Hanoi Hostel No. I

... is a battleground, each driver trying to steal valuable inches from the other, lots of shouting and swearing and spitting. the roads in vietnam reminded us of the driving style of cambodia - their motto: just keep going! somehow it actually seems to wor. you want to turn left? just turn left, the other drivers will swerve around you. want to pull onto the highway? just pull out - don't bother checing to see if a massive truc is coming, they'll swerve around you! at ...

... 1975; and Vietnam "on the road to building a rich nation,a strong country and a just, civilized society". One of the ladies that worked there, when I told her that it was an impressive amount of information, said there was still "over one hundred thousand historical photos and documents in storage areas in the museum dating back to 1858". Now that would be a guaranteed long term employment opportunity
I found it all very interesting and I ...

... was an armed assault in Sapa which destroyed most of the buildings. Due to Vietnamese resistance, this conflict lasted less than two weeks. Only a few of the original French buildings remained intact. Major population centers such as Lao Cai were razed to the ground. The ruins of the French villas are prominent on the route from Sapa to Sin Chai village.

At a height from 1.500 to 1.800m above sea level, Sapa is a beautiful resort town which hides itself in cloud. The average ...

... that's where the best scenery is. I had also heard some bad things about Hanoi but I didn't think it could be much worse than Saigon. When the flight landed we met up with Trent and asked if he wanted to share a cab. We were all staying at different places but they were pretty close to each other. First, the cab driver dropped off Mark, Tom, and Trent because their places were within walking distance of each other. They gave me the cab money and we said goodbye ...

... br> 'Mr Miyagi' 'Uncle 'Ho'

I stumbled from embalmed tortoises to embalmed former leaders of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Situated in Ba Dinh Square where Uncle Ho declared the nation fully independent from foreign rule in 1942 the grandly designed Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum sits. This has to be one of the busiest places I visited while in ...

... and wouldn't let us pay for it!

Last night at the guesthouse - will miss this place!

14th July - Ha Long Bay here we come.

Beautiful sunny day! Hooray! Had been worried we'd have to spend 2 days on a boat in the rain.

Got picked up from the hotel and taken to the harbour. We were staying on an awesome junk boat - felt like luxury! Had a fab seafood lunch and then we were taken to the 'Cave of suprise' where ...

... arrived back in Hanoi the following day, we al were leaving on the same day, Harry, Rorry ( guy we met) and Kent (Swedish dude we met) within an hour of each other, so we spent our remaining days walking around the city, seeing the sites etc and then late in the evening went to see Terminator Salvation when we ran out of things to do!

The time had come to leave Vietnam, we said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways, Malaysia lay ahead, a new country, an old colony.

... and had a wonderful tour. We got back on the minibus and it was a bit more crowded with the additional 8 people and their luggage. Bill and I sat in the back with Rhonda and John and stuffed our luggage at our feet. Lok gave us some more interesting tidbits about Vietnam. He told us that couples are only allowed 2 children. If you have more than 2, there is a 1,000 kg of rice fine (around 400,000 dong). He also said that farmers are given ...

... tout ca , c'est la resistance des Vietnamiens a travers tout ces conflits. A part les 15-20 dernieres années, le Vietnam a constamment été en guerre. Et malgré cela, on se sent en totale sécurité lorsque l'on circule en ville. C'est très plaisant, a part les 2 evenements de taxi + le harcellement que les filles du groupe sont victimes (pour leur embonpoint) Coté économie, les Vietnamiens seront a surveiller dans les prochaines années. Avec une ...