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
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