Vietnam - Hanoi and Halong Bay

Upon arriving in Hanoi we are very tired from the journey and still slightly shocked by the crash. We take a taxi from the bus station to the old quarter and look for a decent hotel. The rest of the day we look around the markets areas in the small streets surrounding the hotel. The next day we hire a moped and drive to the train station. We try to get tickets to China, but are unsuccessful. Our passports are at the hotel and we need to show the visa to get the tickets. The hotel manager then organises the tickets for us, for a small fee of course. Anyway, at least it is arranged and we can leave on Friday evening, giving us 5 days to explore Hanoi and Halong Bay.

The following day we arrange to go on a 2 day boat cruise in Halog Bay. The minivan pickus up early and we drive 3.5 hrs to Haiphong harbour. The boat ride starts here and the next 4 hours are spent in the bay, seeing the hundreds of small island formations jutting up out of the water. It is a very beautiful place and easy to see why it is listed as a UNESCO heritage site. At lunchtime we stop at some floating houses where people live. There is even a small floating school for the kids. We have lucnch there with lots of local fish, which we see swimming around in nets beforehand. The boat then takes us to the "caves of heaven", a large underground cavern filled with stalagmites and stalagtites and lit up in different colours. It is very impressive. We expected it to be nice and cool in there, but it was not. Outside and inside was sweltering...it seems impossible to escape the oppressive heat in Vietnam. After the caves we sail on to the island of Cat Ba. After disembarking at the harbour, we still have to take a van to the main town, where we will stay the night. It is relaxing there and after dinner we stroll down the promenade. There are people selling all sorts of stuff and they even have cages full of scorpions. It's another early start the next day (getting fed up with these!) and we go back to the pier to take the boat back. The cruise lasts all morning and we stop off to swim for half an hour and refresh ourselves. Back at Haiphong we go for lunch and then take the minivan back to hanoi, an uneventful journey. Halong Bay was beautiful and we really enjoyed the short time there.

Back in Hanoi and back to the stress and smog of the city... We hire a moped again to get around. Nuria has got used to the traffic by now. She drives very well here and is very keen to zip around the streets. I drive sometimes, but it's easier to sit on the back and give directions. We get up early (again) and make our way to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, as it is only open in the morning. The whole complex consists of a museum, the presidential palace, houses and the mausoleum. The place is packed with Vietnamese people who come to pay their respects to "Uncle Ho". It is quite eerie as we walk through the chamber and observe his embalmed body in a glass tomb, guarded by soldiers dressed in white. Even though Ho died in 1969, his legend and his idealology lives on very strong in Vietnam. It is very interesting to learn about the history of Vietnam from within the country.

We are now on our last day in Vietnam (Fri 3rd Aug). After only 15 days here it seems too short, but we have seen and experienced a lot. The visa is running out and the train to China only leaves on Fridays or Tuesdays. Tonight we take the night train to Nanning in southern China, leaving Vietnam behind at the Friendship Pass.

Vietnam - Hue

We arrive in Hue after a very scenic bus ride along the coast from Hoi An. After a relaxing evening we get up very early to go and see the sights around this unique and very cultural city on the Perfume River. Our first stop is the citadel and the Imperial city and Forbidden Purple City within its walls. The buildings are stunning and we walk around discovering it in the heat and humidity of the early morning. Our next stop is the Royal Mausoleums of the 19th century Emperors Tu Duc, Gia Long and Minh Mang. An impressive array of buildings, lakes, gardens, sculptures, statues, tombs and temples. Another quick bus ride and we hop off at some old well kept gardens and then have lunch. Our last stop is the Thien Mu Padoga where we observe monks chanting and feel like we are trespassing in a holy place. The last part of the trip takes us back to Hue on a dragon boat along the Perfume River. This name is certainly not apt for the state of the river nowadays.

That night, although tired from all the sight seeing we manage to make it for a night out on the town, visiting some of Hue's bars and clubs (one called the DMZ). The next day is a late start and we hire a moped to get around the city like the locals. The traffic is hectic but it's all good fun if you just keep honking the horn and drive agressively. We visit the citadel at night and it is even more stunning than during the day, as it is lit up beautifully. On the way back we run out of petrol for the moped and the only petrol station we have seen was on the other side of the city. We look around desperately and wonder what we should do. A Vietnamese guy selling stuff on the pavement beside us starts laughing and we look around. He produces a litre of gasoline from under his table and asks if we would like to purchase it. We look at each other in disbelief as he saves us from pushing the moped across town. Incredible good luck!

On our final day in Hue we visit the Dong Ba market, a hectic place full of any type of food and junk you could possibly want to buy. The smells are intense at every turn and the locals heckle for your business. Afterwards we drive to the other end of the city to pay a quick visit to the Ho Chi Minh museum. It seemed fitting to do that here as he went to school here in his early days. It's a small museum, but very interesting.

After a lot of trouble trying to get bus or train tickets out of Hue, we manage to secure places on a sleeper bus heading to Hanoi that night. The journey should take about 12 hours. Of course the bus is delayed as every journey in Asia so far and we get away about 4 hours later than scheduled. The bus is an actual "sleeping bus" with beds for about 40 people. They are designed for local people though, and I don't really fit into the bed, making for an uncomfortable night's sleep. As I lie awake listening to music, I see Nuria is fast asleep. It's about 2am and I wish I could fall asleep too... Suddenly there is a huge thud as the bus impacts with something, then another one almost immediately afterwards. I sit up and know something bad is happening. The bus veers left and then right and Nuria sits upright and we grab on to each other. After carreering down the road and swerving all over the place, the bus comes to rest about 100m after the initial impact. The driver was incredibly lucky to maintain control over the vehicle. We are at the back of the bus and look out the window to see two dead water buffalo lying in the road bwhind us. People start to descend from the bus onto the dark road outside. The front of the bus is wrecked and the bumper is hanging off. There is a hole in one side and some of the lights are missing. As we wait for the police to come, we walk back to where the buffalo are lying. It is complete carnage, so we don't stay to look at it for long. At least they died instantly and did not suffer too much. The police arrive and tell the driver he is not to continue the journey, so we pull in to spend the night. After a while the police leave and the driver starts the engine and drives on with one light. After an epic journey we eventually arrive in Hanoi around 15h, only 9 hours later than scheduled.

Vietnam - Hoi An

The bus journey from Vientiane to Da Nang was incredibly long but not as uncomfortable as expected. After hanging around the bus station, we left a few hours later than expected. Arriving a the border around 4am we had to wait until it opened around 7.30am. After more waiting and standing in line for a while we left Laos and got stopped again about 1km further down the road at the Vietnamese checkpoint. It was fairly chaotic there and after filling out various forms we handed our passports over to be checked by immigration. There was some problem scanning Nuria's passport and she was escorted to a room behind the building. Of course I didn't know what was happening and just had to wait. After some intense questioning, it became clear that they knew a lot about Barcelona FC and the tone became more amicable and she was allowed to go. Shortly afterwards though our bags were removed from the bus and thoroughly searched. Eventually we were allowed to enter Vietnam more than 6 hours after arriving at the border. The journey continued and we arrived in Da Nang in the early evening. The place was totally non touristic and we stayed in one of the dirtiest hotels yet. The city didn't appeal to us much, but was a good insight into life in Vietnam. The next morning we visited the museum with the most Cham artefacts on display from that era. After walking around the city all afternoon it was time to depart for a nicer location: Hoi An, a small town about 1h south and near the beach.

We checked into a nice hotel near the old town and spent a few days relaxing. Hoi An is famous for it's tailors and getting good quality clothes made as a fraction of European prices. I got measured up for a suit and shirts, picked the material I wanted and came back to collect the clothes about 6 hours later. A perfect fit! Nuria got shoes made to order, another bargain. The next day I signed up to do the last diving of this trip. A day tour out to the beautiful Cham islands where I completed 2 dives of over 1h each. We had lunch on a lovely white sand beach and chilled out in hammocks between dives. Nuria spent the day at a traditional handicraft village and then shopping and cycling around the town. We also spent an afternoon on the beautiful beach of Cua Dai. The heat was intense and there was no respite by jumping in the water, which must have been over 30 degrees. A really nice place and only half an hour away by bicycle. The final morning was spent lazing about as the whole town was experiencing a power cut. No air con, no fans, no ATM's, no internet...nothing. We left after lunch and took a bus 3 hours north to Hue, near the former demilitarised zone that divided north and south Vietnam during the American war.