The final days of Vietnam...

Awaiting the worst storm to hit Hoi An in 30 years we sat on the balcony of our hotel with some of the other hotel guests. With rations of baguettes, cheese and crisps and a few beverages waiting for the storm to hit. With only a drizzle of rain we eventually got tired and went to bed. We were very lucky in that the typhoon changed direction and headed north instead so a good nights sleep was had by all. Much to the relief to all having seen what happened in the Philippines. It did mean we had to spend an extra night as all the buses where cancelled that day. We did eventually get away from Hoi An though before Susi bought half the shops!

Our next stop was Hue where our plan was to visit Phong Na National Park. In particular the huge cave network they have there. We arrived in Hue and got off the bus to be accosted by hotel touts yet again thrusting leaflets in our faces. Being tired and hungry we took our chances and did look at one of them, Hoa Binh 3 Hotel (Smile Travel) which was great.  We did a bit of walking around that afternoon and tried to find out about the caves from some of the travel agents. None of which told us that the cave was actually closed the day we wanted to go! Good job Susi was on the ball. Hue did have some interesting points like the really cool market near the citadel where we bought a few more bargains. The citadel itself was nice and surrounded by moats and gardens however it was in need of some renovations. Our best purchases in Hue had to be a KitKat Chunky and a Chinese Chess travel set. Chinese Chess has similarities to normal chess but identifying which piece is which is described by a Chinese symbols - it is not easy!  A new challenge for us both and hopefully we will be playing with the locals in no time!

Susi was full of the Vietnamese cold and sot our evenings were spent eating Indian food and sitting in our room mastering Chinese Chess.  Our learning strategies were slightly different Susi associating the symbols to random objects and Lee trying to memorise the symbols.  Only to find out the symbols were slightly differently for each player! After a good few hours of practicing the competition is under way but far away from the street corners with the pro’s.

All raring after a couple of relaxing days we started on our trip up to the caves. Having missed out on the caves in Laos, Lee was getting quite excited about getting to see them and the reviews were awesome. 

We got a little boat ride up to the cave where the boat goes through the mouth of the cave into darkness. This was really cool. The boat docked up just inside and we got off for a wander around the cave system. Unfortunately the typhoon meant the caves where still flooded (although we were told this was not the case anymore when we booked!). We where supposed to go 2km into the cave but we where only in there for 15 minutes as the rest was apparently too dangerous! We where both very disappointed, Susi raging  about being miss-sold this tour. If they had only just told us that before we set off it would have been acceptable and we would have negotiated a better price for what we got. Anyway.

Instead of the return to Hue they dumped us off in Dong Hoi for a 6 hour wait on our sleeper bus to Hanoi.  As it turned out though this was quite a nice place to walk around with a nice riverside and harbor. We had a bite to eat in a place where not one person spoke a word of English. (Point at the menu time!) With just a few hours left we headed to our pickup point the camel café. We met the owner who in broken English told us he was deported from the UK not long before. If that wasn’t interesting enough, he got his deportation papers out for us to read! He used to live in Hackney, London. Arrived in the UK in the back of a lorry, got caught cultivating a cannabis farm in London and spent a period of time at her majesty’s pleasure whilst waiting to be deported. He found this very amusing. Even better he thinks the UK is a fantastic place and wants to go back!!! Saying goodbye to our new little friend we got on our bus and headed to Hanoi on another 14-hour bus journey really looking forward to our final activities in Vietnam, Ha Long Bay and Sa Pa.

We normally don’t book online but on recommendation on arriving to Hanoi we booked the Golden Spring Hotel in the Old Quarter in Hanoi.  Booking on line meant we got a 3 star hotel for $12 a night with a free ‘all you can eat’ breakfast instead of $25.  Susi was surprised to find a hair dryer for the first time in 3 months, free water and ‘Andrex’ quality toilet roll! We quite like the buzz of Hanoi even after only a couple of hours wandering around the city. We found the lake in the old quarter, some more market stalls and shops and the travel agency recommended by a couple of English girls we met a few times. DAO’s Travel agency is ran by a young American guy and his Vietnamese wife who were very helpful. They explained everything and talked us through our options with the time we had left. Very pleased with ourselves we negotiated a fair price and meant we would be able to do both activities.

Our Ha Long Bay tour was a 3 day, 2 night trip. We would have 1 night stay in a boat and 1 night stay on Monkey Island (Contrary to what a lot of travel agents said it was open!) We got picked up early in the morning leaving our big rucksacks in the travel agency and got a 3 hour bus ride to the port to get on our boat. We got on the bus with 9 other people and it didn’t take long for us all to get chatting. It was like the slow boat in Laos all over again!

The boat was a lot nicer that we were expecting and as the only couple we were given the suite with a balcony, however this turned into a nightmare!  The first day was discovering more caves, visiting a floating village and kayaking around the some of the 6933? Islands and jumping of the boat for a swim before dinner.  Booze was expensive on the boat but as the sun set, rowing boats with cheap booze appeared knocking at our boat “you want to buy something?” and  were delivered by the use of a fishing net.  Before breakfast we were jumping off the boat again for that morning dip in the brilliance of Halong Bay.  Our first ‘horrid’ travelling experience came to reality and after breakfast as we were packing we realized that Lee’s phone and kindle had been stolen. ‘Bast**ds’  It had to be those balcony doors that the staff had gone through as they wouldn’t lock properly.  It had to be said that we were both very p*ssed off but we put it behind us as it could have been worse and we had a fantastic day ahead. (I think they must of thought the kindle was a mini ipad, unlucky!).

Monkey Island Resort...

Next stop, a bus through Cat Ba national park to Monkey island. A small, quiet resort with beach bungalows, a few vicious monkeys and free kayaking.

We decided with a few others to go kayaking for the day which was amazing and it got quite exciting as the waves started to get bigger and bigger. We found some cool caves to paddle though too.

Evening was spent with the group having beers, exchanging tips, sampling the local vodka, playing killer and ending in a midnight swim - as you do. (Enjoy the rest of your travels all...)

Next day was spent travelling by boat back to the port for our bus back to the city.  It was a fantastic 3 day trip with unbelievable scenery, some new friends and at long last we got exactly what we paid for.  Pity about the phone and kindle though.  Lee is now planning his next ‘entertainment system’ purchase in Kuala Kumpur. I am jealous!

If you look closely you can just about see the scenery...

Straight off the bus in Hanoi, we grabbed a couple of kebabs and we were on our next sleeper bus.  This time to the mountains of Sa Pa for a bit of trekking in the rice paddies. Again a 12 hour bus journey turned into 16 hours though we slept well and Susi experienced the first of many communal female toilet facilities that are in the Sa Pa region!  Arriving in our shorts and vests we quickly wrapped up warm as it was cold and wet.  First time since Killi we had put our fleeces and boots on.  We met our new group and it was straight out onto our trek.  Sa Pa town itself is very Swiss ski resort-ish with lots of cafes selling hot wine, outside seating with fluffy blankets to put round you and fake north face shops (guilty Susi bought a new waterproof jacket – well I hope it is!)  
The trek was through the rice paddies, passing little villages showing us how they us marijuana to make bags, dying clothes with the growing indigo plant and of course being approached by the local tribes “you buy something?”  The terrain was so muddy and slippery due to the amount of rain, but the local tribe where there to help you for a small fee at the end of course!

Look at the amazing view!!!

Part of the package was with a homestay which turned out to be a barn in one of the local villages were everyone had a mattress on the floor to sleep on.  Sitting around a big table, we had some local cuisine, sampled some rice wine and played a few games.  We had Malaysians, Kiwis, Ozzies, Germans and Spanish with us – great fun was had by all!

After a mammoth pancake breakfast off we headed for another slippery day – pretty stiff from the day before.  The weather was pretty rubbish and we didn’t have full visibility of the iconic rice fields you see in the books but you still see and feel the beauty of the landscape.  Back to Sa Pa town we had a quick dinner and it was time to head back to the Hanoi on the sleeper bus for the last couple of days in Vietnam.

Good fun was had by all, good luck guys...

We checked into Lucky Guest house 2 in the Old Quarter for the last 2 nights which we would recommend, it free breakfasts too! Do not book your trips through them – like all hotels they rip you off!  We spent the last couple of days, walking through the markets, enjoying the last of cheap beer for a while and enjoying the street food of Vietnam which along with the Vietnamese coffee we will both thoroughly miss. 

Vietnam has been an amazing adventure of crazy scooters, the most amazing scenery we have seen so far, fantastic food and the cheapest beer in the world?. We have had our run-ins with the rudeness of some of the locals but not enough to put us off this brilliant country. Early morning taxi to the airport and Malaysia awaits us!! First stop KL.  Happy days!

Beach life in Vietnam (Prior to typhoon)

Susi looking quite comfortable...

 It was time to leave the manic scooter city of Ho Chi Minh and Mui Ne was our next stop in Vietnam. We shopped around and found the cheapest open bus ticket we could, $41 dollars for 6 stops all the way up the coast of Vietnam. Not bad considering its 1650km. To get there we got to experience our first sleeping bus. (Basically a bus with beds instead of seats) Susi was the perfect size for the beds and slept like a baby.

The view from our bungalow...

We arrived in Mui Ne with just enough light to find ourselves a nice place to stay so with our packs strapped on we headed down the beach away from the moderately expensive backpacker place. Strangely enough there where a lot of Russian accents floating around as we walked?

About 10 minutes in we stumbled across this tiny little place with bungalows on the beach called La Pelican. The bungalows had their own little veranda with fantastic views down the beach and not a soul in sight. We arrived just in time to see sunset, which was beautiful especially because of the kite surfers kites where still flying. It was nice to be back by the sea after so much time on the Mekong. That night we headed back down towards the backpackers place and found what is probably the best food so far in S.E.Asia. It’s a family run restaurant on the beach called Lam Tuong (Check Lonely Planet). The food was really really good and average around 1-2 dollars a meal!

The next day was dedicated to chilling out and spending some time on the beach and at least try to change from pasty white to a slightly browner white. Unfortunately I won’t catch up to Susi who already has the bronzed look! We took time to have a nice long walk down the 4km stretch of beach and got very tempted by the kite surfing. (I will have to try this at some point!) We did book a little day trip to the sand dunes the next day though. That evening we went out for a quiet drink down the road in a place called Joe’s. It turned out that every night they have an act on. We for some reason managed to find a Rastafarian Vietnamese man singing Bob Marley and UB40 tunes! Random… the reggae theme continues!

After a few beers at happy hour and a few games of pool on a wonky pool table we decided to head back to our Family Restaurant for some more delicious food. We even managed to get a free bottle of wine out of it, well sort of, they forgot to add it to the bill, happy days for Susi. We took what was left of the wine back to our bungalow for a little drink on the balcony before bedtime. Unfortunately we got chatting to our neighbors. Two Chilean guys and a Scotsman drinking a bottle of vodka.  We joined them and they persuaded us to hit an early Halloween party down the strip. We had a really good night meeting the guys who gave us some great suggestions for when we get to Chile. (Thanks Gabriel, Sebastian and Ricardo, Enjoy the rest of your travels and stay safe, See you in Santigao Gabriel!)

Sebastian, Ricky, Gabriel, Lee and the Bucket...

The next day not feeling on top form we headed to the sand dunes. On the way taking in a little place called the Fairy Stream or Red Stream. It’s a bizarre little shallow stream that has a solid sand base and leads up to a little waterfall. Very random but it was quite picturesque. We then stopped at the little fishing port which had hundreds of Junks anchored, perfect for a picture or two. We arrived at the huge mountainous white sand dunes as if we were in the dessert and where greeted by a man renting quad bike tours on the sand dunes. I managed to persuade Susi it would be worthwhile and that I would be careful :)

We got half an hour buzzing around the dunes, which was brilliant. Susi had a go too with me on the back and she scared the living daylights out of me. Then I got to play by myself for a bit doing some donuts without tipping the bike on top of me! Unfortunately we had to leave this place to catch sunset at the red sand dunes. We had a nice walk to the top with the four other people from our jeep and played in the sand a little more before we headed back.

The Russian resort!...

The next day we moved onto our next stop on the journey, Nha Trang. A short six hour bus ride took us to our next destination a little further north up the coast. We arrived in the dark so grabbed our bags and headed to the area recommended by the Lonely Planet. We found a little place called Hoa Sen which had much bigger rooms and nicer than the lonely planet recommendations. Susi worked her magic again and got us a discounted $8 per night! It had everything we needed apart from a pool but being 100m from the beach this didn’t matter too much. Our first impressions of Nha Trang was that it was too built up and more like a beach resort and even more surprisingly full of Russians!!!  Strange looking couples where the fat rich Russian men had there more smaller attractive wife.  There were shops and restaurants dedicated to Russian people with not a bit of English in sight! The beach was lovely though and we spent the next day relaxing on the beach. We found a cool bar called ‘Why Not Bar’ apparently there are a few. Low and behold we bumped into more of our Slowboat Friends from Laos. This time it was the Swede’s, Kim and Mikael. (Stay safe in the storm guys).

The day after this we booked a ticket to Vinpearl. It’s a really cool island of the coast of Nha Trang with a waterpark, indoor and outdoor amusement park and a lovely beach. To get over to the island you take the longest cable car in the world (apparently). We had a brilliant morning playing on the rollercoasters and on all of the free arcade games. We had some cheap food for lunch and headed over to the waterpark. This was amazing. It had slides that neither of us had seen before, in particular one called ‘Tsunami’ which was by far the best. Unfortunately Susi wasn’t expecting being thrown into a bowl on the black hole ride and jarred her neck when she fell meaning no more rides or slides for Susi for the rest of the day. I had a go on a few more by myself before we went back over to the arcades. We played Streetfighter II and Susi kicked my ass everytime!!! Apart from the ‘minor injury’ it was a fun day out.

The rest of Nha Trang we lazed around on the beach with Kindles in hand cooling off in the huge waves. We had a few quiet nights and a few more in the Why Not Bar (Why Not, when you are welcomed with a free shot and a jaeger-bomb).

Tropical storm finally catches us...

We heard on the grape vine there where two typhoons headed our way so we planned to leave the next day on an overnight journey to Hoi An. This time we where not so lucky with the weather and a Tropical storm hit us just before we left, it was like being back up north again and we had to buy some lovely raincoats. The journey was ok though and we managed to miss the worst of the weather.

We have a love/hate relationship with these bus journeys! The bus this time was full, had a broken toilet and was predicted to take 12hrs, it actually took over 15hrs with only 1 stop for a toilet break. The stubborn driver refused to stop and it took the whole bus shouting at him to get him to stop. (Susi was relieved she wasn’t on her own on this one even though it was a bush on the side of the road)

We arrived in Hoi An and found another bargain room in Hotel ‘My Chau’ not far from the buzz and it had a really friendly owner who gave us lots of good advice on where to go and what to see and especially about the local delicacies.


Hoi An is a stunning little town with coloured Chinese lanterns lining streets full of shops prepared to make any piece of clothing you want. Susi thinks it’s a magical place and was silent for ten minutes. Yes ten minutes! As we have already found it’s hard to capture the moment with a photo, though we tried our best.

We had a good walk that night to get our bearings and found a little place called ‘Lame Café’ where we sampled the 3000d beer (9.09p) and some really nice Hoi An specialties. The Cao Lau (Thick yellow noodles and spicy pork with mint and wontons) is my new favorite food and Susi loves the crispy seafood wontons. (Basically seafood covered poppadum’s).  This was a place we where going to visit again! We also found another placed called café 43.

Spot the mugs...

This had a really cool twist where everyone who had been there left a passport picture under the glass on the table with a little comment. (spot the mug shots!). This place also had some really nice beer and food and the owners are really nice. 
Whilst wandering we got sucked into one shop where Susi ordered two tailor made dresses. We had to wait an hour whilst some alterations where made to the dresses. In the meantime however she bought two more dresses and a top!!! 

On our hotel’s advice we hired granny bikes and headed to the beach the next day. It was a really nice 4k bike ride through some little towns and lovely riverside shacks to an isolated beach restaurant where we had some really good food and relaxed on the deserted beach for the day. With chilled white wine and fresh calamari served to her sunbed, Susi loved it.  Even got to do a bit of body surfing as the waves there were brilliant. If only we could of hired body-boards! Factor 50 still isn’t strong enough and we both came back slightly rouge!

Lame Cafe owner...

So here we are sat in our ‘Lame Café’ again drinking 3000d beers writing this blog. (Well I’m writing, Susi is drinking and critiquing!) We have about 8 hours until the full force of Typhoon Haiyan hits and hopefully we will be able to tell you all about it in the next installment…….

Good morning Vietnam....and the last bit of Cambodia :)

We arrived in Phnom Pehn surprisingly only one hour later than expected on our ‘VIP’ bus.  This time we got what we paid for with Cambodian karaoke all the way! Watching the world go by on the bus we saw the extremes of poverty in Cambodia, this seemed to be the poorest country we had seen in South East Asia so far.

Following our bible - the lonely planet, with Carole and Yannick we checked into a nice clean and cheap hostel Fortunately it had great wifi as we had a date on Skype with the Barr family in Perth!  Which was great, can’t wait to see you all in March especially my little niece Sophie B!

Phnom Pehn promenade

It was inevitable at some point that one of us got Delhi belly and both of us had it at the same time. With a bit of a dodgy stomach on the first day in PP we took it easy, ate western food, drank gallons of water and managed to get through nearly a whole series of breaking bad which I am now addicted too!  All better, we hit Central Market where we managed to pick up a few bargains after a lot of bartering and walk away tactics. We then walked another mile or two to the riverside which was very pretty.  Lined with palm trees and flags, locals kicking around a feather stuck to a ball thing and endless bars and cafes.  People watching heaven for us, we are becoming pros at it!

Next day we were feeling on top form and joined Carole and Yannick for a goodbye breakfast as they were off home to France. “Hope you guys made it home safe and sound, keep in touch”

Later that day and being in Phnom Pehn we couldn’t leave without a visit to the S21 museum. This is the place Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge) held all the prisoners before they took them all to the killing fields. It is an eerie place with remnants of the torture that went on there. Some of the photographs are horrific and the conditions terrible. Can’t believe this was allowed to happen even 30 years ago. Feeling slightly shocked we left the museum, skipped the killing fields and went in search of something a bit more up-lifting. This came in the guise of Coffee and a Lemon shake on the riverside. After a lovely meal overlooking the river we arrived back at our hotel to find our Vietnamese Visa’s had arrived and so we booked our bus to Vietnam for the next morning.  Good morning Vietnam!

Susi clinging on for dear life whilst the driver
is blinded by the rucksack!!!

Our first destination was Saignon (Ho Chi Minh City) and after a very painless border crossing we were met by 1000s and 1000s of scooters.  We had arrived.  I have never seen anything like it, it was chaos and not a highway code rule followed. We got off the bus and there was not a tuk tuk in sight so it meant a scooter journey to our hostel – yes with our 18Kg back packs too!  Ended up racing each other on our taxi scooters and clung on to my wee Vietnamese driver for dear life.  We checked in to an average hostel (hotels being that little bit more expensive in Vietnam) to be reunited with my dear old friends the cockroaches, but it did have aircon and cable TV.  

People watching heaven...

Scooter mania, cross this road if
you dare...

We headed straight out to Bui Vien just down the road to the Back-packers street which was awesome, sampling the Vietnamese Beer – Lees favourite so far (Saigon Green).  The Dalat Red wine is alright too thank goodness.  First impression of Vietnam – Fab.

On our first day we went to the Wartime Remnants Museum, bumping into our Irish buddies we experience the journey from hell with, David and Alison.  

One of the most famous
pictures from the vietnam war...

The museum itself was full of propaganda but unbelievably biased towards the Vietnamese. If you were to believe everything that was written there then senator Bob Kelly is a bad, bad man! It was really interesting though to find out about agent orange and the Cu hi tunnels before we visited them.

Susi and a local exercising in the park...

On the way back we walked via the park to do a bit of exercise and then we went our separate ways for a couple of hours. Me for a bit of pampering and some barber action/pub for Lee. 

 







That evening we met David and Alison again for a small pub crawl up the strip.  Enjoy the rest of Vietnam guys, hope you enjoyed the tunnels! The little shops turn into bars at night with tiny plastic chairs made for kids, they are positioned perfectly for people watching overlooking the narrow street packed with scooters carrying everything from families of four, 10 crates of beer to enough vegetables to feed an army. They also have these wheelchair like bicycles chauffeuring around oversized Americans, very funny.

When in Vietnam...

The strangled vietnamese cats...

The next two days we had organised trips. The first was to the Mekong Delta. It was very relaxing and included activities such as making coconut toffee, seeing how rice paper is made and being flogged Royal Jelly, however it was quite relaxing but somewhat more for the older traveller >50. Over some tasteless dragon fruit and funny looking lychees, the locals performed some traditional music for us and it was shocking! We were all in stitches, tears rolling down my face hoping not to get noticed by the locals. I willingly handed over a tip for the sheer comedy value.

Don't think you'll be needing the glasses down there!!!...

Our next trip was a day visiting the Cu Chi tunnels and a local business set up for victims of agent orange (The chemical used by the americans that caused deformity up to 20 years later). Our guide Jackie was a war veteran and was very passionate about telling the truth as he saw it. Jackie was on the south side and supported the Americans, he was nicknamed Jackie as he looked like Jackie Chan. He was an excellent guide and told us all about the war, the protests, and lots of information the museum didn’t tell us. We arrived at the local business and had an hour to wander around, the workshop they had set up was fantastic and we bought some really nice little pictures they had hand made.

I can breath at last...

The tunnels themselves are unbelievable, over 200km of tunnels dug during the war and that the Americans couldn’t find the Viet cong so they bombed the whole area trying to flush them out. Lee had the nerve to go in one of the original tunnels, it was pitch black, extremely narrow that you had to crawl and he had to feel his way around to get to the end, and was even joined by a few bats along the way.  

Jackie Chan demonstrates the leg trap..

Boys and their toys...

Lee also got to climb into a tank, boys and their toys. Jackie showed us around 20 different traps that were used by the Viet Cong for the Americans. Gruesome! The final bit of the tour was a 200m stretch of tunnels that had been made 10% bigger for tourists with lights along the way. I was a bit scared at first as I’m not the best in confined spaces, but I managed it and was great fun. Cant believe people lived like that for years?  

A great day out all in all, Saigon is a great city to visit.  Forgot to say Vietnamese food is delicious, beats Thai any-day!  Also fruit shakes are delicious and only cost about 40p

After 2 early starts with day activities we decided that we were Mekong’ed out and Citied out and it was time to hit the beach on the South China Sea up to Mui Ne for a few days chill out! (I hear the weather is bad in Europe, but a typhoon is apparently heading our way!)