Vietnam

After another much longer than expected bus journey and interesting border crossing we finally arrived into Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon to the locals, at around 9pm. Our first thought after leaving the bus was 'How on earth are we going to cross the road!' as there were just motorbikes everywhere! With our big bags on our backs we just walked straight into the traffic and hoped for the best. No sooner had we made it across we were nabbed by a little old woman offering us cheap, good accommodation. Worth a look we figured and indeed it was. A very good deal and in the centre of where we wanted to be but down an alleyway so you couldn't hear any traffic at all. Perfect.

Crazy mad Saigon

Classic Vietnamese wiring

We had all up around 5 days in and around Saigon in the end. We enjoyed this busy city once we were used to crossing the road. We went to the War Remanants Museum which was very interesting but horrific. It was just so sad looking at all the photographs from the war, the torture methods, and the effects of Agent Orange. We also visited the Cu Chi Tunnels. These were interesting and Jeremy enjoyed clambering through them down all the levels in the dark, however we both felt it was a little bit of a 'Disneyland' as it was so touristy and we were ushered through like sheep.

Chinook

Squeezing on down

Jeremy zooming through the tunnels like a pro

We also managed to fit in a quick 2 day tour down to the Mekong Delta where we stayed in a Homestay. This was good fun as we ended up with 4 from Melbourne and was the first time in a while that we actually felt we had some time to relax. We even managed to get our books out for some leisure time in hammocks beside the Mekong. We also went cycling around some islands taking in the Pomelo orchards – Pomelo being my new favourite fruit! We had a boat trip to see the sunset and the big bridge and everyone apart from us jumped in for a swim.... keeping in mind that earlier that day we had seen all sorts of gross stuff in that river including a floating dead pig. That night we enjoyed traditional Vietnamese food and rice wine. Ugh. Not so nice. But everyone got into it and the duty free Jager came out too. The next day was a trip down the river to see the floating markets... these were slightly disappointing, particularly after they had been talked up so much. We then had a quick tour of the biggest city in the Mekong Delta - Can Tho. We were shown the market, Chinese Pagoda, Vietnamese Pagoda and the Cambodian Pagoda.

Daily life on the Mekong

Homestay on the Mekong

Contemplation on the Mekong

Sunset on the Mekong

After Saigon it was on the long day bus to Dalat. It is amazing just how long a bus journey of not that many km's can take in this country. We were lucky to be sat next to our very own tour guide on the journey who was giving us all the information we could possibly ever need about Vietnam. He actually became our Easy Rider guide for the next 3 days from Dalat to Nha Trang.

Dalat itself was a nice town up in the central highlands, very popular with honeymooning Vietnamese. The city of romance apparently. We left quick smart and spent the next 3 days on the back of a small hog leaning against our big bags that were strapped to the back of the bikes whilst taking in the stunning Central Highland scenery and learning a lot about Vietnam. There are 54 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam and we drove through many of their regions and got to stop and learn about how they lived and the differences between them – for example each have their own dialect - and the relationship between these minorities and the Vietnamese. The first night we spent at a beautiful little place set on Lak Lake and in the morning visited some Elephants in a Lak Lake community. The second night we stayed in Buon Ma Thout (BMT) the Capital of the Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands.Throughout this trip we stopped along the way to learn about:- coffee, tea, coca beans, rice wine, rubber plantation, brick factory, rice paper, rice noodles, rice crackers, lettuce plantations, flower houses, pepper farm, silk factory, mushroom farm, cashew nuts, passion fruit plantation, wood furniture carvers, and Agent Orange areas. Phewww! We also stopped at a beautiful National Park to see a waterfall and swim in the clear blue natural spring. Everyday we were eating amazing Vietnamese food chosen and ordered at local places by our guides.. probably a highlight for us both! We saw next to no other tourists and you really felt like you were getting to see the real countryside. A really great thing to do and worth the expense.

The Easy Riders

Coffee

Just outside Dalat - here we picked up a fresh lettuce for lunch!

Oh my Buddha!

Kids in one of the minority villages

Sunset

Lak Lake

She got pretty deep...

Reminders of the American War

Beautiful National Park

Morning Glory - Jeremy's favourite!

Stunning scenery - the best driving was through this pass

Just cruisin'

We arrived into the beachside town of Nha Trang at the end of our 3 days on the bike. As much as we had enjoyed it we were also glad to be finished and back to making our own schedule. We only stayed that afternoon and the next day in Nha Trang – dubbed 'Nha Trash' by Jeremy because of the millions of tourists and the feel of the place. We were then on the worst night bus to Hoi An. First up our pick-up was about an hour late, then we were put in the back of the bus on top of the hot engine cramped up next to ol' Snorey Mcsleep on my Shoulder! Then the A/C broke. I was not happy and needless to say not much sleep was had. In the morning the bus never went through Hoi An and before we knew it we were in Danang – past where we were supposed to be taken. Noone on our bus spoke any English but they dropped us at the bus station and pointed to another bus that would take us BACK about an hour to Hoi An, at an extra cost of course.

The quiet river town of Hoi An was our chance to relax for a few days. We stayed in a nice hotel that we treated ourselves to with a pool and huge included buffet breakfast – perfect. There was a nice quiet beach nearby – Cua Dai beach that we cycled to one day to get some sunshine and cocktails in! We hired a scooter another day to visit the Marble Mountains which are 5 marble outcrops that were once islands with natural caves that are now small Hindu and Buddhist sanctuaries. Hoi An was really nice but we did find the hawkers here were initially some of the worst we had come across with everyone you walk past trying to get you to come to their tailor shop. The way around this was to cycle everywhere striaght passed them!

Cycling around peaceful Hoi An

Happy cyclers

So pretty

The quiet riverside with no cars or motos!

View from Marble Mountains

After a relaxing few days in Hoi An it was back on the road again all the way to Hanoi – with a brief stop in Hue. We left Hoi An first thing in the morning to travel just over 100km to Hue. This journey took an unbelievable 5 hours. How 100km could take 5 hours I just don't know, but the stopping every 20minutes of travel time for a 30minute break may have had something to do with it! Once in Hue we were waiting patiently for our bags to come off the bus when the bus driver (whether by accident or not I am still unsure) decided to release the contents of the bus toilet right where we were waiting. It was the most disgusting smell as it all gushed over the steaming pavement. A lovely welcome to Hue.

We now had around 5 hours to kill in Hue before our night bus to Hanoi. After wandering down to the river and being asked 100 times if we wanted a boat ride we made the executive decision to just relax. So we headed straight towards a place to lunch where we proceeded to try the 3 different local Hue beers.

The bus ride to Hanoi was pretty rough. We hadn't booked that much in advance so were stuck with the back seats again. Up the top though so slightly better than down below, but the road was so bad that we could feel every single bump for the entire 15 hours! We finally arrived in Hanoi and were 'picked up' and taken to our hotel. By picked up we thought that meant in some sort of vehice but no, this guy had walked to get us. Luckily the place was just around the corner. However when we arrived and were shown a room, suddenly the price was more than what we had been told and the rooms were NOTHING like the picture we had been shown and promised. Of course. We were tired and over it so started to leave... then they dropped the price so we caved. It was only really to shower and keep our bags for the day anyway as we had planned to be on the train to Sapa that night.

15 hour sleeper bus

Cyclo in Hanoi - Bia Ha Noi in hand

Why not?

The first thing we needed to do in Hanoi was find Scooter and Holly and then plan our Halong Bay and Sapa trips. Finding these guys was much easier than we had anticipated and they were waiting for us in their Hotel lobby. A quick discussion and we were off to a travel place to figure out the next few days. Sorted. Halong Bay first thing tomorrow morning before a Sapa trekking mission.

The trip to Halong Bay was great. After the 4 hour drive to Halong City we were put onto our junk which was just right. We stayed one night on the junk in the bay with our group. We visited the 'surprising cave' which was absolutely massive and did some kayaking the first day. The next morning we walked up 420 steps to a look out on Titi island – beautiful! We then chillaxed on the junk ride back to Halong City before the cramped minivan journey back to Hanoi. It was great to have Scooter and Holly there, the food was excellent and the guide was too. Halong Bay is very stunning.

Front of the junk

Enjoying the view

No hands!

Surprising

So many junks!

Yum!

At the top of the 420 steps

Stunning

That night the four of us were straight on the night train to Sapa. We had our soft bed cabin and figured we would all be able to sleep just fine. That wasn't quite the case – Jeremy was the only one who managed to get a good sleep! We arrived to Sapa to breakfast, shower, change and then straight into it. The climb to the highest peak in Indochina – Fansipan.

Sleeper train

Luckily the weather was looking all good so we had some great views the first day and we all managed the climb up the ridiculously steep track – if thats what you could call it – to the first camp at 2800m. The track followed the ridge straight up the mountain and was so steep in parts that there was nothing but a steel ladder. Thankfully we all had walking sticks to help us in clambering up the rocks.

Enthusiastic beginning

Team Fansipan

Gorgeous views

Steep climbing along the ridge - Scooter still smiling though

More steep rock clambering

We arrived to our first camp and realised that we would be sleeping in this basic tin hut with about 20 other people all lying on the raised platforms over the muddy ground. We were lucky apparently as if we had been any slower in getting here the hut fills up and we would have been out camping in the mud for the night. At this height we were pretty cold so as soon as we arrived at around 3pm we all changed into our warm clothes and got into the provided sleeping bags to try warm up! Not long after we had got into our sleeping bags I felt something in mine that didn't feel quite right.. so I reached down to find out what it was and pulled out a pair of dirty men's underwear! UGH! As you can imagine everyone else found it hilarious.

Our sleeping quarters

5:30am rearing to go!

That night a big storm came through and there was thunder, lightening, heavy heavy rain and not much sleep had. Particularly by Scooter who had our guide spooning right against him and wouldn't move even after asking nicely. In the morning it was still raining but we pushed on to the summit. This was the hardest part of the track and was made all the more difficult from the heavy rain as now everything was wet and slippery and the ankle deep mud was everywhere and could not be avoided. We finally found ourselves on the summit at 8am that morning – 3143m on top of Fansipan, the roof of Indochina. What an achievement! It felt pretty good, but we only stayed a few minutes as the rain was coming down pretty hard and we couldn't see a thing. We then began the long descent.

Mud City

Our one break in the cloud and rain for the day

We did it!!!

Coming down was almost harder than getting up because of the rain everything was just so slippery and dangerous. We all made it though and were MORE than pleased to find ourselves back in Sapa. We had been supposed to stay 2 nights on the mountain but there was no way we were staying another night as we were all so wet and had no more dry clothes so we walked all the way out that day. The next day in Sapa we all just relaxed and recovered. It was completely fogged in and we couldn't see more than a metre in front of our faces so it was a good day to not do much!

The next day we had our short day trek through the local ethnic villages around Sapa. We visited Y Linh Ho, Lao Chai and Ta Van – home of the black H'Mong and Dzay people. We were pretty lucky as the day was beautiful. We could see all the stunning views around Sapa, the local villages and local people. The very best scenery we have seen in Vietnam. Beautiful!

View down towards the villages

Buffalo

Sapa on the hill

"Smie"

Rice paddies

One of the five H'Mong woman who followed us the whole walk

School kids

That night we returned via train to Hanoi and said goodbye to Scooter and Holly as they caught a flight straight to Hoi An. Jeremy and I spent the day in Hanoi catching up on sleep and having our last Vietnamese food before our flight to Bangkok early the next day.