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!
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