Mui Ne

Our decision to leave Nha Trang was possibly the best one so far on the trip!  After another long bus journey we arrived in a little paradise called Mui Ne.  A glorious stretch of sea and sand, but slightly lacking on the sun still (that was until our last day when it was bright blue skies and sunshine and we were stuck on a bus for 6 hours – typical)!  The bus dropped us, as per usual, possibly the furthest point away from where we wanted to be – very helpful!  This meant that after 20 minutes of attempting to walk in the midday heat and humidity, losing half our bodyweight in sweat, we decided to bargain with some motorbike drivers (sorry mum!) to take us to our destination.  Didn’t quite get us to where we wanted but near enough.  Jords dumped me with our bags at a cafe and scouted out our accommodation – a beautiful little bungalow literally a 10 second walk from the beach.

Most of our time was spent sunbathing, swimming in the sea, eating lovely food and generally taking a break from our constant moving around!  One note worthy moment was when we took a romantic stroll along the beach after having a beach-front beer.  We could just NOT understand why no one else had the same idea as us – this sadly became apparent when we got back to our bungalow.  The bottoms of our feet were thick with a black tar-like substance which would only come off by using my rapidly disappearing simple face wipes!  Seriously it was such a distressing end to a lovely evening and we even had to scrub our bath tub which we had successfully caked in the tar too!

On our final night we attempted the romantic beach stroll again, this time at sunset, and our feet came back clean (or at least as clean as traveller’s feet can be expected) - no tar this time that’s for sure!  The sunset was stunning and the perfect end to a lovely and much needed break.

On our final day we had booked to do a tour of the local red and white sand dunes.  The trip was just us driven around in a jeep for four hours – the best way to see what Mui Ne had to offer. 

Our driver picked us up at 5am but first we had to break out of our resort.  Evidently we had been padlocked in so we had to scale the padlocked front gate to meet our driver.  He took us to the white sand dunes first which we proceeded to sled down which was great fun!

Our tour also included seeing a traditional fishing village and a final walk along the fairy springs – a stream in the bottom of a small canyon.  Our guides were two 11 year old children who showed us lots of cool things along the river, and gave us each a four leaf clover.

We had a fantastic time in Mui Ne and it was just what we needed to recharge our batteries and prepare for the next leg of our journey to Saigon.

Banana Pancakes

Not what you would call a cornerstone of Vietnamese cuisine but unbelievably good and found in a family owned street café, no less.  And a defining moment of our time here in Hue – they were that good!   

Ok, maybe I’m overstating the case – but after a less than lovely night on a ’sleeper’ bus it was a perfect pick up.  You know how when you went on a school trip (for those of you who can till remember such things) and everyone wanted to get a seat at the back – well on a sleeper bus you want to be anywhere but at the back of the bus!!  Instead of having our own private/one man bunks, we got landed in the five man bunk in the rear.  Tragically, we were apparently too distressed at the time to take a photo but safe to say it was not a pleasant experience … 

Happily, Hue has been the complete opposite (and not just on account of the BPs).  Though one of Vietnam’s larger cities and popular with tourists/travellers, it is far smaller than Hanoi and more peaceful as a result.  The highlight of the immediate area is the citadel, which houses the Old Imperial City (the centre of government in the 19th and 20th century, until Ho Chi Minh came ito power in 1945).  Although it was considerably damaged during the post WW2 conflicts with France and America, many of the buildings are still in tact and have been restored. 

 

On the subject of wars, we also took a day-tour to the Demilitarised Zone just North of Hue, to see some relics of the American War, as it is known here.  Sadly, the bulk of the tour was pretty poor – we were sat on the bus virtually the whole time, bar the odd ‘photo’ stop which were fleeting at best.  However, it did give us food for thought and it was interesting to see the war presented from the Vietnamese perspective. 

 

 

 

 

By far and away the highlight of the tour was a visit to some of the tunnels in which whole villages had to live during the war’s latter years.  As you can see below, they were pretty small but incredibly intricate, existing on different levels and spanning over a 100km all told.  And whole communities lived in these for 5 years.  It was crazy to see and impossible to imagine what it must have been like – we were pretty glad of fresh air after 20 minutes down there!!

 

 

As pleasant as Hue was, we were keen to get moving again so yesterday took the 16 hour bus journey down to Nha Trang, which again saw us on the aforementioned sleeper bus.  Amusingly, this was a free upgrade – you can imagine our dismay when we were told that the regular coach was full.  However, we had a much better experience this time around.  We had our own bunks and the beds and pillows were not made of leather, a (crucial!) point I forgot to make earlier.   

We arrived first thing this morning and the great news is that it is warm – mediterranean warm -  and the beach is incredible.  The bad news is that there is no sun.  The really bad news is that there is no sun forecast for the next 5-10 days – anywhere!!    Someone somewhere does not like us!

 

 

So, we are currently undecided as to our next move.  Nha Trang is built around its beaches so there seems little point hanging around and from what we can gage from the net it will be fruitless to try and beat the weather further south.  We shall ponder it over some afternoon beers and let you know as soon as we do!

Much time has passed since this post was written (internet woes … ).  As it transpired, after those afternoon beers we decided to move on at once, and head for Mui Ne.  Anna will fill you all in on our time there shortly.  To confuse matters further, we are now in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) but that can wait until another day …

ps.  Glory glory Tottenham Hotspur!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Motorbikes

Everywhere!!  We were told today that there are in the region of 2 million of these hawks roaming the Hanoi streets.  Crossing the street has never been such hard work.  Unsurprisingly, I’ve had a couple of close calls but Anna has the technique down.  The advice is to look the driver in the eye – I seem to look anywhere but!! 

The bikes give the city a chaotic feel but in reality Hanoi is a very relaxed and ambient place. 

Our hostel is in the Old City (also known as the Old Quarter), which is pretty much the heart of the place.  Despite the petrol fumes – they hit the back of the throat in a matter of hours – it is just a pleasure to aimlessly wander the streets (very easily done – the map reading rivals the road-crossing on the difficulty scale!).  Food is everywhere, beer is everywhere (the street beer is but 7p and not half bad) – all that’s missing is the sun (sea and sand too, if you’re fussy).  If you ever want to fatten up, this is the place – I have to keep reminding myself that the rest of Vietnam will have food too.  And not only is the stuff practically leaping into your mouth from all angles, it tastes pretty damn good to boot (one dodgy noodle soup aside). 

Hostel itself is good though it took us until today to realise how to activate the hot water.  And it is our last day.  We came very close to upsetting (to put it mildly) our very attendant hosts by daring to book our trip to Ha Long Bay (amazing – see below) with a different travel agent but redeemed ourselves by booking our open bus ticket to Ho Chi Minh with them.

Ha Long Bay was amazing!!!

 

Due to the weather and our desire (not unrelated) to be back on the road fairly soon we opted for a 1 day tour only, the meat of which was a fantastic four hour boat trip.  For those of you not familiar, the Bay is made up of nearly 2,000 islands that practically rise on top of one another.  It was simply stunning.  The vastness of the islands was incomprehensible - they just continue to rise up as far as the eye can see.

 

The photos below were taken in caves that exist within the islands – equally stunning though again, they fail to convey the scale of what we saw. 

 

 

 Today is our last day in Hanoi.  We’ll be sorry to leave so soon but after our extended stay in China we sort of need to pick up the pace a bit.  Tonight we are travelling by bus to Hue, about half way down the country, where we expect to stay a day or two before hitting some coastline!! Until then …

Vietnam!

Well, we have arrived in Hanoi at last! 

As in our last post, we departed for Guangzhou on Saturday (9th).  However, upon getting there we were unable to book an onward train ticket until yesterday (12th), which was a tad frustrating.  Guangzhou wasn’t so bad but there just wasn’t that much to see and do so we were kickin’ our heels a little.  The only photo worthy of displaying is that of our room, which felt fit for a King after the ‘Mansions’ (and it cost less!!) but as the usb port is down you will have to use your imaginations …

Finally got our train to Nanning yesterday afternoon.  Was a ’sleeper’ and the bunks were surprisingly ok.  Comfortable might be overstating it but we both managed to get 4-5 hours sleep which was not expected.  From Nanning (3 hours from the China-Vietnam border) it was another 10 or so hours to Hanoi – quite a bitty journey and we got through 4 different modes of transport, some more fun than others.

And that pretty much brings us up to date.  Very happy to be here but sad to report that the weather is equally s***e!  Grey and cold.  Twice we have had sun – both times we have been travelling between places.  We will be heading south very soon!

 For now though, we shall enjoy Hanoi and fill you in in the not too distant future …

Chinese New Year

Today is the second day of Chinese New Year – the year of the rat, which I know will resonate with some of you! The festivities kicked off in earnest last night, with an enormous, never-ending parade (just ask my legs). We were obviously keen to get a good view so we pitched up a good two and a half hours before. This time certainly won’t be remembered fondly – it was bloody freezing and, for the most part, I had a small child attached to/humping my leg. Anna only had to contend with the cold. Moaning aside, our eagerness paid off as we got a front row spot and it was well worth the wait. The parade was fantastic, bursting with colour and imagination. Some of the floats were a bit random (see the futuristic ostrich below) but overall it was superb.

Tonight we shall be enjoying the firework display down at the harbour and then tomorrow we are (finally!) moving on. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had a fantastic time here but we have a lot of ground to cover in the next couple of months and are champing at the bit to get on. A bit of sun wouldn’t go amiss either! If all goes to plan we’ll be in Vietnam by Tuesday. Until then …