Vietnam

We arrived in Hue ( a four hour bus ride from Hoi An) - all was well until we were asked to show our PASSPORTS when we realised we had LEFT them BEHIND in Hoi An!!!!

You should have seen the look on Chris face when he went to get them from his money belt and realised they weren't there!! It was my fault though as I had checked out of the last hotel and forgotten to ask for them.

Luckily the hotel we were staying in had fantastic staff who were able to ring the hotel (thank god we had kept their hotel card!) and organise for them to be sent on the next bus!

We only had one full day to spend in Hue so decided to go on a city tour. We went around the old city, a couple of tombs of old kings, a craft village where we learnt how to make the cone hats and incense sticks and a garden house.

We caught our last (thank god) sleep bus to Hanoi which was an event of its own...

Just when we though the bus was full, (well it was as there were NO beds left) a family of 8 got on and squashed up to the back of the bus (where we were) and made themselves comfortable in the aisle. During the night I woke up everytime the lady next to me pulled my blanket off and onto her!

It was an experience

One night at a cafe in Hoi An we met a man who organised private tours around his village. Basically he works at the cafe 2 - 3 hours every evening for free in the hope to find a tourist to go on his tour the next day. He showed us a book full of testimonies from a variety of people from a variety of countries and it all seemed pretty legit so we booked in for the next day.

It ended up being the best tour we had done in Vietnam. He was able to talk a lot about the war (he was fighting for the south) and the consequences of this for his immediate family and extended family. He also taught us a lot about the politics of Vietnam and we were able to finally find out (as we had been wondering) about the pictures we saw EVERYWHERE, in every house and restaurant, of Ho Chi Minh.

He also showed us around his village and we met a lot of the locals.

The family we spent the day with

One of the four grandchildren

Having tea with one of the villagers

Children from the village (who followed us around and wanted their picture taken)

A 3 month supply of rice for the extended family (most villagers pays for a small portion of land to grow their own rice on)

We spent a week in Hoi An and loved it. It's a very beautiful and reasonably peaceful place (for Vietnam that is) and the best part is the ridiculously cheap clothes and shoes that can be made!

I tried to not go to overboard but with the cheap prices and talent of the tailors (you can show them anything from a magazine and they will copy it exactly for a pittance of the price) I couldn't help myself. At this time we were tossing up between living in Dubai or the UK (two different extremes of Weather) so I decided to get two good jackets/winter coats made just in case.

Chris had two suits made and several shirts and I had skirts and dresses made for teaching in Dubai. Wealso had leather shoes made (Chris 1 wendy 6!!) Mine were very cheap at around $8 a pair.

While we waited for our clothes and shoes to be made we wandered around the beautiful 'old city' and along the riverside.

We watched a show with traditional dancing and music.

We were very pleased with our clothes and shoes and loved everyday spent in Hoi An!

Our next stop on the open bus tour was a place called Nha Trang (where they held Miss Universe last month). So it was all flashed up especially the road from the airport into the main town. It was far too 'resorty' for us and we were feeling quite disappointed with the place and the very expensive drinks along the beach (we can't help but compare everything to 50 cent Sihanoukville drinks!) so left after a quick walk and look around to head back to our guesthouse.

On the way we were stopped by a man and his friends drinking beer hoi (cheap beer from a keg on a road side stall). At first we though he was one of the hundred or so cyclo or moto drivers wanting to take us a very short way for a ridiculously large price but he was actually a nice genuine guy wanting a chat.

So we sat down for (just one) beer and three hours later joined them for a round of karaoke.

Unfortunately all the songs except for a couple of exceptions (we wish you a merry Christmas being one- which we sung) were in Vietnamese. I swear Chris must have been Vietnamese in a past life cos he rocked! I think he sings better in Vietnamese than in English!

This was our (only) highlight of Nha Trang. We left the next evening on the sleep bus.

We bought an open bus ticket in saigon which will take us from Saigon - Mui Ne - Da lat - Nah Trang - Hoi An - Hue - Hanoi whenevr we like for only $38. So we left Saigon and arrived at Mui Ne beach expecting something similar to what we experienced in Sihanoukville. There was not a tout or hawker to be found on the beach at all! Couldn't beleive it! We stayed in a nice beach bungalow for two nights and enjoyed swimming and reading mostly.

We also visited the red and sand dunes, a fantastic fishing market and the fairy spring which is a stream that flows through a patch of dunes with pretty nice rock formations.

Chris decided to get artistic with the camera

...and here's the national geographic shot that I took...

The fishing market was huge and extremely busy. Cjhris even got grunted and yelled at a couple of times for being in the way. the ladies carry very full and heavy loads of fish from the boats and up the bank so you can understand why!