Vietnam (Mui Ne)

Not much to say, we got off the bus to what felt like a ghost town. Mui Ne was dead, very little life but we had three nights booked so settled down for a few days of relaxation. The first night we didn't do much other than explore the seafront and eat some food. The hotel was okay, we had a not so bad room, the hotel had live music and was positioned centrally and the food was nice but expensive. We had a few things we wanted to do and planned our next few days. The hotel however did lie about its facilities e.g. laundry service, safe in room etc. The saving grace was a backpackers hostel next door that did laundry and also offered the cheapest bus and tour options we found on the strip. We tried to play crazy golf one day but the place was shut and resigned ourselves to a bit more relaxation. The hotel backed straight on to the sea, no beach though which we thought seemed a bit poor. The beach was about 10-15 walk further down the coast. We did venture out to visit some red and white sand dunes and a small fresh water steam which was nice. The sand dunes were mediocre in our opinion and felt more like several sandy hills, not as grand or as interesting as we originally thought. We had read you can sledge down them but upon arriving and seeing it in action it looked pretty lame. We had a few days to gather our thoughts and prepare for the next place but we won't be going back in a rush. Next we go to Saigon, the capital of Vietnam and then on to Cambodia to the next phase of the trip.

Vietnam (Da Lat) - Easy Rider

Dalat seems really nice and its so refreshing to have a climate more akin to England albeit when it rains it rains cats and dogs! Our hotel is pimping, we booked 'Dreams Hotel' via email from reading reviews saying it was the best backpacker place in town and it most certainly feels like it. We have shower and hot tub to ourselves, two double beds, massive room and a lush breakfast where they had a jar of Marmite, I was in heaven. Our first sighting of the the delicious black salty treacle like substance made for a good start to the day! We have only one full day here so decided to do an easy rider tour, basically you travel around on a easy rider style motor bike and vist the sights, the idea is that the bike goes places which aren't as touristy and should see more of the real Vietnam and the culture. We booked on the suggestion from someone we meet at the hotel and hoped for the best. First night we ate at a local restaurant and a fight broke out opposite the road, drunken local men hitting each other with snooker ques, looked nasty and we soon scarpered.

The next morning we were picked up by our riders, and headed out for the day. Visiting the Dragon pagoda, named because outside the pagoda a ginormous dragon snakes around its gardens. Next a stop to walk up high peak for views of the surrounding land, we thought that actually this was just a distraction as they both wanted breakfast. We headed further into the countryside stopping next at a flower farm. Dalat produces a huge amount of flowers which are exported all around Asia, the climate and fertil soil  creates a perfect environment for fruits, vegetables and flowers. As far as the eye can see you see row after row of green houses and fields cut into the hilly sides like giant steps. The next stop was most interesting, stopping at a silk worm farm and factory. You see the worms at all stages including at various stages of them creating their silk cocoons, we had both never seen anything like it. The factory where they process the silk cocoons reminded me of Victorian cotton mill. Women steamed then manually attached the cocoons to a machine which then unravelled the silk on the large spindles. Further down the spindles where dyed and weaved into various patterns and cloths. The whole process seemed dangours and old fashioned, especially the large weaving machines. Next we headed for Elephant Falls which was impressive but busy making the steep slippery walk down tedious. Lunch was a typical Vietnamese style selection with spring rolls, various meats, rice and veg. Afte dinner we visited a rice wine factory and a weasel coffee producer. I had read about weasel coffee so was always going to try it. Weasel coffee consists of coffee which had been eaten and digested by a weasel, an expensive delicacy in Vietnam. Upon arrival we found that it in fact looked quite cruel and unpleasant for the animal. About 20+ weseals in cages with grid floors to catch the poop. The idea is that the coffee is improved by not only the digestion process but by the fact the weasel only selects the best beans to eat. It tasted very strong, slightly sweet and quite viscous in texture. I'm positive that the experience and taste didn't justify the animals being caged up but it was an interesting experience none the less. Our next stop was a cricket farm where they breed crickets for consumption by humans. After having a look around we had the opportunity to try some which had been stir fried. I obviously tried them but Izzi chickened out. The taste can only be described as crickety! The final stop was at the Crazy House, literally a crazy house that has been under construction for years by a crazy architect, it was quite underwhelming to be honest. One of the best parts of the day was just travelling around on the bikes, bombing around the countryside and seeing breath taking views of the surrounding jungles and hillsides.

Vietnam (Nha Trang)

The train from Hoi An was delayed and  didn't leave 'til 11pm. We travelled with several other local people in our cabin which was an interesting experience, not to sure how keen izzi was regarding the man sleeping on the floor below. We arrived fine, however not well rested and got a taxi to the hotel. The hotel seems good and is in the typical style of very tall and thin like it has been squashed into position.

Day one only consisted of scoping the place out and a few hours on the beach, obviously I stayed in the shade but Isobel lapped up the rays for several hours. I did however finish my first book 'A man from St Petersburg', very good it was, next onto 'The Quiet American'. We also managed to score some Kellogs Frosties which turn breakfast into something special for the next 3 days.

Day two was the sights, we headed to Long Song temple and its giant white Buddha which was good, giving great views from above the city and was free once you'd pushed your way past the numerous hawkers trying to sell you postcards and other crap. We attempted to find a photo gallery after but failed and flagged a taxi down to take us to Po Nagar Tower, the most famous sight in Nha Trang. We both thought it was average however putting on a Jedi like gown to enter the temples was fun. A long walk home was hot but we managed to break our record and saw 5 people on one scooter, 3 children 2 adults. Tea consisted of a Texas BBQ grill house, a highly rated eatery by both lonely planet and trip adviser. Its run by a guy from Texas who fought in the war in Vietnam and all the meat is imported from the US. Delicious it was, ribs, chicken, corn on the cob, calsaw etc. Not cheap by Vietnamese standards but £13 all in with drinks for both of us is still good value by UK standards.

Day three we decided some skin theory was in order and headed to a spa to get a mud bath. We spent most of the day lounging in mud like pigs or soaking up the minerals in the hot water mineral pools. I started my new book and found it harder to reader due to its French phrases and back to back dialogue. Again for tea we headed to another top pick 'Genesh Indian'. It was again delicious, the best curry we have eaten so far, we haven't eaten much local food in Nha Trang but maybe we needed a change.

Day four we bought tickets to Vinpearl theme park. Its an island that includes theme park rides, a water park, an aquarium and loads more. A bus then cable car gets you to the island, a nice way to travel. This does make it our 3rd cable car since we left England, I'd say we are pros. The theme park was enjoyable, absolutely packed with Russians which was odd. We were told by a local that in the last few years a Russian company started to charter flights here and hence why we see so many Russians. Everything was in Vietnamese, English and Russian all over town which made a change, it definitely added to the tackiness I think. We made sure that we ate local for tea, nothing amazing to be honest, average Vietnamese food.

Nha Trang in conclusion was okay. We had enough to do but we felt that as its just a tourist town it was like a city without a true soul or heart. Good for families and its gorgeous beach hugs the sea front, it was picturesque especially at sunset. The food we had, BBQ and Indian, was also really good but I guess that's as its a massive tourist town. Da Lat should be much cooler as its in the mountains, originally a French settlement built to escape the heat.

We traveled to Da Lat by bus, a trip we read isn't for the faint hearted and I'd have to agree. Climbing up and down mountains, swerving around land slides and our driver is obviously a fearless madman. What made it worse is that several times people threw up, all locals I'd like to add. The smell was wretched and highly unpleasant making the journey not one of our best. These locals act like they'd never been on a bus though, it wasn't the smoothest of journeys but wasn't that bad. I just kept thinking of the news reports in the past of buses falling down cliffs.

Vietnam (Hoi An)

Hoi An had been mentioned to us by several travellers throughout Vietnam for its charming low rise buildings and picturesque look on a night. We now completely understand what they meant, the buildings and architecture feel European and have Chinese influences everywhere. On an evening the river is full of small floating candles and the lack of big street lights being replaced by dim lanterns gives this place a very pleasant vibe when walking around at night. In the day its charm is not so much feeling a lot like other places in Vietnam albeit with not as many high rise buildings. The town itself is renowned for tailoring, on every street there are row upon row of tailors offering to make you anything from coats, suits, shirts, t-shirts, shoes and bikinis all made to measure and probably a lot cheaper than back in England. We however didn't get anything made as we would have to carry it around for another 4 months.

The main attractions include a place called My Son, a set of island call Cham Islands, the old town (lots of tailors and craft stuff) as well as the usual temples, museums and bridges etc. We decided against the My Son trip as its review's say its nothing compared to Ankor Wat in Cambodia so decided against that. We did book on to a snorkeling day out to the Cham Islands. It was a really good day out and both of us had never seen a tropical reef before so snorkeling for a few hours around the islands was very interesting. You see lots of coloured corals in amazing shapes and sizes, not as many fish as we had expected but we over heard a conversation andut how over the last 5-10 years the fish numbers on the reef have been falling. We did however fall victim to some fake suncream and are now fully burnt and blistering which isn't the best. This also meant we basically lost an entire day in our room applying aftersun and taking pain killers to ease the pain before an over night train to Nha Trang the following day.

One of the best parts of Hoi An is the food. They have 4/5 local dishes which everywhere sell so looked at trip adviser and went to the good ones, they are delicious. They are called 'white rose', 'cao lau', 'shrimp wantons' and some local spring roles. Every night we ate local except one where we went for pizza which was also good even if it was expensive. One interesting place we stopped at was a small tea house called Reaching Out to escape the sun, the difference is that all the staff are deaf and dumb so sign language, small wooden blocks with key words on and small writting pad are provided to order with. We got a small snack, iced coffee and fresh iced lemon drink, it was very good. We have to wait for 8 hours before our taxi to the train station which is turning into a bit of an ordeal. With being unable to do much dues to pain from the burns we have stayed around the hotel most of day which isn't the best although I have nearly finished my book! The train will take 10hrs and we will arrive at 8am the next day in Nha Trang, the party and beach capital of Vietnam. Lets hope its good fun and we recover fast from our burns.

Vietnam (Hue)

We got to Hue an hour late due to delays on the train. We were greeted by a man with my name on, bang on I thought and we don't have to walk to the hotel. As we walked to the car pack it quickly became apparent that there were two guys and two motor bikes! We put a hat on and jumped on the back, next thing we knew both of us were bombing it down the road on the back of a moter bike, not sure how safe it was and don't think the bike appreciated my weight plus back pack on the back but it was a great start to the Hue adventure. We ditched our bags at the hotel and headed out, it was nearly 40°c and the heat was killing us, we still haven't recovered from getting burnt in halong bay yet. We had afew jobs including booking a tour of the DMZ and some shopping. We looked at 4-5 different places and all the tours seemed average expect one which had a veteran from the war as your guide, it was the most expensive but from what we have read the guide makes the tour not necessarily the places you visit. We booked on for a full day out tomo and headed for the supermarket.

Hue on a night time has a very touristy feel with lots of bars and restaurants. Almost all bars had a happy hour on and in one case from 4-10pm which is more like a happy afternoon. The beer is cheaper and the food about the same as before, we both got a mojito for £1 and then a beer for about 40p which is rather cheap. To be honest we haven't eaten amazing food here other than a toasted sandwich we got from a cafe. The fact that the main street reminds us both of a low grade Spanish tourist strip might be a good reason the food isn't as good as the local stuff. The highlight of food in my opinion has been breakfast, we have a fridge in our room meaning ice cold milk and a box of honey nut loop like cereal, a refreshing and cheap change to breakfast for three days. The two small plastic bowls we brought have been rather useful in the end, cooking noodles and cereal a few times. DMZ tour A car arrived promptly at 7:30 to pick us up, yet again a man called Hung and a driver who didn't speak much English. Hung had fought with the south and Americans in the war and then spent 2.5 years in jail from 1975 as the communists locked him up and made him clear land mines by hand. He was knowledgeable and friendly but sometimes his English was not the sharpest. He says he still has problems from not fighting with the north in the war and says the country is still completely communist run and full of corrupt officials. One story he told was of an old American GI coming over and he gave him a tour before he was a proper guide, the next day the police turned up and took him to prison for two days worth of integration and in the end he had to pay them $1000 US dollar to be released. He mentioned they only get taught one side of the war story in schools and that they have elections every 4 years but only have one political party to vote for! His role was with special forces in the war and he would take them through the jungles and integrate Viet Cong prisons, he was stationed at the special forces base near Laos. We visited a famous camp on the front line where American soldiers lived and fought, he told stories of GI's as he called them going mad from the heat and massive amount of drug abuse that went on, heroin, cocaine, ganja etc. He said that because of this when the GI's returned from the front they would have weapons removed as sometimes they went crazy. He also said the the VC (viet cong) would sell cigarettes to the GI's laced with cocaine to make them go crazy on purpose! The troops also used to not take malaria tablets and get ill on purpose so they could have what he called an army holiday away from the front line in hospital. He always referred to the DMZ as hell! He often said things where 'fucked up' and called the VC 'mother fuckers', later on he stated that his English is completely learnt from soldier's and that he said he know only GI English which may explain the vocabulary. We visited a VC cemetery it reminded me of the cemeteries at Normandy with thousands of small white grave stones. Only 10% of the graves had names the rest read 'unknown hero', a large monument stood in the middle saying in Vietnamese 'never forgot our fallen heros'. He mentioned that people sometimes used animal bones to try to get money from the government claiming it was there fallen family member. The final part of our trip was down the Vinh Moc tunnels, basically an entire village moved underground for nearly 10 years due to the fighting above, they built 2km of tunnels on 3 levels below, 12m, 15m and 23m deep. We walk around a small museum above then got out our touches and went in. It was partially lit by small lights giving it a very eerie feel. The tunnels were about 5ft high and about as wide as me. Very interesting and weird, going down the slippery steep clay steps 23m to the lowest level you really got a sense of how big these tunnels were. Each tunnel had several small off shoots where a family would live. There was a doctor's, meeting room, weapons store etc. They were the most interesting part of the day trip. We have read more tunnels exist in Hoi Chi Minh city which are also good but were for fighting. Often the Viet Cong would use these tunnels to smuggle weapons from near by island and that almost all of their weapons were transported by push bike only and consisted of small arms and granade launchers. The bike trails peppered the countryside and where called the Hoi Chi Minh trails. I am still a little confused over Vietnamese people's feelings of Hoi Chi Minh and his revolution. I asked Hung and he said he was a good man but surely he was fighting against him, he always said the communists were the bad guys and still are, Hoi Chi Minh was a good man and helped the country a lot. My thoughts are that maybe he used the communists as simply a vehicle to reform and not always supporting their ideology, maybe they both used each other, I need to find out more! Brown Eyes We headed out on the town last night and went to a few bars. We started talking to a few American soldiers who were over here for 2 months clearing mines and training. We tagged along to a club called Brown Eyes, it was fun and a bit cheesy, we both ended up drunk. When we got back that night and in the morning we were both in hell! The liquor must have been dodgy and/or fake, we both threw up several times, morning and night, and felt rough most of the day. I did some research and found out fake dodgy liquor is endemic in Vietnam, they recommend you drink beer when can as its safe and usually okay. Next we have a sleeper bus to Hoi An, a small sleepy fishing village on the coast.