Life's a (Philippine) Beach

I arrived in The Philippines with a different attitude to other places. I had actually come here to do a job rather than to just see the sights and this new motive was exactly what I needed at this point in my trip. I have had the most incredible time over the 7 months I have been away but I had realised that I missed having something to work towards, some sort of project. This lead me to look online at workaway.info, a site which allows people to advertise voluntary work around the world. Everything from farm work to childcare was on the site and most opportunities provided free accommodation (and sometimes food) in exchange for your time there. I had decided on The Philippines after seeing that it was one of the cheapest places to fly to from Hong Kong, and because it was nearer Indonesia, where I would be meeting my friend in early August. I searched for opportunities in The Philippines and found one project that stood out. It was an advert for a backpacker who would help set up a bar crawl on a beach called Alona Beach on Panglao Island. The people running the project were two backpackers, Christian and Lizzie, who had settled down in Panglao and it sounded right up my street. I applied while still in Hong Kong, spoke with Lizzie and soon I had booked my flights all the way to Tagbiliran, the nearest airport to Alona. 

When I arrived in Tagbiliran on the 11th I found myself a tricycle (a motorbike with a seating area attached to its side) and took the 45 minute journey to the beach, well actually, it was probably less than 45 minutes, my driver had a need for speed. I got to Billabong, a Aussie restaurant where I had planned to meet Christian and Lizzie, and waited nervously for them to arrive. When they did, I realised I had no reason to be nervous, they happily invited me into their house, which was a decent sized, open plan bungalow right next to the restaurant and showed me my room (I had a whole room to myself, with a wardrobe! People who had lived out of a backpack for anything longer than a month with understand why a wardrobe is so exciting.)

 I also had a moped which I could use whenever I wanted. That evening we went the short distance down to the beach, which I couldn't fully appreciate as it was already quite dark, and grabbed some dinner and a couple of beers.

The following day we visited the market on our mopeds and I faced the challenge of choosing what food to buy. This was a surprisingly hard activity after months of only eating at restaurants (in the loosest sense of the word) and I realised how much I had forgotten about using a kitchen. I grabbed a few items and then left the market feeling flustered and confused. The rest of the day we spent on the beach, which this time I could fully appriciate with its hanging palm trees, soft white sand and diving boats bobbing on the impossibly turquoise sea.

Alona Beach, as well as it's beauty, is also famous for great diving and many of the tourists come just for that. The whole beach is full of dive shops and so the next day I took the moped to the beach and walked around the shops to see about prices and quality of the stores. I decided upon on centre called Go Scuba, which was run by and very friendly man from Sussex. I booked for two dives the following day for a total of 2,250 pisos, which is about £30, and it was worth every penny! We met early the next morning and got our gear together. There were 7 other people coming out to dive that day, a group of Spanish tourists, a young British couple and a Danish girl. We got on the diving boat and travelled half and hour to a spot called Balicasag Island, one of the top spots for diving in The Philippines. 

On our first dive we saw lots of wildlife including clown fish, a large school of jack fish, beautiful coral and sea slugs but the second dive was definitely my favourite. 

We oared up near to the coast of the island in a relatively shallow spot and started to see turtles on the surface from our boat. I couldn't wait to get under there and see them up close. This dive site was a drop off area so we moved along the side of a big coral wall, spotting some really strange looking sea slugs, and lots of fish. 

However, the best bit was when we started to move back to the boat and into shallower waters because that was where the turtles were. And it wasn't just one turtle, as I had expected, but multiple turtles all over the place. It was amazing to be able to move alongside a turtle as the gracefully pushed themselves through the water. At the end of the dive we found one huge turtle who was up for a bit of a photoshoot so each of us got a picture with this beauty before it was time to surface.

As well as seeing these beautiful creatures I was also happy about the dive as I had managed my longest dive time, which meant that my air consumption was getting a lot better. I arrived back at the beach at around 2pm and sat with Lizzie on the sand for a while before heading home to shower. That evening we designed the flyers for the pub crawl and discussed ideas until the early morning. 

Lizzie and I were given the job of going to get the flyers printed at a local 'printing shop' which turned out to be just a room with a printer in it and not much else. Armed with our freshly printed flyers we head down to the beach to start recruiting people for the pub crawl which would be held the next day.

On Thursday morning we were slightly panicked because the t-shirts for the pub crawl had not been printed yet and we were cutting it really fine to get them ready in time. Luckily we found somewhere which could do it on the day and gave them our design. We spent the rest of the day recruiting people on the beach and visiting a couple of hostels to advertise there as well. Then it was time for the first ever Alona Pub Crawl. Of course there were hiccups, the tshirts arrived half an hour late, people arrived later than expected, our first bar wasn't actually open when we got there but apart from that we had a really good evening with a nice group of people (and the tshirts looked great!)

We had a relaxed day nursing our hangovers on Friday and had to more Workaways arrive, Sandra and Estoban, a couple who had met travelling and could fire dance! We all went down to the beach again that evening for dinner and drinks and also bumped into the French guys who had come to the pub crawl the night before. 

Christian had a good idea for the pub crawl and suggested that we should partner up with businesses along the beach. They could offer anyone in our pub crawl t-shirt a discount in return for us sending our customers thier way. Me and Christian went to speak with different shops and got a few of them to agree to it before I started to get a migrane and had to come home. That evening we all watched some Game Of Thrones (oh, how I had missed that show) and went to bed. On the 19th Lizzie and I went to meet with the owner of one of the main dive centres on the beach, Philippine Fun Divers. He was a friendly man who agreed to partnering with us and offering our customers a discounted price, which was great news! We then took the mopeds into Tagbiliran to buy matresses for the Workaways. We also stopped at the cinema and watched Antman (which was better than I expected) and went to the supermarket, which was pretty daunting as I hadn't been in a supermarket since Australia!

The next day I went to the beach alone and managed to get a few more companies on board with the discounts, including a jet ski hire shop and another resturant. We started using the discounts that we had to advertise to the people on the beach again for the next couple of days.

Thursday came around again and we felt more prepared this time, everything ran pretty smoothly. Even though, due to it being low season here at the moment, the numbers were small we had a fun time meeting new people, playing drinking games and dancing with some Koreans at the 'nightclub' on the beach. When we got back to the house Lizzie, Christian and I stayed up having one of our friendly debates that seem to happen in the early hours of the morning and I didn't actually get to sleep until 6am.

The whole of the next day was used to either sleep, eat delicious nachos from the restaurant next door or watch Game Of Thrones. We finished the most recent series (I know, I am so behind the times) and what a series it was!! 

Today is my last day in Panglao and the sun is shining as it has been for my entire time here. Apparently that is extremely lucky as it is supposed to be rainy season here, lets hope my luck continues as I move onto the next destination in this wonderful country, Malapascua Island, where I will hopefully be diving with sharks!! I am planning on squeezing in Malapascua and Palawan Island before catching my flight from Manila to Indonesia, but after being settled and enjoying myself so much in one place for two whole weeks the idea of moving around so quickly is a bit alien. A massive thank you to Lizzie and Christian who have made me feel at home and been great hosts, hopefully see you again soon!

 

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Hong Kong, city life (with beaches)

Hong Kong was my next destination after my month in Vietnam and I was excited to get there. Not only was it a change of scene but I also knew a surprising amount of people in the city and was looking forward to seeing some familiar faces. It turns out that it wasn't just the faces that seemed familiar, as soon as I arrived in the city (after a very warm welcome at the airport from my friend from university, Jasmin, who was working and living in Hong Kong and putting me up for the week) I instantly felt like I had been there before. The whole city, despite the humidity and number of Asian people, had a very London feel about it. Everything from the double decker buses to the shops, to the buildings reminded me of London, and I found it quite comforting. My first full day in Hong Kong gave me everything I needed. I got to have a lie-in and then Jasmin took me for a walk around the local area. We got some really cheap Indian food for lunch and I finally tried bubbletea, an Asian creation (google it). I also got to ride the incredibly cheap tram, why London doesn't have them, I don't know! That evening we met up with Jasmins friend Terri, who was a musician working in Hong Kong. she had chosen a restaurant for us to eat at in the SoHo area of the city and it turned out to be a blooming delicious Italian restaurant where we lavishly ordered and had a giggle flirting with the waiters. After we'd finished our dessert of (complimentary) cake and polished of the last of our wine we went to Terris apartment, which was really nice, and I got the chance to try on some if her amazing clothes. It felt so good to do, not only because they were super glamorous clothes, but mainly because they weren't the same clothes I had been wearing and lugging around with me in a backpack for the last 7 months! 

The next day Jasmin had to work all day so I went to Central the main shopping and business area of town. 

I had a nosey around some of the shops because they were brands that I knew from home but I couldn't believe the prices of the clothes. Even the sale items were extortionate. Feeling the backpacker in me awaken at the sight of these price tags, Jasmin and I had left overs for dinner before we head out to a party that Jasmins friends were throwing in a music studio nearby. We got there and I got the chance to meet some of Jasmins Hong Kong friends, who were all really welcoming and a lot of fun. We danced A LOT and didn't get home until 5:30am which meant that we were more than entitled to another lie in the next day.

However, we had planned to go to a beach on Lamma Island the following day, so although being in bed felt so good, we tore ourselves out of the flat and ventured down to the harbour. There we met up with some more of Jasmins friends who were all also working as English teachers. We had some fish and chips at the ferry port before catching the ferry to Lamma. It was a beautiful day for the beach and we walked through the main centre of the island which had lots of seafood restaurants, gift shops and nice apartments. Jasmin told me that a lot of people move to the island for the cheaper rents and the relaxed atmosphere but the communte to the city centre was enough to put most people off living there. We walked to the beach and hired sun umbrella, which Jasmin and I had a beach snooze under.

Tom, one of Jasmins friends who was at the beach with us, bought a frisbee and we played some intense rallies in the sea (reaching a whopping 22 uninterrupted passes). We stayed on the beach until the early evening then travelled on a very rocky ferry back to the city where I got my first glimpse of the Hong Kong skyscrapers at night. 

We visited Temple Street Market on the 6th. Unfortunately, Jasmin had mistaken this night market for a regular market and when we got there the stalls were only beginning to set up for the evening. However I did find a beautiful little tea set, something that before I had left the UK I vowed I would buy. There was no way I could carry a tea set around with me until December, so instead we found a post office and after getting over the shock of how cheap the postage back to the UK was compared to all the other countries I had been to, wrapped and sent it off. I am hoping that I will forget that I ever got it and it will be a nice christmas present for me when I get back (thats if I don't beat it home, it is travelling there by boat). We went to a coffee shop near SoHo to meet Keren, a girl who had been the year above us at university and has been in Hong Kong pretty much ever since. It was great to have a catch up with her before we head to a bar called Rum Min Tings which was hosting a pub quiz. We met the group we had been to Lamma with there along with some new faces and tried our best in the quiz, surprisingly our best wasn't good enough, with some questions so obscure that we were sure no one would know the answer. Of course there is always one team sitting in the corner who get all the questions right (*cough* google *cough*). 

I got to meet up with someone else that I knew the next day when I went to Stanley, a sea side area in outer Hong Kong. I met Carina, who I had met before because she is one of my cousins friends, at the MTR (Hong Kongs tube system) station and then got a bus all the way to Stanley pasy some really beautiful views and amazing apartments. We had a look around the market there and then caught up over some lunch in one of the many restaurants lining the sea front. There was a small temple nearby that we walked to which was good to see because it reminded me that I was actually in China (touchy subject?). 

Then it was time to leave as I was meeting Jasmin again in the early evening. I said goodbye to Carina back at the MTR and returned to the flat briefly before Jasmin and I got the tram to the bottom of the famous Hong Kong peak, and then, after queueing FORVER, a special tram up to the top. The sun had set and Jasmin walked us away from the huge crowds at the main viewpoint, past extremely expensive houses which must have the most ridiculous views, to a path which offered the most incredible panorama over the skyline of Hong Kong. She told me ot made her feel like spiderman, and I completely understood as I saw it, you could see the whole city twinkling below you. Hong Kong skyscrapers also have really impressive light shows which play out on the sides of the buildings and are really great to watch.

That evening I started to feel a bit ill and grabbed some Lemsip on the long walk home. In the morning, after a restless nights sleep, I felt even worse. It's funny, I think because I was feeling relaxed, had a flat rather than a hostel and was allowed to lie in as much as I liked, all the tiredness and illness I had been holding off finally caught up on me. I gave myself one day to mope about and stay in bed watching Netflix. 

I decided that day that the next day I would be well again and, what do you know, I woke up feeling much better, that's the power of the mind over matter. The task I set myself that day while Jasmin was at work was to do some more research for the countries that I going to visit and buy myself some new trainers (as I had left mine on a bus in Vietnam, sorry Dad). I went to an area called North Point where there were some outlet stores and found some nice trainers for a reasonable price before heading back to flat. Jasmin got home soon after and informed me that there was a typhoon warning starting at 5pm. I had planned to meet Rachel (another one of my cousins friends who was living and working in Hong Kong and who I had known since I was very small) that evening but the chance of a typhoon cancelled those plans. Instead Jasmin and I stayed in and watched two period dramas on Netflix and had a really nice homemade dinner of salmon, green pesto and sweet potatoes.

The 10th was my final day in Hong Kong and I started off by packing all my stuff away, a task I have grown quite good at but also grown to hate. Rachel and I had rescheduled meeting for lunch time and Rachel chose a place for us to eat at called Sevva in Central. I decided that I would go straight to the airport aftr lunch with Rachel so wore my comfy airport outfit and bought my backpack to meet her. Little did I know that the venue was really really nice and I felt a bit out of place in my trainers and no make-up. My awkwardness disappeared when Rachel arrived in the restaurant and we had an amazing meal and a huge catch up before it was time for her to go back to work for her big friday meeting. I met Jasmin one last time at Central and she walked me to the station that I could get to the airport from. We said goodbye, which was pretty sad because if all goes to plan Jasmin will be in Hong Kong for a couple more years with her new job. 

I got on the train and got to the airport to find that my flight to Manila in The Philippines was delayed. I waited and waited and waited and eventually, three hours after we should have left, we took off. It was a very shaky flight with the longest, most anxious descent I have ever experienced, but we got there in the end and I got a taxi to my hostel. I had chosen a hostel near the airport rather than in the city, which I had heard from other travellers was a bit dodgy. I quickly skyped home then got to bed in a deserted dorm room (it is currently low/rainy season). 

I am now on a plane ready to fly from Manila to Tagbilaran, and then onto Panglao island. I can't wait to see a beach again and hopefully do some diving!

Thank you for reading about my time in Hong Kong. I am excited to see what The Philippines has to offer, let's hope it doesn't rain too much!  

Emma

Hello Goodbye

I am currently writing this curled up in a duvet feeling a bit sorry for myself as I have just lost my partner in crime, Grant. He left this morning to get his flight back home and it has made me realise how long it's been since I have travelled alone. They're very different things, travelling solo and travelling with someone. Both have their benefits, when you are solo you get complete say over what you want to do,  where you want to go and you are forced to be very sociable with other travellers which is brilliant for making new friends. When you travel with someone, you have someone who you can share with and relate to, booking activities seem to be easier, and you get to incorporate their plans into your plans (tag along a bit). I have had a brilliant past two months with Grant and this post is about the second half of our trip in Vietnam.

After Da Lat we took a bus to Hoi An with Katie and Heather. We stopped briefly in Nha Trang, a very busy, commercial beach city with all of the signs in Vietnamese, English and Russian. The beach was so crowded and the food was so expensive, we were pretty happy not to be staying there. The drive there in the mini bus however did give us a chance to see some pretty beautiful scenery.

We jumped on a night bus and drove to Hoi An arriving at the bus station very early and being picked up by a minibus provided by our hostel, Sunflower Hotel. This hostel seems to have quite a large reputation with backpackers due to its bar area, swimming pool and very generous breakfast buffet that comes included in your room price. Due to its popularity we bumped into so many people we had met along the way there. First off we saw Tjeerd again, who randopmly caught the same minibus as us to Sunflower with his new travel buddy, James (from Worthing!), then, out of the blue, we saw Renee, the guy who had worked at Uncle Toms in Laos, where I had learnt to ride a motorbike! He had decided to come to Vietnam to ride from North to South on a bike him and Steve (Uncle Tom) had renovated themselves. It was really good to see him and have a catch up over breakfast before he had to jet off to his next destination, Da Lat. We also saw a Danish girl we had met on our bus over the border into Cambodia, Sophie, a British girl we had also met on that same border crossing and again briefly on our trip from Da Lat, and Solene, the French girl Tjeerd had been travelling with and who we had spent time with in Savannahket and Don Det. We relaxed by the pool for a while before Kate, Heather, Tjeerd, Solene, James, Grant and I rented bikes from the hostel and rode to the beach for the afternoon. 

When we got to the beach, we were charged to park our bikes and then bombarded by women who ensured us that THEIR restaurant was the best one. In the end we chose one who offered us one free beer (thats one beer between us, not one each which we were originally lead to believe) a free big rice and sunbeds on the beach free of charge. The food was actually pretty good and afterwards we spent our time swimming in the sea and sunbathing until it was time to go back.

The rest of our time in Hoi An was spent walking around the beautiful old town, with its bright yellow colonial houses, blossoming trees which overhang the streets and countless clothes shops. 

Hoi An is also famous for it's tailors and many people who visit get clothes tailored for them at a very reasonable rate. Tjeerd and Grant decided to get suits made and I witnessed the whole process from choosing the materials, taking measurements, fittings, more fittings, choosing a tie etc etc. The women who worked there were so helpful and professional but very short compared to the boys so when they were fitting Tjeerds suit for the first time they had to stand on a stool to get his jacket on properly. The guys looked really great in their suits, and by the final fitting they were perfect for them. The nightlife in Hoi An was pretty dire but we made use of it anyway, going to the Why Not bar (every town in Asia seems to have one, I wonder if it's a chain). The main problem with this bar was that patrons had full use of the laptop which controlled the music so the playlist was VERY varied.

We left Hoi An but not by the usual means of a horrible bus. Instead we (Solene, Grant, Tjeerd and I) hired motorbikes for the journey to Hue. The route took us along the coastline, up and down and round and round the mountains and into the busy town of Hue. Along the way we stopped at the Marble Mountain where an impressive temple has been built on the top of a hill with a huge cave underneath. 

We also stopped halfway up the mountain pass for a coke and at a beach for lunch. The views during the drive were beautiful, if not slightly dulled by the grey skies. We all got to Hue in one piece and checked into our hostel, tired and filthy from the journey. We met James and his friend PJ at the hostel, who had also done the drive that day. That day was Solenes birthday so after a great meal at Mandarin Cafe (highly recommended if you are ever in Hue) Tjeerd had organised for a cake and drinks to be bought out at the hostel. After stuffing our faces with the ornate cake we headed out to a couple of bars where we twisted the night away!

Hues main attraction is its imperial citadel, found in the centre of town. So the following day we rented bikes and head there. It was interesting but after seeing the mighty temples of Angkor, seemed somehow less impressive. It rained nearly all day the following day, which crushed our plans to visit the beach, so instead we just stayed in the hostel and watched the Vietnam episode of Top Gear (which as infuriating as Jeremy Clarkson is, is pretty good). Then Grant and I caught our overnight bus to Hanoi.

We arrived very early in the city and after a taxi driver ripped us off we found a coffee shop that had just opened to sit in for while. We then head down the main backpacker street to find a room that would let us check in straight away so that we could actually get some sleep. It took ages to find somewhere suitable and at the right price and in the end, just out of pure exhaustion, we settled for a room right at the top of a hostel with no lift (but it came with free breakfast) and slept for half the day. When we did decide to leave the hostel we explored the local area and found THE BEST COFFEE EVER, at a place called Congs Caphe, a Viet Cong themed cafe where the waiters wear military clothing and the place is decorated to fit the theme. 

The drink itself was a coconut coffee smoothie, and blew our minds at first sip. If you ever find yourself in Hanoi, try it! We also walked around the central lake and found a cinema where we booked two tickets to see Jurrasic World in 3D. The film was great, with the perfect amount of dinosaur action and cheesey hollywood lines. The next day we got a bike in the rain and visited the Ho Chi Minh stilt house and mausoleum (although you can only see his body up to 11am so we missed that). It was very interesting walking around the presidential grounds and seeing the grand palace with its beautiful grounds and lake compared to the house Ho Chi Minh decided to live in instead, which was quite a traditional Vietnamese raised house with two rooms. 

That evening we had dinner with Grants friend who was living and working in Hanoi, John. He took us on his moped to a rooftop cafe which overlooked the lake and which we never would have found ourselves. To get up there you had to enter through what looked like an empty shop guarded by two guys sitting outside. We each had a dessert until it was time for me and Grant to get ANOTHER night bus to Sapa, up in the mountains of the north west of the country. We arrived there at about 4am and where allowed to nap in the bus until 6am when we were awoken by the driver and yawning, stepped off the bus into a crowd of women dressed in traditional hilltribe outifts all offering us their village for a homestay. Sapa is famous for the trekking in the mountainous rice paddies and visiting the villages that litter the valley. We were targetted by two very enthuastic women, Su and Ling, and thought 'why not?!'. They took us through the rain to a cafe where we had breakfast and tried to wake up a bit more.We decided to walk and find a hotel where we could book our bus back to Hanoi the following day and where we could leave our backpacks while we went treking. We found a lovely little hotel with a very helpful receptionist and I had a little nap on their sofa before waking up and having a second breakfast. At 9:30 we noticed a woman in traditional clothing outside waving at us, but it wasn't Su or Ling. We went outside and she introduced herself as Mamma G, and said she was a friend of Su and that she had asked her to take us to the village. We decided to believe her and followed her out of the town and up up up the mountain. Mamma G certainly lived up to her name, she was absolutely hilarious and seemed to have life figured out. As we walked she told us about the uses for the different plants (including the vast cannabis fields we past, which she described with an especially large smile on her face) and even made me and Grant presents out of the ferns. Grant got what I thought looked exactly like a little horse but she described as a motorbike and I got a heart which I faithfully carried with me all the way to the village.

The views that we came across where just incredible. It was especially beautiful for me because I hadn't seen this sort of environment before. I have seen stunning white sand beaches, rolling hills, bustling cities, but this was something new, mountains with rice paddies cutting up the slopes and clouds hanging lower than the peaks. The perfect Asian view and something I had been waiting see since I arrived on the continent. 

On the way we bumped into other people taking part in the trek with their local guides and we began to walk in a group. We stopped for lunch at a isolated shop along the way, probably only kept afloat by hungry, tired tourists. One of the local woman we had started walking with was carrying a 3 month old baby with her, which stopped me from even considering complaining about my bag. The woman couldn't have been older than 18 but was so mature and caring with her child (who was stupidly cute)

The women we were walking with all belonged to the Hmong ethnic group who can be found throughout Southeast Asia and they explained that it was in their culture to get married and have children early, as early as 14 in some cases. We continued to walk and saw some people havesting rice and even more ridiculously gorgeous mountains. 

By now we had been walking up and down hill for about 3 1/2 hours and started to feel pretty sore, Grants knee started playing up so we slowed our pace down and the slippery slopes became more and more tiresome. We past an large waterfall were there were some village children washing clothing and then found that we had reached the village! We walked the last steep ascent to Mamma Gs house and slumped into a plastic chair introducing ourselves to the men of the family who were sitting around. It soon became clear that they had been indulging in the homebrewed rice wine (or happy wine as they called it) and the HUGE pipe which was resting against the wooden wall, while the women had been out earning the dollar. The house was basic but functional with one large room that included the living room, kitchen and a small bed on the floor and two smaller rooms with three double beds, one of which was to be ours. Outside was a small patch with something growing in it, two pigs in seperate sties and a great view of the valley.

The men, who had little to no English, soon disappeared and Mamma G started to prepare dinner for us. Su and an old but extremely energetic women called Mamma Chi, who entered carrying a sassy two year old boy who was called Sing (or King Sing as we nicknamed him), also turned up for dinner. We had some rice (obviously), noodles, tofu, beans and these little round seeded things that turned out to taste just like olives. We also had happy wine, which just kept flowing into my shot glass. After a couple of shots the women brought out some handmade jewellery and Grant and I, slightly aided by our intoxication decided to buy a bracelet each (we were also offered a marriage ceremony, but neither of us had had enough rice wine for that). We stayed up and talked and laughed and drank for a while. I thought back to my homestay in Laos and how different this was, there was no welcoming ceremony, no tour of the village. That seems like a disappointment but in fact I felt like it was a more authentic experience. We really were just invited to these people homes to see how they live. 

Luckily, when I woke up in the morning the bracelet was still the beautiful piece I had bought the night before and it was not a case of beer/rice wine goggles. Mamma G made us pancakes and banana for breakfast and we set off from the house at about 9:30 to make our way back to Sapa. We walked down into the valley and past countless more beautiful rice paddies. Seeing, as we had the previous day, lots of local people getting on with their day to day life, including lots of cute children playing around or being helpful for their parents with chores or farm work (bit of a culture shock to see kids being useful!) 

Unfortunately the clouds were not just hanging around on the second day and we had rain on and off throughout our walk which, matched with the already sore legs and tired heads, made the walk more difficult. I was seriously glad that we had bought our Asian conical hats before setting off from Sapa, they we perfect protection from sun and rain (and we looked bloody cool). We walked along the road into Sapa, which just went up and up and up, every corner I thought it would start to descend or at least level out but we just kept going higher. We stopped at a little shop for a sugary drink and a plain baguette and the sun came out, which all made the journey after that much more bearable. We got into Sapa and cheered as we neared the hotel that our bags were being stored. We thanked Su and Mamma G again for the amazing experience and before parting ways they gave me a bright blue karp koi keyring, not the most relevant symbol for the past two days, but a really great gift nevertheless. Grant and I booked into a room for a few hours as we were so exhausted from the walking, and those women have to do that nearly everyday! 

That evening we caught ANOTHER night bus back to Hanoi. This bus was the worst one yet, the driver kept shouting at people and we arrived in Hanoi at about 4am and told to get straight off the bus into a group of taxi drivers who were obviously trying to rip people off. Luckily, most people there have a smart phone and were able to see exactly where we were and determine that the backpackers street was only about 1 km away. So we walked to the backpackers we had stayed at last time we were in Hanoi. Luckily when we arrived there the guard let us in so that we could sleep on the sofas. 

When we woke up we booked our transport to get to the island of Cat Ba in the north east. We were going there to avoid the overly touristique Halong City and to hopefully book onto a cruise around Halong Bay, the jaw droppingly picturesque bays full of steep jungle covered islands and shimmering waters. We arrived in Cat Ba and checked into a hostel (a 28 person dorm, definitely the biggest I have stayed in so far). We walked by the water for a bit and noticed how ridiculously busy the place was. We had come here to avoid crowds but instead had ended up surrounded by people. It turns out that it was a Vietnamese holiday that weekend and so all of them had decided to come to Cat Ba to celebrate. We found Tjeerd back at the hostel and he invited us out for dinner with two Spanish girls he had met on the island. We met them at their hostel (which seemed to be in the middle of the red light district of the island) and walked through the crowds of people (felt a bit like I was at Glastonbury!) and to a restaurant that the girls recommended. We ordered a few different dishes to share including crispy honey calamari, sweet and sour pork, shrimp spring rolls and shrimp noodles. It was so delicious! One of the best meals I have had so far! 

The next morning, after an early alarm and lots of to and fro-ing Grant and I decided that we would leave Cat Ba to go to the mainland. We had attempted to book a cruise from the hostel but it seemed like there were very few options to choose from and so we thought it would be better to try our luck at the port that most of the cruises leave from. We caught a bus and a ferry to the very posh looking harbour and found a cruise company. They were very quick to tell us that they would give us a discounted price for the boat that was leaving today. Initially giving us the three star boat price for the four star experience. We managed to wangle it down even more and ended up with a really amazing price. Going straight to the company just before they were about to leave really paid off and we were instantly more optimistic about our time in Halong Bay (Cat Ba had been a bit of a disappointment). 

We boarded the beautiful boat at midday and were given a beautiful double room with a window looking out onto the sea.

After relaxing and sailing out into the bay a little we had an incredible lunch. So many courses that just kept coming, each of them delicious and a lots of seafood, which I loved. It was so surreal being in such a classy environment after we had been sleeping in a hill village a couple of nights before. Shortly after lunch we visited one of the 2,000 islands which had a cave and a lagoon right in the centre of the island. We walked through the cave and to the peak of the island where we got a really amazing view.

After that we were taken to another part of the bay where we got to kayak around the bay and through caves into lagoons, which was a lot of fun. 

We were brought back to the main boat and swam in the surrounding water for a while before relaxing on the boat while we sailed through more of the avatar-like surroundings. Before dinner we were taught how to make fresh spring rolls and had a couple of those for starters. We sat on the top deck and watched the sky turn orange, red and purple and then dark blue. We were in a bay with other cruise ships and their lights reflected off the sea matching the stars above.

Dinner was AMAZING. I know I use that word a lot in this blog, but really, this food was ridiculous! So good that yes I am gong to put pictures of each course on this post. First we had butternut squash soup, which was creamy and sweet.

Next we had fish prawns on a bed of sweet and spicy coleslaw salad. I could not get enough of the salad, luckily we got quite a small portion otherwise I would have filled up on the salad alone. 

The third course was by far the most aesthetically impressive. The waiters turned the lights off and entered with pineapple candle holders surrounded by spring rolls. The room let out a collective 'ooooh'. The spring rolls were great, but over shadowed slightly by the brilliant arrnagement.

The next course was my favourite. It was barbequed prawns and oysters. I like oysters anyway but these oysters were on another level. I had never had them cooked before and these were cooked with garlic I think and with a squeeze of lime were just a taste explosion. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

The main course was a lovely fillet of fresh fish with a peppercorn sauce and mashed potatoes. By the end we were so full, but SO happy. 

We were exhausted by the end of the day and a 'short nap' turned into sleeping the whole way through the night. The next day started with a buffet breakfast before we visited a 'fishing village'. Actually the village was just one family, where their used to be 60 families. All of them have been relocated to the mainland as the area has been classed as a world hertitage site and they were polluting it too much. I thought it was sad that these commuities had just been displaced like that, leaving only a few families in the whole bay, left there only to entertain tourists. Even the family we visited were being relocated that year. They welcomed us into there house (where there were more cute kids) and we sat and drank green tea being taught about their way of life from our guide.

The man of the house then brought out the rice wine. It is traditional to put things in the rice wine, you often see roots for medicinal use, or snakes and scorpians in the ones sold at markets but this one had seahorses in it! He offered it and I was the first one to try it, it tasted like seafood, which was certainly a new experience. 

Outside of their floating house were a lot of netted areas where they kept fish, crustations and grew oysters. We were shown all the different animals, and there was one I found especially ineteresting. It looked like it had come in a time machine from the jurrassic period. It was like a crab mixed with a sting ray, mixed with a fossil. In Vietnamese they called them 'sam'(sp.) which means 'together' because a male will attach it to the back of the female and they will move around together, inseperable, shich is cute, but also pretty annoying. 

We said goodbye to the family and got back on the boat where we had to pack and check out of our rooms. We spent some time enjoying the bay to the sundeck with a mojito but we had to sit in the shade as I think Halong Bay was the hottest place we went to in Vietnam. We had a buffet lunch before disembarking the boat, which was, once again, delicious. When we reached the harbour we reluctantly left the luxury of the boat and were driven back to Hanoi.

Back in Hanoi we checked into a great hostel down the road from the place we had stayed before called The Sanctuary and went to get ANOTHER coconut coffee smoothie. That evening we went to watch the new terminator film, which was excellent (even though I hadn't seen any of the previous movies). The next day was spent buying gifts for people as Grant was leaving early the next morning. We went to the bustling market and then to a lot of souvenier shops and had a very successful shop, getting everything we needed. We had Korean food for dinner and then went to the rooftop cafe John had taken us to for a dessert. We enjoyed the skyline of Hanoi and before going back to the hostel. In the morning Grants alarm went off very early and we walked to the place were he was being picked up for the airport. We thought we had got there early but as soon as we arrived he was told to get on the back of a motorbike to be taken to the shuttle bus. This suddenly made our goodbye pretty rushed and I must have got something in my eye as he left. Then that was it, I was suddenly back to square one, alone in a city where I knew no one. I got a huge knot in my stomach, I hadn't been alone for ages, it was terrifying. I spent that day feeling pretty miserable (which is when I started to write this post, yes its taken more than a day to write). I managed to get some things done though, I researched flights and sent some post home, but I also had to eat lunch on my own which is never fun. 

Luckily that evening Sarah and Livvy arrived in Hanoi and cheered me up instantly, seeing familiar faces was great, especially my gals, who I have so many good times with this trip. We went for street food dinner with two American guys they had met in Halong Bay, Chase and Dalt. Then I briefly saw James who was also in Hanoi for a beer before getting a taxi back to the hostel and falling asleep to a podcast.

The next day was my last day in Vietnam and I met with Sarah, Livvy, Chase and Dalt for a final coconut coffee smoothie and some korean food. In said goodbye to the girls, it had been so great to see them again, and that was definitely the last time we will see eachother during this trip, as they go to Laos and then home. I caught my airport shuttle to the airport and apart from the flight being delayed the journey was pretty simple.

So Goodbye Vietnam! What an amazing place you have been, I would urge everyone to visit, you will not regret it. And also goodbye Grant. You've had to put up with me for 2 months, there has been boat trips, thunderstorms, rice wine, bike rides, stitches, beaches, rice paddies, hotels, hostels, night buses, yummy food, Kings of Leon, The Beatles, hilarious conversations and most importantly great company. Thank you for everything, you can be as annoying as hell (and so can I) but what a great time we've had! 

Now I am in Hong Kong for the next chapter of my trip. Thank you for reading (so much) these posts are just getting stupidly long, but there's just so much to do!

Emma x

 

Good Morning Vietnam (had to be done)

When we arrived in Saigon we were surprised to find that there were no hoards of tuk tuk drivers shouting at us to get our attention, something that we had learnt to expect whenever we arrived at a destination during our time in Cambodia. Instead we found two motorbike taxi drivers who agreed to take us to the hostel area for one dollar each. We each hopped aboard a bike and set off. One of the first things you notice about Saigon is the sheer multitude of motorbikes and mopeds on the roads. The whole city moves at such a fast and seemingly unorganised, dangerous manner that it is pretty overwhelming when you first see it. The motorbike ride to the hostel district was a slightly stressful experience, weaving in and out of other bikes, cars and coaches fearlessly. However I soon realised that as scary as this technique seems, it works! No one is panicking and so no one makes stupid mistakes, they just get on with it! We turned off the main road and into an impossibly small side street until we reached a few hotels were our motorbike drivers urged us to get off and have a look around. 

By this point it was just past lunch time so we found a great little restaurant and had noodle soup and a nice cold Saigon beer (much better than Angkor beer in Cambodia). The day we arrived in Vietnam also marked something else, the 10th of June was exactly 6 months since I left ol' Blighty! That's halfway through my trip and I just manged to get into my sixth country! I had promised myself from an early stage in my trip that I would celebrate the halfway point with a bit of luxury and so while we ate our lunch I got on the wifi to search for hotels in Saigon. I found a great website called Agoda which offers discounted prices on hotel rooms and it didn't take long before I found a VERY nice Executive Suite room at the Harmony Saigon Hotel down to $75 from $250 a night! We booked and excitably got another motorbike taxi to the hotel. We arrived, massively out of place, in the impressive reception hall with our filthy backpacks and most likely the smell of many hours of being in a bus and after our complimentary juice were lead up to our room. 

Grant and I attempted to contain our excitement while being shown around the huge room which boasted a king sized bed (with a real duvet!!!), panoramic views of the Saigon skyline, a jacuzzi bath (also with views of the city), a flatscreen TV and a squidgy sofa. As soon as the porter left the room, I had a little dance around the room and got especially excited about the bath, I hadn't seen a working bath for 6 months nevermind actually being able to use it! 

After I had stopped dancing we head down to the first floor where there was an inside pool and saunas which I took full advantage of. It was truly surreal to be in such a luxourious setting after so many months of hostels. When we got hungry we decided to head out and have a walk around to find some food. The roads had got no quieter and actually seemed to be busier after the sun went down. We found some street food stalls and had a delicious $1 potato dish (in contrast to our glamorous accommodation, I mean we are still backpackers!). We also found a travel agents and booked an open bus ticket from Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) to Hanoi with a number of stops along the way. We booked to visit the Cu Chi tunnels the following day with the agents too and after all that planning and brain work all I could think about was having a bath and sleeping under a real fluffy duvet cover! And so that's what I did, heavenly!

The next day, after the most incredible and vast buffet breakfast at the hotel, we checked into a hostel (back to reality) and went on our day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. The drive there was long and when we got there we were guided around the site which includes just a tiny part of the giant area that these underground tunnels cover. During the Vietnam war the viet cong used the tunnels as a way of moving around undetected and attacking the American forces. They were an integral part of their victory and a seriously impressive feat. We got to crawl though one of the tunnels and even though I don't get claustrophobic I found them pretty tight. We came back to the hostel and met some of the people staying in our dormitory and went for a couple of drinks with them in the hostel bar before heading to bed.

The next day we had a bus to Mui Ne booked at 3pm so we had breakfast at the hostel where we met another South African (Grant was very happy) called Heather and her travel buddy Katie from the US. We went with the girls to the war museum after it had finished chucking it down with the typical rainy season downpour. The museum was really interesting and some of the information was pretty shocking, especially for someone who has never really learnt about it in detail. 

We arrived in Mui Ne in the evening and checked into a very nice little hostel on the main strip. It was very much a beach resort and seemed to be catering for a largely Russian crowd, although it is low season so it was pretty quiet. Heather and Katie had booked into a great beachside hostel with a pool so we went to take advantage of that the next day before going on a tour of the sanddunes that Mui Ne is supposedly 'famous' for. We were in a group of 7 people and we all crammed into a 4X4 and set off. The first places we visited was called Fairy River and we were told to walk in the river and not given much more information than that. It started off just being a little trickle with lots of greenery either side, not particularly interesting, but as we continued to walk we came across crazy multicoloured sand/rock formations which just got bigger and more impressive as we walked on.

We then stopped briefly to take in the nearby fishing village woth hundreds of fishing boats sitting on the ocean. There were hundreds of thousands of shells and other dead sea creatures on the beach there so we got a good look at the local marine life too.

The next stop was the white sand dunes which were exactly what they said on the tin! They were massive soft white sand mounds. You could hire a quad bike to ride around the dunes but I decided not to when I saw the price and the shoddy quad bikes.

We climbed a few dunes, enjoyed the surrounding and witnessed someone fly off sand dune on a quad bike and spectacularly crash into the sand. Luckily the sand gave her a soft landing, but the bike seemed to have fallen apart on impact. Our last destination, the red sand dunes, were essentailly the less impressive, busier, noisier and dirtier cousin to the white sand dunes and as soon as we arrived we were hastled none stop by people trying to sell us stuff. We got bored of this very quickly and returned to the car which dropped us back at our hostels. That evening we had dinner with the girls and an early night. 

In the morning we were picked up by a dated minivan for our trip to Da Lat, an inland town in the mountains. The journey itself was awful as we whizzed over terrible roads and were thrown around in the van the whole time. Tired out from the constant jolting I fell asleep for the last half an hour of the journey and awoke to find myself in the ridiculously European looking town of Da Lat. It was very surreal looking around and seeing French looking buildings, a big lake with swan pedalos, pine trees and clean hilly streets which looked a world away from the usual Asian towns I have visited. Even the weather was more like home, a nice cool 23 degrees when we arrived, it felt great to finally not be sweating all the time, I even got to wear my jeans, a rare treat so far on this trip. When we arrived we booked into a hotel run by a very friendly and helpful family and after a nap we ventured out for some food at a delicous restaurant around the corner. That evening, after a rain storm, we explored the huge night market in the centre of the town. 

The market was very different to other markets. Yes, there were the usual fruit sellers and tacky jewellery but what struck me the most was the range of clothing that was for sale. Jumpers, coats, leggings, hats, scarves, gloves, items I had not seen for sale for a long time and all the local people going crazy for it. They were all covered from head to toe in winter clothing which gave the already European feeling town a ski resort feel even though the temperature was only just cool for my standards. With these conditions Da Lat has the chance to grow things that the rest of Asia struggles with, namely vineyards for wine, strawberries, blackberries and apples. We bought some apples for the next day when we would be taking part in an activity called canyoning.

I was initially very nervous for canyoning but had hard some amazing reviews about it and so decided to suck it up and give it a try. Grant, Katie, Heather and I were picked up at our hotel in the morning and joined by 6 very energetic Irish boys. We drove out of the town and into the surrounding woodland where we were given harnesses, helmets, gloves and old soggy trainers then lead further into the woods. Our first activity was learning how to abseil. It was a very quick crash course in abseiling then downwards to the river. The first raging waterfall we came to our guide introduced as a 'waterslide' although their was nothing smooth of slidey about it. I watched as a couple of people lay down and got carried by the fast current down the waterfall to the pool at the bottom, it looked pretty aggresive but actually doing it was pretty easy and fun. However, it was worrying that this was the first and seemingly least scary activities that we would be doing that day.

We walked through the woods and up and down slippery mud tracks or jumped in the river to be carried by the current until we reached the huge and daunting 25 metre waterfall which we would take in turns abseiling down. Ah. I watched a couple of people do it before I walked over the top of the fall and was attached to the rope and began my descent. I focused on the rope and DID NOT LOOK DOWN stopping for a photo halfway down and feeling a smile creep across my face as I realised that I was actually doing it! When you get about 4 metres from the bottom of the waterfall a guide on the riverbank counts down from 3 and you leap backwards into the water letting go of the ropes (apparently I did this very gracefully). When I reached the riverbank I looked back up the watefall which looked even bigger from the bottom and was so happy that I had done it! That is something I wouldn't of dared to do before I came travelling and just goes to show how this trip is changing my attitude for good. 

The rest of the day consisted of a 7m high cliff jump (there was an 11m one but you has to take a running jumping to avoid the cliff face and I decided I have been brave enough that day) and another abseil into what they called the 'washing machine', a vertical waterfall which you literally dropped yourself in the middle of (photo above). The day as a whole was amazing and so exhilarating and after a gruelling half an hour walk up a steep slippery path we got back to the minivan for lunch with, surprisingly, only a couple of bumps and scratches. That night we went for a celebratory drink and dance with the Irish boys (who had great craic!) and then passed out from all the excitement.

I have fallen behind on my blog once again (humph) so I will have to stop there. Vietnam has been a country full of amazing places, the most delicious food and most importantly really hospitable, friendly and happy people and I would recommend a trip here to everyone! Next post will be all about the northern half of Vietnam so stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading again!

Emma x