Well here I am on the last leg of my Asian adventure. Final stop: Vietnam. I chose to end my trip here as it's a place I've wanted to come to for the last couple of years (and no not just because Top Gear came here). It's also only two hours away from Thailand so it would have been rude not to stop by.
I know I said I wanted to steer clear of the 'and then we did this...and then we ate here' style of blogging but I've decided to blog this trip day by day as an ode to the itinerary I've been following but also as I'm packing so much into these final fifteen days that I'll just be easier to document it day by day. Here goes...
Day 1: Hanoi. Normally this would have been about the time that I would be bricking it about sharing a room with a person I've never met/meeting all the people I'll be sharing Vietnam with over the next few weeks. However thanks to beds/rooms shared, meals eaten with and good times had with different people over the last few months, I rocked up to the hotel cool as a cucumber.
My room mate had already checked in. I thought her name was Elaine and I had a glance at the slightly unpacked rucksack and bits and bobs in the bathroom to see if I could deduce the type of person she was from it. However 'Elaine' turned out to be twenty one year old Ellen from Surrey and that 'Elaine' is how Ellen sounds in Vietnamese accent.
Joining us also was eighteen year old Emily from Southampton, nineteen year old Barbara from Germany, forty something year old Eda from Denmark and the two Louis', father and son from Mexico (hereafter referred to as Louis Junior and Louis Senior). Oh and our tour guide Nigh. After dinner Ellen invited us out with her and her Vietnamese American friends who she'd been staying with the past few days. Emily and I decided to partake as 15p beer was a bit to tempting to pass up on.
Day 2: Still in Hanoi. Barbara and I were a bit behind on the sightseeing so we went to see the Temple of Literature. A lot of it involved standing in the temple itself waiting for the monsoon downpour to pass but it was a very pretty and tranquil place and I'm glad I got to see one of the most famous places in Hanoi.
Before leaving for Sapa on the overnight train we went to see a performance at the water puppet theatre, something that Hanoi is particularly famous for. I wasn't really sure what to expect and it's quite difficult to explain without making it sound like Comafest 2011 but it basically details a lot of Vietnam's history through puppets...in water. Yeah I know I thought the same as you when I first started watching it but it was a unique experience and a nice introduction to the country.
Day 3-5: I definitely started my training for the British weather in Sapa. It was chilly, luckily it wasn't the right season for snow as I don't think a few pairs of cropped trousers and a couple of long sleeved tops would have quite cut it.
One of the best days and evenings of the whole trip definitely had to be in Sapa. On our second day there we started our trek through the valleys. I have seen a lot of beautiful places over the last few months but I can definitely say that the valleys of Sapa were up there with the most beautiful. Every time I looked up I was completely taken aback by the view and couldn't believe I was there. I'm not sure that even my lovely Sony NEX5 has done it the complete justice it deserved.
We arrived at our accommodation for the night which was a home stay with a lovely Vietnamese family and definitely one of my two most favourite nights of the trip. This is one of the things I'd been looking forward to the most as I loved my home stays in India so much.
We chilled out for the rest of the afternoon down by the river which was so relaxing and beautiful I could have spent a good few days there. The real fun kicked off in the evening when us girls helped out with the spring rolls for dinner, I think we can safely say that we won't be opening a Vietnamese restaurant anytime soon but it was good to learn how to do it and they tasted pretty good (looks aren't everything people).
As well as our spring rolls we had a big feast of vegetables, noodles, rice, different varieties of meat and lots of tofu for me (I know there are a lot of haters out there but I promise you tofu is good when the chef knows what they're doing) and to wash it all down...rice wine! I'm sure those of you who've been round Asia a bit have encountered rice wine somewhere along the way. It pretty much encompasses every negative aspect of every white spirit (and tastes a little like white spirit itself to) in existence. However we were informed that once we had ten shots we would be 'happy'. We laughed along thinking there was no way we'd be having ten shots...we however managed to "Moat, hi, bat, zu" (one, two, three, down) eighteen before calling it a night. I gagged my way through the last eight but they weren't wrong about the happy thing. It cued everyone singing a song from their country (the British contingent picked 'Once in Royal David City' for an unexplainable reason) and a lot of dodgy dancing. It also made sleeping on the floor of a wooden hut with no air conditioning or fan a hell of a lot easier. At least I can say the most amount of shots I've ever done in one night was in a small Vietnamese village called Ta Van.
The next day we said goodbye to the family and started our 'moderate' trek. I say 'moderate' as that's how it was described in the itinerary, I would however disagree. This may because since I booked the trip last minute whilst I was still in India I was minus the recommended walking shoes so I had to do it in my Converse. However thanks to a very nice Vietnamese village lady I managed to avoid sliding down a few hills and adding any more scars to my collection. My converse didn't fair so well, however I hope that a bit of Vanish and a spin in a good British washing machine will rescue them.
Day 6-7: There is definitely a reason why Halong Bay is in the running to be one if the new seven wonders of the world. It is absolutely gorgeous. Admittedly half the novelty was the fact that we were staying on a boat in the bay overnight but it was an incredible place to be doing it. The highlights were definitely the food, which was some of the best seafood I've ever tasted and sleeping on the deck in the hazy warm breeze under the stars (the rain put paid to that plan eventually but it was beautiful while it lasted). It was also a great photography opportunity for a photo nut like myself.
Day 8: Another thing that I was really excited about was doing a motorbike tour round the countryside of Hue and I wasn't disappointed! It was so much fun whizzing round the countryside on the back of a bike (dreams of Vespas have crept back into my head) and seeing all the sights. We went and visited a local orphanage which made me pine for Goa and all the girls at St Alex's that I've left behind. I felt a little bit sad walking round thinking about it, but when a couple of the little girls peeked out and gave us a little smile and wave before we left I couldn't help but smile too.
Hue was a pretty whirlwind tour since we only had one day and night there. I've never been so glad to see a bus as I was when we left Hue as it meant a few hours of catching up on sleep (as well as you can on a bus).
Day 9-11: We're currently in the picturesque port city of Hoi An which has been yet another different experience. One of the things I'm loving about Vietnam is that everywhere we have been has been different. Hoi An is definitely THE place to shop, especially for getting clothes tailor made very cheaply. Being surrounded by pretty dresses that could be made cheaply and to fit only us ensued a lot of girly giggles and happy shrieking (The Louis' decided to give it a miss). I always find it difficult to find an evening dress that suits my shape and fits well so I got one made in a gorgeous blue (I thought I'd go for something a little bit more grown up than my usual pink) using pictures from magazines but changing bits to suit me. In a few hours my dress had been made (and needed to be taken in for the first time ever). I just need an occasion to wear it now...
Yesterday we did a rather disastrous bike ride round Hoi An. It was supposed to be a leisurely cycle through the countryside but ended up being a battle through monsoon conditions trying to keep the bike upright in a giant plastic bag, masquerading as a raincoat. We were also supposed to be having a barbecue on the beach which turned into us all feeling sorry for ourselves on a boat. We did get to have an indoor barbecue in a really cute restaurant though so it wasn't all bad.
We leave Hanoi tomorrow and fly to Ho Chi Minh City. We spend a couple of days in the city and one night at another home stay in the Mekong Delta before coming back to the city to head home...
Which means I'll back in the UK in five days time! It seems to be an unusual feeling amongst people that have been away for a long time but I'm literally so excited to be coming home! Although I do occasionally get a grip of sadness and a little bit of fear that my amazing time in Asia is almost over. However, I'm not done yet! There's still plenty of Asia and the rest of the world to see and I'm hellbent on seeing it!
I've got a lovely eleven hour wait at Doha airport enroute back to the mother land so I'll probably post about the last part of my trip then but if not...see you in the UK!
Love always from
Holly
xxx
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