Good Bye Vietnam

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  Hanoi, Vietnam
Thursday, January 24, 2008

So, it seems no sooner have we arrived in Vietnam we're off again, although we've managed to pack in a fair bit in the 10 days we've had. We spent a few more days in Hoi An, a great little town, many buildings over 200 years old still standing. One of the main draws is the tailors who'll rustle you up whatever you like over night. Shelley managed to get a great winter coat, two skirts, a dress and some silk trousers for about $90, all made to measure. The next day we managed to finally get ourselves involved with a bit of cooking, the first time either of us has touched a pan in about 3 months. A short trip to the market was followed by a drink in a local cafe as the weather was too bad to take the boat trip part of the course. After that, we headed to the kitchen at the sister hotel of the one we were staying in to cook up 4 different dishes. Was great to see what goes in to the food, and also how easy it is to make, Pumpkin Soup, a Vietnamese Squid Salad, local noodle dish with pork, shrimp and quails eggs, and Sauteed Pork in a Clay Pot. All delicious, and also all consumed before lunch time, so at least we didn't have to head out for any more food... for a couple of hours,I think we still managed to have a big dinner.

We decided that we'd fly up to Hanoi, again, negating a 24 hour bus/train journey for a one hour flight. Apologies mother earth, but when you've got so little time, saving 23 hours travel time for about $20 extra is a no brainer (we'll be sure to plant lots of trees when we get back...) We'd heard the train from Danang to Hue was an amazing trip, although the weather clouded most of the views. As we had a couple of hours to kill in Hue, we stopped off for some Sushi in an amazingly swanky restuarant on the second floor of the Imperial Hotel to get some goodness before our flight. We fit right in with our combats, pac-a-mac's and back packs...

Having read about the possible hotel/taxi scams in the book, and because we were going to be touching down at around 21:30, we decided to call ahead for the first time. First on the list was City Gate Hotel, who said they were full, but would put us up in their sister hotel and pick us up from the airport. Result, we were going to have someone waiting at the airport with our names on a board, another trip first :) Wandering out of the airport, we saw our guy, with his  sign reading 'Mr Parson'. As we approached, another man was talking to him, waving money at him and trying to take his sign... When we asked what was going on, the guy with the sign took the cash and gave the sign to the other guy and wandered off... Oh great, where's this one going? So much for forward planning... We got on another taxi, paid up, and set off for City Gate, with Shell ready to lynch the guy if we so much as ran a red light. To our relief, we actually arrived at our hotel., paid for the room and then got back in the taxi to go to the sister hotel, only to find out when we got there that it was full. Another taxi back to City Gate with the Benny Hill music ringing my ears, this time, Mr Hung came along for the ride with a very irate taxi driver. Finally, just after 11pm we're exhausted, but we have a room, albeit something straight out of Fawly Towers, minus the laughs.

Hanoi's not what we expected. Much more bustling and commercial than we'd thought. In some ways, around the lake just south of the old quarter feels like London. As with Saigon, the streets are filled with the sound of horns from the throngs of mopeds that speed about the place. 'Look both ways while you cross' becomes your mantra if you don't want to end up hanging off the front of a motorbike. Saying that, I've still not seen an actual crash, the driving here may seem frenzied, but it's all very fluid like a shoal of fish or flock of birds, everyone seems to be on the same wave length, and no one seems too put out if there's a near miss.

After a day of sight seeing, we turned to the Legends Bar for a few drinks overlooking the roundabout by the lake, similar to Picadilly Circus. After a few hours of watching all manner of motorised and non-motorised vehicles weave about, but still not collide, we moved on to another bar, and then another, and then another... We had to move to the final bar as we'd been kicked out of the first place by the police, we hadn't actually noticed it but we were having a lock in, something that seems to be common place here in Hanoi. The next two days are not really worth mentioning other than it's been about 10 years since either of us have had a hangover like it. Our hotel manager, Mr Hung, actaully had to check up on us to make sure we weren't dead as neither of us had ventured out...

After regaining full fitness, we decided to head over to Sapa on the sleeper train, which wasn't all that bad as we'd opted for the first class soft air con four berth cabin, over the 3rd class wooden tourture chambers. A rude awakening at 5:30am saw us arrive bleary eyed and a little grumpy in Lao Cai, on the Chinese border, and a mini van took us the additional 40km to Sapa through fog filled mountain roads. Sapa is a great place, made very eerie by the fog which put visibility at around 10m, so after a wander round the town we decided to visit one of the hill tribe, H'mong, villages. A freezing moto ride up to Taipin village saw the mist clear every now and again to show the hillsides covered with paddy fields, a truly amazing sight, and I'm sure when the weather's good, it's breath taking. Almost as breath taking as a visit to a H'mong Village... We arriveds and were greeted by about 10 local women, all glad to show us around and tell us a bit about the village. A small walk up we sat in one of the women's homes, and huddled round the fire, whichv warmed us almost as much as the rice wine we were offered. Potent stuff, and not all that flavoursome, even some of the women admitted they didn't like it. After the plesentries, they got down to business... becfore we knew it, we were surrounded by a gaggle (or it may well be a murder) of tribes women shouting, 'You buy from me, you're in my home, you buy from me...' A bit of a blur and about 300,000 dong later (every single penny we had on us) we walked out blinking in the light, not really sure what we'd just bought, and cursing for not taking more photos.

The next day, we were prepared for the onslaught, and decided to do a hike with a guide (at least there'd be someone to hide behind) to some of the other villages nearby. A short ride away we started our trek with two Australian girls, who at a glance didn't seem all that well prepared for a trek, although we weren't really sure what we were going to do. Through one village an on to another, the mist cleared and we managed to get some idea of the scale of the scenery. All the hillsides are covered with man made levelled off paddy fields. Amazing to think of the work that's gone in to them, and how well with such basic tool, they have managed to engineer something so efficient. The second village, Ta Van had a population of about 3,000 people, a couple of schools and a hospital, all in a location so beautifully peaceful. After buying just a couple more items of local handicraft, we set off on the next stage starting up a
very slippery slope, which didn't bode well for the other girls footwear. Thankfully, we've been walking around for the past week or so looking like we took a wrong turn in the Lakes and ended up in Vietnam; walking boots, combats, cagoules and gloves. We were prepared :) The further we went, the harder the going was, the wet clay mud making the paths like ski runs. Needless to say, by the end of it, they were more than fed up of falling arse over tit in puddles of paddy field mud. Me and Shell thoroughly enjoyed it though, well worth the trip, we're only sorry that we didn't put the effort in and do some in Thailand and Laos, so hopefully there'll be more opportunities in India.

And that's where we head to in around 23 hours. Which is a strange feeling. The last few days have been the first with real sense of home sickness, although I think it's because in some ways Hanoi feels like London, and also that it feels like this leg of the trip is ending, although instead of touching down in Heathrow, we're going to be landing in Chennai at 9:15pm tomorrow night, and begin a whole new adventure of sights, sounds, smells (which I'm sure we'll fill you in on) and most importantly food.

Hopefully we'll be able to get online as soon as possible in India, to fill you in on all the finer points of what will hopefully be another amazing country. Until then, goodbye Vietnam, it's been great :)

Lots of love
Peeps and Shell

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