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.
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
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