From Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh in 10 days

So we arrived safely onto the bustling streets of Hanoi - took us awhile to get our bearings as it seemed like all around us was moving - scooters flying down narrow streets, fruit and book sellers swinging the merchandise from one side of the street to the next, a constant throng that made the streets themselves feel alive. Accompanied by some Irish people we shared a taxi with we eventually found somewhere to stay at a decent price - all that was on our minds was food! We set off initially in search of some good sea food but with angry bellies calling out to us we settled on easier Western cuisine. With the hunger satisfied we could enjoy our stroll around the city more - and once you get used to taking your life in your hands when crossing any road you begin to un-earth Hanoi's real charms - fantastic little local restaurants, street corner vendors selling home brewed beer for 3,000 Dong (about €0.12!) which actually wasn't too bad - really enjoyed sitting on the street, chatting to the locals and just taking the passing sights in.


We decided to spend the next day with our tourist hats on - check out some museums, the Ho Chi Minh tomb etc etc but we were hampered by poor weather the next day (rain wasn't supposed to be in the script for the trip!) so all we managed to do was visit Cam Chi, the specialist food quarter of Hanoi where we had a fantastic meal of local dishes - Gareth had lovely duck and I had pigeon...yes, pigeon! And it was actually tasty too! Granted there was alot of work getting some decent chunks of meat off the bones but nice all the same - the only drawback was finding the head on the plate...was a little too real!



With the storm worsening we retreated to our hotel, the most comfortable beds we've had thus far so we weren't too upset about that! That night we booked tickets to see the famous Vietnamese water puppet show - an hour of excellent Vietnamese music and talented puppeteers. I ended the night with a visit to Hanoi's famous jazz club and really enjoyed just sitting back with a beer listening to some great music. On our schedule for the morning we had booked a one day trip to Halong Bay and then the overnight train down to Hoi An as we were very conscious of our dwindling South East Asia clock - we needed to be as efficient as possible. The one day trip was great - Halong Bay is a beautiful place although with overcast weather conditions fighting the horizon making it difficult to fully appreciate it. The highlight of the day for us was a visit to a floating fresh fish market where Gareth and I picked out a nice 2.5kg fish (he told us the name but god knows I couldn't pronounce it so we called him Sprinkles). He went from being a happy swimming fish to our plate in front us, steamed with vegatables in less than 45 minutes - you can't really get fresher than that! And as some of you may know I'm not a huge fish fan but I couldn't turn down this opportunity so I threw caution into the wind with it - and delighted I did, it was so delicious!





So with our bellies full we headed back to Hanoi to catch our 13 hour train to Da Nang and get from there to Hoi An. It was actually one of the best sleeper transits we've had thus far - a four bed secure compartment and the train wasn't too bad for rattling or banging. The main attraction of Hoi An is its tailor made clothing shops where you can get anything from underwear to full suits or jackets perfectly tailor made to your own design and size for a fraction of what you would pay back home. We wanted to take more advantage of being here but with small bags and an unknown return date etc we keep our custom designs to a minimum - we did splurge a little on some impluse shoes (ok I'm aware of gay that sounds but bear with me here!). We stumbled across one shop that had a pair of shoes in the window that caught my eye - we went in and were shown two huge books of fabric designs and templates to choose from - both myself and Gareth picked out two pairs each - obnoxiously loud but I am not kidding when I say they are the GREATEST pairs of shoes ever made! And they only cost €10 each! Gareth also got some cowboy boots made, amazing!

***WARNING - YOU MAY NEED TO SHIELD YOUR EYES FROM THE BEAUTY OF THE FOLLOWING PICTURE***





We also both got two casual shirts made up for us, again only €10 each - you could very easily spend a lot of money in these places. Hoi An Town itself is a small but pretty place, a huge notch down in the tempo from Hanoi but again lovely food to be had, most notably local specialities Cau Lao and Wantons. We booked ourselves on a tour for the next morning to see the My Son Cham ruins and take a boat ride back up the river stopping off at a wood carving village. The tour was interesting and we met a nice bunch of English, American and Kiwi travellers in our group - but honestly, we were most looking forward to collecting our shoes (yes, the gay alert is ringing again!). We arrived back into the town and headed straight for the shoe shop...and my god we weren't disappointed! We equated the feeling of collecting the shoes to the birth of our first born child! That evening we hopped on an overnight bus down to Na Thrang - a 12 hour journey made slightly more comfortable as we managed to wrangle ourselves the back 5 beds of the bus to ourselves so we could just pan out!

Na Thrang, or as it should be called "Re-union City" is the party capital of Vietnam perched on the edge of the South China Sea. I refer to it as Re-union City because we, both planned and unplanned, met so many people from different stages of our trip so far, as well as some friends of mine from home. My good friend Jen and Erin, who had been in Australia but were making there way home had arrived the day before so I excitedly went looking for them and as I thought, found them flaked out on the beach, hungover! Great to see some things just don't change! We made our plans for that night and walking into our first bar (run by a guy from Tallaght!) we bumped into one of the first people we met on the trip - a Dutch girl called Julia who was now the Promotions Manager for Red Apple, the bar we were in. A small world! Over the next 4 nights we enjoyed some great nights out, and slept off some great hangovers on the beach. Other random run-ins included Canadian Steve, again from the first week of our trip who we randonly bumped into outside our hotel - again, great to see him again! The majority of the Swedes from our tubing adventure also came down for a few days and also my friend Toto from Paris who is discovering her family tree here in Vietnam arrived, so this all just fuelled some really fun nights out - with the only sour point being the theft of Toto's bag from the beach which had her cards, money, phone and camera in it - an absolute nightmare for someone travelling alone. The next day we had planned to go to Ho Chi Minh City for our last day to see the war reminants museum and war tunnels but I stayed back to help Toto sort out her credit card cancellations and police reports etc - as I said its the worst thing that can happen to someone travelling alone so it was the least I could do - R.A.K's as my mother always advocated.. Must admit though it was odd going to bed without Gareth in the room for the first time in 2 months!



(Toto giving us her best "I'm French and I love it" look)

With everything sorted out for Toto I made my lonesome way down to Ho Chi Minh (formerly known as Saigon). The journey wasn't too bad however, managed to sleep most of the way and didn't have to deal with looking for a hotel as Gareth had sorted it all out the night before. We were flying to Hong Kong the next morning, via Bangkok, against the many wishes of people due to the state of emergency announced there earlier in the week but unfortunately we didn't have any other option. We would only have to stay in the airport for 4 hours so we weren't too worried. For our last night in Vietnam Gareth, myself and Julia (who had travelled down herself that morning) went for a nice dinner (fish again...look at me go!) - but again a sour end to the night - as we walked back to the hotel Julia's purse was snatched by a passed scooter driver who sped off into the melee of other drivers. Thankfully she only had some cash in it and no cards - but a bitter end to our time in Vietnam. No point in reporting it to the police..."Hello yes, we're looking for a Vietnamese man on a scooter..." - way to narrow it down there! We shared one final beer and said our goodbyes to Vietnam - we had an amazing time - highs, lows and downright strange at some times but all part of the adventure!

Dolphins, Blue Lagoons and Giant Rubber Rings

So we managed to cross the border into Laos - our 3rd country so far and again we held only rough plans of what we wanted to do - choosing a more "take it as it comes approach" which has really worked for us already. If you make too strict a plan you are forced to stick to it - and on a journey like this you really don't know what is going to be around the corner! Our first destination waa Don Det, a small island in Si Phan Don (The 4,000 Islands) in Southern Laos and as I mentioned before our main objective here was dolphin watching (rockstar, I know). It is a beautiful area, 100s of small mainly unihabited islands nestled in the current of the Mekong, fishermen throwing our their nets, water buffalo silently watching you float past on your long boat - seems a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of places like Bangkok or Phnom Penh. We rented a small riverside bungalow, basic being the only polite term coming to mind but it did have two nice hammocks for chilling in. We managed to book ourselves on a tour that afternoon to go dolphin spotting and also take in a huge waterfall close by. We headed back up the Mekong to a prime dolphin viewing spot - it was a nice boat along the river although it got a little cramped in the skinny long boat with 10 people in it! We reached a stoney outcrop in which we jumped up on to and with cameras ready, fingers on the button, we waited...

and waited....

and waited...

"OH WAIT....IS THAT ONE....no, just a plant..."

and waited....

FINALLY after some painstakingly slow waiting, in the blast of the heat, the rare dolphins peaked out their fins (personally I think its because I had perfected my dolphin mating call!). Slowly the dolphins became a little more adventurous and came closer to us - very hard to get a good photo however - my best shot resembles someones poor attempt at a Loch Ness Monster sighting...

With the dolphin box ticked we set off for the waterfall, a pretty spectacular water cascade but with our energy fast draining from the morning's travels we did not spend too long there. That evening we made good use of our riverside hammocks, having a quiet beer and watching our family of geckos chow down on the frenzy of flys on our porch. The is not much in the way of night life on the islands,mainly due to the fact that all power shuts off at 11pm (so much for our fan room!). We both decided that with our main objective complete here it was time to move on - our South East Asia clock beginning to tick down and bear weight on our minds.

We were heading north to a small town called Vang Vieng where take part in a timeless ritual called TUBING!! It was going to be a long journey up however - small 5 hour bus to Pakse, 4 hour layover, overnight 13 hour bus to Vientiene, 5 hour lay over, 6 hour bus to Vang Vieng - fun times! Thankfully we got catching to two Canadians who were on the same journey north from Don Det so we were able to share in our misery! The overnight sleeper bus was a joke - we were shown to our "beds" - a top bunk that was both too short for us and so narrow that we both could not lie on our backs at the same time - cosy to say the least! I drew the short straw and was on the outside, i.e. the death seat! Laos drivers like to see themselves as formula one drivers, whipping around corners, in and out of traffic at speed - I almost nose dived about 20 times throughout the night! Eventually we reached Vang Vieng, much to the delight of our aching back and Sam's travel sickness! We found ourselves a small riverside bungalow for about $3 a night - nothing fancy but we weren't planning on spending alot of time there! As it was too late to go tubing for the day we decided to take in some of the surrounding sights - namely the Blue Lagoon and Poukham Caves. We wrapped ourselves a picnic (ok well not so much a picnic as some beers and crisps!) and hit the rocky rough road out. The lagoon was beautiful, a crystal clear blue - deep, cold and refreshing. And before anyone starts

panicking I know the limits of my swimming abilities so didn't do anything too crazy

(I went off the hign branch - Gareth went off the middle one...we met on the way down!)

(It's ok...I've got it all under control...)

We dried off and went exploring the hillside cave...which was all going well until we realised two very important points

a) Caves are dark,,,very very dark

b) We had no torch.

So with that, our cave expedition was over and we went back to town to concentrate on the evening's festivities - we were invited to the official opening of our guesthouse (an Aussie and German couple had just taken over the running of it that day) so we had a lovely local meal of sticky rice with chicken and spices - lovely, but hot! A lightning storm was electrifying the sky around us as we hit the Bucket Bar for, yes you guessed it, BUCKETS! Our excitement was building for our first day on the river...it felt like Christmas Eve except with more debauchery (although in saying that, alot of you have never seen a Tully Christmas...). We had planned two days of tubing before going to Luang Prabang so we really wanted to make the most of it. We rented our tubes the next morning and were driven out of town up to the drop off point - now for those of you who have the misfortune not to know what tubing is please let me explain...

The main idea is that you rent a giant rubber ring (although you don't have to, you can walk or swim it) and are brought up river where there are a number of bamboo constructed bars lining the riverside. You arrive around midday to the first bar, enjoy a few beers and banter there before hopping in your tube and floating down the river. As you pass another bar they toss out a weighted rope and pull you in.

Every bar has some sort of rope swing or zip line, pumping music and an unfortunately large amount of free laos whiskey given in shots to anyone willing. It culminates in the final bar between 6pm and 8pm as the sun sets and the bonfire rages skyward. From there you take your tube and any belongings you haven't lost in a tuk tuk back to town. A seriously fun day! Now, again I know what you're thinking (yes, I'm talking mainly to you here mother!) - your wonderful darling son is what some might call "aquatically challenged" - so with that in mind I came to the river prepared...

(River Lifeguard...on the job...saving lives)

(I can FFFLLLLLLYYYYY!!!)

I struggle though to put into words how much fun it is - the whole vibe on the river is infectious - everyone is out to have a good time, with no shortage of people to banter with from all corners of the world - including one girl I met who lives on the same road as me! Random! Gareth and I were enjoying it so much we quickly waved farewell to our Luang Prabang plans in place of more days on the river. We were joined in our adventures by a group of English guys we had met in Ko Phangan - a fantastic bunch of lads, I don't think I;ve ever laughed so much the few days we were with them! Tom, Jon, Rob and Chris, we love you! A ton of other people we had met along the way were drawn by the lure of the tubing including half of our adopted family, Team Sweden (Denize and Kim), Johanna and Lauren Thorp-edo - by the end of the week we were sitting down for our first beers with a group of about 25 of us! We tubed for 6 days straight - every morning we would wake up, body aching, head thumping, covered in marker slogans ("Property of Dr. Gareth Anderson") but ready for another day! I honestly think it was the most fun week I've evr had - even small upsets like my first bout of travel sickness couldn't dampen the enjoyment! Every day held its own little charms - whether it was the day we had a beer fight...or abusing Tron and my scar...or convincing everyone Gareth was a doctor and I had just had a heart transplant so we were on a life changing mission to the South Pole to wash seals (called Operation Barbossa) - everyday was just as good as the last.

We eventually had to call it a day as again we became aware of our dwindling time in S.E. Asia. We left it until the last possible moment, and much to the abuse of Kim and Denize (thanks guys!) we left for Luang Prabang where we had booked a flight to Hanoi the next day (there was no way we were going to do the journey by bus - a 28 hour NIGHTMARE journey...best $130 I've ever spent!). So sad goodbyes again to all the guys - although our paths will hopefully be crossing in Southern Vietnam aswell as Australia. So we spent a pretty uneventful night in Luang Prabang where the was a power shortage for most of our time there. We now have the task of getting from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City in 11 days - while trying to maximise our "tourist time". Well, no one said it was going to be easy...

Angkor What?

After a few days in Phnom Penh we headed north to Siem Reap, famous for its UNESCO World Heritage site - Angkor Wat - the largest religious structure in the world. The bus journey up was a bit of a nightmare, hungover (ok thats our fault), incredibly bumping dirt roads (the road was still being BUILT in some places but they just drive over), Cambodian kareoke music on replay on the bus tv and the worst thing of all....incessant horn blowing from the driver. It turns out they don't bother with indicators so when approaching a scooter, slower vehicle, walker, farmer...even roadside animals the driver would blast to indicate he was coming and you sure as hell better get out of the way (this goes for on-coming traffic too!). A nice 7 hour trip!

We arrived in Siem Reap and had a driver from our guesthouse pick us up (posh eh?). We checked in and inquired about trips to Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples - an area literally covered in temples (interestingly enough it is where they filmed Tomb Raider). We decided on a 1 day trip out and around the area - including a 5am start in order to get out to see the sun rise, seemingly stunning.

We lazily scraped ourselves out of bed and into our tuk tuk with Fook our driver (his name wasn't Fook but he wanted it to be his nickname - really nice guy). We got out to Angkor Wat and even in the darkness it is hard to avoid sheer size of the structure. We made our way into the grounds to pick a good photo spot and waited...


and waited....


and waited....



It basically went from being dark out, to being slightly brighter, to being daytime. To say we felt a bit hard done by is a huge understatement! The only silver lining being meeting a pair of Americans who were on the same sunrise "adventure" as us, part of a larger group of people travelling so we arranged some boozing for later with them. After some brekkie Fook took us to a number of different temple sites, some still standing strong against the errosion of time, others succumbing to inquistive roots of trees intertwining themselves around temple walls with pretty cool results. Again the fingerprint of the Khymer Rouge was ever present - they had invaded the area and decapitated every statue they could get their hands on. Being the educated (and cheap) men that we are we decided to buy the guide book and be our own guides, instead of dishing out the full whack for an actual guide (who knows what they are talking about!)...let's just say we won't be getting called in for job openings! While it was nice strolling (and in some parts, swinging like a monkey) around the temples, we quickly became tired and irritated by the large groups of Japanese tourists taking over ever nice picture spot with their umbrellas and huge cameras (not bitter at all!). We ended our tour with a walk around the main Angkor Wat area, a very impressive area but I think my best memory of it will be taking the greatest photo of all time...a monk flashing...


(doirty monks!)

We returned to the guesthouse, our beds calling out to us for power naps. We were asleep before the door had closed behind us! I got up a little earlier to go in search of a massage parlour - my back had been hurting me ever since the uncomfortable Ko Tao to Bangkok journey, so Fook brought be to a local place where a full body massage for an hour set me back the MASSIVE sum of $5 - where back home you would pay anything upwards of €70-80, probably more! Very relaxing even if at some parts of it she was literally walking all over me. But came out feeling alot better, the back knot well worked out. I decided to spoil ourselves and buy some shower gel AND some shampoo, a luxury not afforded to us yet on the trip (we don't smell that bad...). We headed out for dinner and drinks, accompanied by one of the guesthouse workers, nice to chat to some local people about the history of the town instead of just reading what Lonely Planet has to say. The Americans came in later with their group and some good old fashioned partying ensued - Gareth and I both wanted the free t-shirt they were offering, it just meant having to order two cocktail pitchers at a time, we were only too happy to oblige! They were a good interesting bunch - including the first Dominican (not Dominican Republican!) I've ever met and after hearing more about DR it just re-confirmed my desire to go there at some stage. Ended the night getting lost in a tuk tuk on the way home, eventually making it back to the safety of Yellow Guesthouse.

After ticking the Angkor Wat box there was not a whole load of other things we wanted to do here - we scheduled a DHD for the next day. Gareth slept most of the day - I went out and invented some new rules to pool before coming home with the intention for both of us to power nap and head out again - at 6pm we went asleep, thinking a good 3 hours will sort us out - woke up at 10am the next morning! Out like lights! Made the decision then to get back to Phnom Penh were we would sort out our visas for Laos and most importantly, find somewhere to watch the rugby! It turned out Fook was on the bus with us, he was going to his home town along the route and he begged us if we would come stay a night in the town, his cousin was getting married the next day and he said he would love to have us see it....decision time...an amazing, unique and cultural experience...or potentially watching Ireland win a Grand Slam - yep that's right...an easy choice...


No description of what the night of the game was like as for the majority of people reading this I assume went through the exact same heart-in-mouth feelings as we did! When the final whistle blew and Ireland lifted the trophy the singing blasted the rafters, so much so that we were eventually warned that if we did not stop singing men with AK-47s would be coming down to quieten us...one more blast of Molly Malone and we were gone. Two days of serious flaking followed as we waited for our Laos visas to arrive. We were heading for the islands in the south of Laos, a place called Si Phan Don, with our one and only mission being the sighting of the rare Irrawaddy River Dolphins. It did mean however that we had to break our journey up into two stints - forcing us to spend a night in the, for want of a better phrase, the ass crack of Cambodia - Stung Treng, an outpost town about the size of my foot - the only bright point being a nice sunset over the Mekong before a storm rolled into town and washed the place out.

As we left the next morning to attempt a dubious border crossing in to Laos Gareth and I looked at each other - "Hey, whats the best thing about Stung Treng? Leaving it,"

Thankfully the border crossing went smooth enough, a $1 dollar "greasing" either side of the barrier and we were through. So our short but enjoyable stint in Cambodia was over - Bang straw lang oon!