Phu Quoc

The ferry crossing to Phu Quoc was so so so bumpy! We all felt pretty rough in the middle of the journey, so many people were being sick on the boat, it was horrible but luckily none of us were sick, yey! Our little resort was so cute, really please we picked it, lovely swimming pool, beach, beach bar etc – such a lovely island and a great place o relax for a few days! We spent most of the time on the beach at our resort, there were loads of ladies selling fresh fruit and massages for like 2 pound, paradise!

Ben and I took a moped ride to the other side of the island one day to see another beach, it was all white sand! So chuffed, I’ve never been on a white sand beach before, lovely. After spending a bit of time there we drove back, just in time for a huge rain storm!!! We were absolutely drenched by the time we got back to the resort, it was pretty funny – Ben was far worse off than me, hehe.

We went out for some really nice meals with Nic and Chris, we had Indian, Vietnamese and Mexican – all really good to. We also had some pretty good games of pool, in the end I must admit that the North won (and that it was my entire fault), we do demand a rematch in the future though!!! Ben and Chris also entered a game of ‘killer’ in one of the bars with about 10 other people – Ben did amazingly and came a really close second beating some really good players, but alas he fouled on his last ball, what a waste of 20,000 dong!

Really sad to leave Phu Quoc as it really was a paradise island but on to Cambodia next so very excited about that!!!

Mekong Delta

So an early start in Saigon to go on our Mekong Delta tour for a couple of days, was a really good trip and great value for all the things we did. We were really lucky to meet another British couple (Nic and Chris) doing the same tour as us and then heading over to Phu Quoc Island too so that was really nice. The first day of the tour consisted of visiting a few islands near the town of My Tho, we tried honey tea (really good), I tried some snake wine (not so good) and some coconut candy, which I expected to be much nicer but it was still tasty. We also had a little boat trip down one of the narrow branches of the delta, it was so busy though with tours etc, it was like the M25 in rush hour!

That night we stayed in the town of Can Tho. We went with Nic and Chris to this really cool ‘do it your self’ BBQ by the river for dinner, it was amazing! We had so many different meats and shrimp, definitely a fun way to have dinner – and no one got food poisoning from our cooking, result!! The other option was having Rat or Frog in the restaurant near our hotel; I think we definitely chose wisely.

 Snake wine - lovely!!!

On the second day of our delta tour we visited the Cai Rang floating market, there were heaps and heaps of boats but it was more like a wholesale market, you couldn’t just buy little things (so Ben was quite pleased I couldn’t spend more money!). We stopped at one of the many pineapple boats and had some yum pineapple, the tropical fruit is amazing here. We also did a little trip to an orchard to try some more fruit and have a little stroll, the mango was epic!

After that we had to split form the group to go to the ferry port town of Rach Gia, pretty rubbish town, we got approached by a Vietnamese hobo with a glove on one hand – Nic and I thought he may be hiding a hook!

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Wow, and we thought Hanoi was bad for mopeds! Saigon is far far worse, there are mopeds everywhere you look, and we were told that there are over 4 million mopeds in the city. So the first day we just wondered around getting our bearings etc and finding a good tour deal to go to the Mekong Delta, it’s a really cool city but my god what a rip off compared to all the other places we have been, the people on the market stools were staring at ridiculous prices – including $22 for a plain brown leather belt!!! That night Ben and I treated ourselves to a Hard Rock Café meal since we’ve been craving it since Beijing, it was so worth it, absolutely amazing – we ate so much!

Ben and I wanted to visit some sites to learn more about the Vietnamese war so we booked a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels just outside of Saigon. It was a really interesting tour, the Vietnamese built all these tunnels once stretching all the way to Cambodia and the US didn’t have a clue for years. The tunnels were absolutely tiny too, I definitely couldn’t be a Vietnamese Gorilla – I’d have a right panic attack down there! 

These were the widened tunnels - still ruddy small!

While we were at the tunnels we also got to see the bamboo traps they used to capture and kill Americans, they were brutal. Ben was very excited as he got to shoot an AK-47 gun at the shooting range – boys!

On our way back we visited the War Remnants museum in the city, had some really cool tanks and stuff outside but the exhibits inside were really brutal again. There were mainly photographs (and a lot of Vietnamese propaganda) showing pictures from throughout the war, some really graphic it was fair to say we were pretty Vietnamese War-ed out by the end of the day.

On our final day in Saigon we visited the ‘Reunification Palace’ in the centre of the city. It is a really cool building, like going in to a time warp to 1974, nothing has been changed in the palace since the Northern communists broke down the palace gates with their tanks and the South surrendered – it was so retro, would definitely recommend a visit.

Nha Trang

Off we went down the coast to the beach resort town of Nha Trang, my god what an awful journey! I convinced Ben that it would be ‘fun’ to get the night bus down as we haven’t got one yet and it was $10 less than the train. What a mistake – we were completely stitched up with the seating arrangements and we made to sit in what can only be described as a cave at the back of the bus on the bottom, there were 5 of us all along the back seat and we couldn’t even sit up and to top it off the driver turned the lights out at 6.30pm!!! Horrendous!!!

So after a horrible trip to Nha Trang we get to our hotel and it’s a little crappy, plus we get ripped off by a man on a motorbike on our way – fair to say the 1^st impression was not a good one. But after we rested we went for a stroll and felt a lot better about the place, the beach was really nice and there were loads of great restaurants including a fab Indian and one of the best Italians I have had for years (cheating I know but it was too good)!

 Chatting with the locals at the fishing village!

Our one full day in Nha Trang we decided to do the ‘Easy Rider’ tour on these cool motorbikes (which looked like Harley Davidson’s but weren’t) around the area. We started by visiting fishing villages where we saw how lobsters were fished and grown and also where shrimp were bred, then we turned off the main road on to this dirt track. Ben did so well not to drop the bike, we were riding through mud and puddles up to our ankles – it was like proper off-road riding, I was pretty scared! 

But the ordeal was worth it as we rode to this amazing river with waterfalls and plunge pools, it was so beautiful and we had the place all to ourselves, we swam and jumped off the rocks it was really amazing.

On the day trip we also visited this hot spring park and mud baths – was really funny, we were just sat in these baths full of mud, really strange! Didn’t do much on our trip after that, we visited some sites including a giant white Buddha and a Hindu temple, fun day I would definitely recommend going on an easy rider tour in Vietnam.

Hoi An

The trip to Hoi An was quite eventful, the coach had a little break down, I think a belt broke or something. Luckily we broke down out side a random ice cream parlor so that was great, I think the ice cream parlor had their best business day ever! Hoi An was really beautiful, tailor shops everywhere so I was very excited. We rode mopeds and bicycles to China Beach a couple of days, so nice to finally hit a beach and relax – time to get some tanning action on!

 

We met a lady who helped us find our hotel when we arrived etc and surprise surprise she owned a tailor shop (as did everyone else in the town). She took us out for lunch and then we felt kind of obliged to get some clothes made at her shop – only we didn’t expect to buy as much as we did, an hour and $160 later we end up with getting a suit, 2 shirts, a dress and a skirt made – awesome! All the clothes were really nice too; Ben looks amazing in his new suit. We spent the rest of the time wondering around the old town, really picturesque little place, I can see why it’s so popular.

Ben & I went on a little moped excursion again to some temples called My Son about 60km away from town, the ride was really fun and the temples were great, we were told they were a mini Angkor Wat though so now we can’t wait for the real deal!

Hue

Time to travel down the coast to central Vietnam, unfortunately the area was experiencing some of the worst winter rain storms in years but they had calmed significantly by the time we arrived. Hue was a really nice little city and a few miles outside is the old DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) when Vietnam was split in to North and South. We didn’t spend much time here (the weather wasn’t great and we wanted a tan!) but we did get a good chance to see the city. The main attraction here was the Citadel and the Forbidden Purple City; it was just like the Forbidden City in Beijing just not as massive! It also had the tallest flag pole in Vietnam outside – definitely a crowd pleaser!

 

We took a little city tour with a great little tour guide, even though he did admit in the first 20 mins that he ate dog regularly! We started at a pagoda and temple complex, which was cool, we saw some kids getting monk training! He then took us to a couple of emperors tombs and to some traditional villages, and at the end of the day Ben and I must have made an impression on the tour guide as he invited us to his wedding in 2 years – we can’t wait!!!

Ha Long Bay & Cat Ba Island

We booked a 3 day tour to the famous Ha Long Bay during our time in Hanoi which included a night on a junk boat in the bay and a night on the largest island, Cat Ba Island. The whole trip was absolutely amazing, the bay is mystical and beautiful, definitely looked like something straight out of a James Bond film.

 

The first day we explored some limestone caves with all the stalagmites and stalactites – obviously I loved it! We then went for a kayak around the islands, Ben and I powered off to get away from the crowds and found some quiet parts, it was absolutely beautiful out there, Ben got absolutely drenched though it was funny.

 

That night we had dinner on our junk boat with some horrendous karaoke for desert, watching our Vietnamese tour guide singing along to Westlife was brilliant though!

The second day we were dropped off at Cat Ba Island for the second part of our tour, we did this really cool jungle trek in the morning and then had the afternoon to ourselves to do what we wanted. 

Ben and I rented a moped again and decided we wanted to go and have a good explore, we drove to ‘Hospital Cave’ which was a secret underground hospital during the war for the Vietnamese and Chinese. It was really cool to go see the cave and we had a great time driving around the island, really rural and beautiful.

 

On our final day we made our way back to Halong City on the boat taking in the views as we went, really worthwhile trip.

Hanoi - Vietnam Begins

Good Morning Vietnam!!!

There are so many mopeds here! I have literally never seen anything like it in my life! Crossing roads in Vietnam should be a new Olympic sport. Hanoi was a really amazing city, we spent the first day orientating ourselves and adjusting to the Vietnamese culture – that wasn’t too difficult though, the people are much nicer here.

In the old quarter (where we were staying) all the little streets were broken up in to their own separate districts – there was a hardware district, underwear district, shoe district etc, it was really cool and at least you knew where to go to find things!

We went to see the ‘world famous water puppet theatre’, I was a little skeptical but it was a really cute show. During our time in Hanoi we also hired a moped so we could explore the city – it was so much fun! We got to see so much more of the city this way and went to explore the Ho Chi Minh museum and mausoleum and have a look around the French architecture there.

 Ho Chi Minh's 'house'

 

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Couldn’t stay in Lijiang too long as we wanted to do this two day hike along the Himalayas called Tiger Leaping Gorge.  I’ve been excited about this since I read about it months ago so I was really keen but disaster strikes! The morning of leaving for the hike I get hit with a horrible stomach bug half way to the gorge, not nice at all. Anyway I foolishly decided to try the hike . . . . . 20 mins in and I could barely move, I had absolutely zero energy. But luckily there was a little ray of sunshine following me – a little palomino pony called Little Boy! I hired the pony to take me to the highest part of the trail, it was the best decision I ever made there was no way I could continue without him!

 

The views were so worth it! It was absolutely beautiful, the gorge itself is deeper than the Grand Canyon and the surrounding mountains were as high as Everest base camp. We climbed up to just shy of 3000m, Ben did amazingly but it was fair to say we were both exhausted after the first day and couldn’t wait to get to the guest house half way!

 

I didn’t feel much better the second day but we had to continue on to finish the trek. It wasn’t as difficult as the first day thankfully so I could do it without too much hassle, on the second part of the trek there were loads of waterfalls, it was a really beautiful day.

 The trek was the last thing we were doing in China so after we just took a couple of days to get down the mountains to a city called Kunming where we had flights booked to go to Hanoi, Vietnam. The last few days were cool, all I did really was try to recover from my illness, which sucked but I was really looking forward to starting a new country. I will miss China... just not their rude smelly men who spit all the time!