onto the waterfront meaning there is no public beach space on between to lie on. If you're into kite surfing then this is the place to go, if not, it's not somewhere we would recommend. We did however go to the red sandunes which were an amazing sight by the sea, and we even got to slide down some of the bigger ones on a plastic sled! We also visited the Fairy Stream which was really nice.

After only one full day in Mui Ne we left for Saigon ( Ho Chi Minh City). Having been told that this was even more hectic than Hanoi, we were dreading it! Luckily this turned out not to be the case and we were pleasantly surprised by the ability to walk on the pavements and enjoy some relaxation in the parks. On our first afternoon we manged to visit the war remnants museum, which displayed some harrowing pictures of the Vietnam War.

We then did a tour of the Mekong delta for 2 days. During this trip we visited a bee farm, with some delicious honey tea (a large spoonful of honey mixed with hot water!) and a coconut candy workshop; unfortunately we've finished the candy we bought already!! Our lunch was interesting as we were presented with a whole fish stood up in the table! The afternoon was spent taking a boat along the smaller canals back to our hotel via a fruit garden. In the evening we visited the local night market despite half the streets being flooded! The following day we took another boat to the floating market where people live, eat and sleep on the same boats from which they sell their products. To know what each boat is selling, they hang one of each of their products on a bamboo stick from their boat.

On our return to Saigon we went to the reunification palace, which was an amazing place to visit. We also manged to visit the history museum and Notre Dame cathedral which were ok but not as interesting as the other sights.

For our final day in Saigon we visited the Cu Chi tunnels which were really interesting, and a Cao Dai temple. This was really pretty inside and we got to see the beginning of mass. Cao Dai religion is interesting because it draws upon ethical precepts from Confucianism, occult practices from Taoism, theories of karma and rebirth from Buddhism, and a hierarchical organization (including a pope) from Roman Catholicism. Its pantheon of saints includes such diverse figures as the Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Pericles, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo, and Sun Yat-sen.

From Saigon we headed to Phnom Penh with our bus leaving at a rather early 6.30am! Now we've arrive for our whistle stop tour of Cambodia which you can read all about in about a weeks time!

Take care x x

Motorbike Madness

With Laos behind us, we landed in Hanoi to be greeted by insanity. In comparison to Laos, Hanoi is a little bit busier. It has a population of 9 million, two thirds of whom ride motorbikes with a disregard for all signs, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and road lanes. It could take you up to 20 minutes to cross a road and after a few days there you realise you just have to start walking and hope that no one hits you on your way across! Having seen this madness on our one hour taxi ride to our hotel, to then be told that we would be taken to the sister hotel by motorbike filled us with dread! But we survived and thoroughly enjoyed our free upgrade on our room. Going out for our first meal in Vietnam, we quickly learnt that cutlery is not an option and Em had to have a crash course in using chopsticks!

The following day we set off on a two day tour to Halong Bay. Whilst here we spent the two days and the one night aboard a very nice boat and visited some awesome caves and also went kayaking and swimming. Halong Bay is a beautiful place that we would highly recommend to anyone visiting Vietnam.

Upon returning to Hanoi we spent one day visiting the local sights: the lake, the odd temple,Women's museum and the prison. For James' birthday we took a tour to Tam Coc which is also known as 'Halong Bay on land' which was equally as beautiful as we sat back and enjoyed a boat trip through some caves. These boats are very small and low to the water so they can fit through the caves and they are rowed by locals who use their feet - very impressive!

Back in Hanoi, we treated ourselves to an 'expensive' meal in a restaurant overlooking the lake. We spent our final day in Hanoi visiting the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex which was interesting but odd at the same time. Finally we went to see Vietnam's first university, also known as the Temple of Literature.

Our next stop was Hue and in order to get here we took the overnight train from Hanoi, which was not as bad as we were expecting it to be!

However, arriving in Hanoi train station, we had to walk across about 10 train tracks to get to our 'platform', something which would definitely not be deemed safe in the UK! Once we had checked in to our hotel in Hue we heading to he Citadel where we took a one hour cyclo tour before spending 3 hours getting absolutely drenched seeing the sights within the Citadel, which as it turns out is huge!!

 

The following day we took a dragon boat tour down the river to visit an old Vietnamese house, where a couple were having photos taken for their wedding album, Thien Mu pagoda and three of the royal tombs. The first, Minh Manh was huge while the second was just 'awesome' and the third, Tu Doc was poetic and romantic. Ironically 2000 people died creating the third tomb and Tu Doc used to vacation there before he died...a little strange we thought!

From Hue we headed to Hoi An where we spent be first afternoon renting bikes and cycling to the beach where we had some much needed relaxation! The following day we walked round the Old Town and visited its sights - it is so beautiful and peaceful and nice to get away from the madness of the motorbikes!

In the evening we took a Vietnamese cooking class which was pretty good although our attempt at tomato flowers was pretty disappointing - James' was in 3 pieces whereas its meant to be whole!

For our last day in Hoi An we took a tour to My Son which again is a beautiful place which was, like many other sights, partially destroyed by the war. Nonetheless it's still worth a good visit and the boat trip back was nice and relaxing.

From Hoi An we took another sleeper train to Nha Trang. Having read the horrendous reviews about the sleeper buses we decided not to risk it and fork out the extra money for some comfort and safety of both ourselves and our belongings! We will cover Nha Trang in our next post.

We have decided to continue our 'facts about Asia' just so you will be prepared if you ever decide to visit:
- Motorbikes are everywhere in Vietnam.
- The traffic is horrendous as no one pays any attention to road signs, lights or right of ways!
- Hassling is the norm in Vietnam whether for clothes, tours, transport, food etc. and they basically just want your money.
- Sleeper buses are not advised and should probably be avoided - the trains are much more comfortable, if not more expensive.
- The roads in the UK are in awesome condition - don't take them for granted!
- Almost anything and any number of people can be carried on a motorbike.
- Horns are used constantly and have no specific meaning.
- James apparently looks like a druggie and has been offered weed on numerous occasions.
- Em can last more than a few days without straightening her hair.
- James is known as 'Jam' or 'Jame' and Em as "Amily'
- We miss the simple things, like cereal and milk....what we would give for some cold milk right now!


We hear the weather back home I slightly chilly.....unlucky! It's a lovely 30oC here :)

Take care!

X x

One Country Down!

When we last left you we were heading to Laos and the morning after our Cabbages and Condoms meal (which was very nice by they way) we embarked on our journey to Laos. Having read reviews online we were absolutely dreading it! But it turned out to not be as bad as expected. We took a local bus from Chiang Rai to the Laos border which took about 2 and a half hours and was nice and breezy with the doors open! It was pretty slow though as it stopped pretty constantly to let people on and off. Having checked out of Thailand and obtained a Laos visa we jumped in a minivan to Luang Namtha. This journey took 3 hours and consisted of ridiculously windy roads which ascended an descended through mountain ranges. It was an experience that's for sure!! Especially as drivers here do not take notice of which side of the road they are meant to be on and we spent at least half our journey on the wrong side!! But hey, we made it there safe and sound and we even got a free upgrade to a superior room in our guesthouse!

Luang Namtha is a very small village in northern Laos with one road through it. For the one day we were there we decided to do a trek on foot. This turned out to be an awful,yet brilliant day. On the one hand, the views whilst walking up the mountains (to over 900m!) provided some awesome views and having lunch at the top was an incredible experience. However, the combined total of 6 hours trekking up mountains in 30oC+ left us pretty tired to say the least! But we finished the trek by sitting on the edge of a waterfall soaking our feet in the water and cooling off.

From Luang Namtha we had a rather interesting 9 hour journey down to Luang Prabang. After initial confusion over which bus we wanted, we ended up on a minivan. This may not sound too bad but when said minivan which is really old school and is designed to seat 13 small Laos people, is filled with
13 Western individuals, it becomes slight uncomfortable. Add to this the 30oC+ heat and no air con and you can imagine how this was like 9 hours of hell! To make things even more interesting the driver did not pay any attention to any 'stop' signs and almost ran over numerous dogs, chickens, ducks, buffalo and children! For more than half the journey the road was more like a big mud track with piles of rocks randomly placed in the middle of the roads.

Luang Prabang is a town with a couple of main roads alongside the Mekong river. Whilst here we visited several the royal palace and several temples, the most impressive of which is the Phu Si stupa. Despite the 400 odd steps, this was worth the effort as the views were spectacular! We stayed up here to watch the sunset but unfortunately it was quite overcast and we only just made it back down before the thunderstorm started.

The next day entailed a 2 hour boat journey up the Mekong river to the Pak Ou caves. A journey which turned out to be better than the destination, although the caves containing hundreds of buddha statues were pretty cool.

Following this we made our way to the waterfall at Kuang Si. This is a collection of waterfalls with a main one at the top of yet more stairs! There was also a lagoon for swimming and a rope swing, which James took advantage of, Em did not.

Whilst in Luang Prabang we tried out the local night market buffets which were delicious and kept up our obscenely healthy rate of fruit shake consumption! Another interesting journey took us to Vang Vieng. This was very similar to the previous one, just a bit shorter, so we will not go into the details again.

On our first day in Vang Vieng we hired mountain bikes and cycled 7km along a very rocky and painful 'road' to Phu Kham cave. Yet again we had to climb hundreds of steps to reach it but it was pretty cool with a reclining Buddha in the middle. After we had descended we then took advantage of the blue lagoon!

From here we cycled back to town and to another impressive cave, Chang cave, which was much more open but less natural. We decided to have a more relaxing day the following day and headed out to Yui waterfall which was very much worth it; a 25m high waterfall surrounded by great scenery, although we did get soaked!

In the afternoon we went tubing which was very relaxing. This is mainly because about a month ago the Lao government decided to shut down all the bars along the tubing stretch due to too many deaths resulting from people being wasted (20 deaths in 2011!). All the swings and slides etc have also been closed which was quite disappointing but fun nonetheless.

From Vang Vieng we headed to Vientiane, the capital city. Here we stayed in a shared room in a nice hostel so met a few nice people from England, America and Germany. Unlike Luang Namtha, which has a large Chinese influence, Vientiane shows more signs of Laos being a French colony. Here we visited their version of the arc de triomphe which was pretty nice surrounded by fountains and with a straight road leading one way to the presidential palace and the other way to That Luang, a national monument.

 
There were plenty of temples to visit here, with one containing around 2,000 Buddhas.

 About 25km East of the city centre is Buddha park; an area full of different Buddha statues.  This was quite a peaceful place, although the one hour journey on a tuk-tuk along ridiculously bumpy roads was not a comfortable one!!

We also visited Cope, which is a rehabilitation centre mainly for those who are injured/loose limbs through unexploded bomb accidents. This place was very interesting especially as watched a 50 minute video on the bombs themselves and how they are removed from different areas. However, it was also quite sad hearing from people who had been affected by these accidents or lost friends and relatives from them.

Whilst in Vientiane we tried to watch the sunset from two different locations; over the Mekong river, and at That Luang. Unfortunately the smog here is so thick though that it is not as good a sight as we were hoping for.

On our last night in Laos we decided to sample some of the local delights, mainly laos laos rice whisky and fried ice cream, both of which were pleasantly nice.

Now our time in Laos has to come to an end and it's time to say goodbye and move onto Vietnam, but before we leave we thought we'd give you some interesting/amusing things we've learnt whilst being in South East Asia so far:
 1) If you ask for a strawberry fruit shake it will be most likely be made up with a huge dollop of strawberry jam.....yum...
 2) Anywhere that says 'foreigner ticket' actually means 'white person ticket', anyone else from other parts of Asia can get in for free!
3) Road rules do not apply.
4) Everything happens in Laos time.
5) Tuk-tuk drivers find it hilarious when they drive across bumpy roads at high speeds and you are flung from your bench continuously.
6) Any map that says 'dirt road' actually means a rocky/stoney pathway and should not be cycled down!


I'm sure we will have more to come but that's it for now so we hoped you've enjoyed this blog post and everything is all well.

Take care!

x x