Halong Bay

We hooked up with Aussie's Tania and Katherine and booked ourselves a 3 day boat trip to a place called Halong Bay which is the most beautifull part of Vietnam. Its that same giant Krast formations, big limestone mountians coming out of the sea with jungle on top. They could be only a few meters wide at the bottom but shoot straight up and look fantastic. Halong Bay has 6000 odd of these things and it does look stunning.

We booked the trip in a place that told us that we could meet there in the morning, have breckfast leave our bags there. This was all part of the deal. When the 4 of us turned up that morning (with very sore heads as we had been drinking Beer on the streets with the english teachers we had bumped into agian the night before) the guy behind the desk did not have a clue, told us there was no breckfast and that the hotel was closing that day for a month!!! What the F#$%?? Typical Hanoi experiance. We managed to get some stale bread and jam out of him and the bus turned up to bring us to Halong. We had to haggle to get our packs left in another hotel which we did in the end. Dragging around big packs on boats for 3 days not fun.

We got to Halong in the afternoon and got onto the boat, a big old aisan junk, very oriental looking and old. Like a move agian! We had lunch on the boat which was cool and then procceeded to steam for the bay itself which looked amazing on the horizion. Its hard to describe this place so if you just google 'Halong Bay' and you will have an idea of it.
We stopped in one part of the bay and were told that we had to pay 35.000 dong to go on a little rowboat to see some caves. Balls to this, more hiden charges as you go along so we declined that. Water on the boat was $1 a go, crazy, its about 10c normally.
We chugged on agian through the by an me a Dee were taken to our room which was really cool. Sitting there in my window smoking with this amazing scenery and the old wooden interior of the boat, was far out.
We docked and were all rushed off the boat, this is where things started to go a bit sour with the crew. They basically treated the 12 odd tourists on the boat like shit and were barking at people to get off the boat. We did not know why we were getting off as no one told us but we were here to see some caves. Dee and I nearly ended up punching one of them. Pushy Fekkers. After being shoved of the boat I could not really focus on the caves as I was to stresed. We got back to the harbor and the boat had moored about 10ft away from where we were, this was the reason for them wanting us of the boat. If one had explained in english it may have helped!!
So we had a few cheep beers on the quay and hopped back on the boat. That afternoon we stopped in this lagoon shaped area and went Sea Kyacking. It was 17.oo at this point and a stupid time to dump people into the sea as it gets dark on the dot at 6. If you had been lost you could be in deep trouble! We made it back after a good paddle and were nearly ran over by our stupid crew turning thier boat around in the dark and not even caring where we were. It was exciting any way!
We got back on the boat alive and it was dark. We munched dinner and broke out the Vodka we had all bought and proceeded to have big sing song on the roof of the boat. The boat oppisate us had a group of french folks doing the same as us so when they heard my guitar they all shouted us over. We jumped between boats (good fun in the dark ) We sang songs and got arseholed under the stars. I slept on the roof that night as when do you get a chance to do this normally?!

The next morning we were awoken at 7 sharp agian really rude and pushy crew, force fed breckfst and physically ejected from our rooms. I thought Dee was gonna hit the old women that kept trying to move her out of our room , while she was getting dressed!

We were all a bit worse for ware this morning and the boat moved a few miles and dropped us on Cat Ba Island which is the populated island out here. We were spending the night on a hotel here. We got dropped at the hotel and were told to meet down stairs in 20 mins for a jungle treck. It sounded like we had no choice in this!! So at 8.30 that morning we were marching up the side of a jungle coverd mountian with massive hangovers recreating a scene from "Platoon"

It would have been nice treck but it was to early, to hot, we were not told what we were doing that day and the guide did not give a shit about headcounts or anything and could have easily lost someone. The Jungle and mountians were first class but we were in no shape to enjoy them!! The treck lasted 2 or 3 hours and we made it. We got dumped back at the hotel and were all exhausted and crashed the rest of the day, even though it was georgus out there.
That evening when we had all risin , we had dinner, were taught how to use chop sticks properly by an old Vietnamese couple who were lovely, and went to drink 10c beer on the street with the locals.
Its mad, you can drink for hours here in a big group and the bill comes to 4 Euro odd for everyone. I think Irish Life should have thier next staff night out here, will be very cheap for them (and dangerous)
The next day we were taken back to the boat and made a course for the mainland agian. We stopped for a swim on the way but the stupid crew did not put the anchor down so as you are swimming you had to keep an eye on where you were drifting relative to the boat!! Can anyone say "Health and Safety" ??
We got back to Hanoi that evening. Halong Bay is absolutly amazing but we made the mistake of going with a cheap company. We paid $38 for the 3 day but you can spend up to a $100. I think and extra $20 would go a long way next time!!

After all this stress we really needed to go somewhere quite. The Aussies were going up to a village in the mountains clled 'Sapa' and said it was really cool. We said fek it and decided to go and Im glad we did as its a really chilled place.

Rite my fingers are bleeding, I really need to blog reguarly and not in big chunks!!!
Im gonna finish this of later and tell yall about Sapa then : )

Hanoi

Hanoi is mental. We landed at the airport outside the city an got a taxi into town. We agreed $8 and when we got to the oldtown where we are staying he said $10. We told him to piss off but basically straight away , more than the rest of Vietnam you are being scammed up here.
Also the place is the most chaoticly busy and mental place so far. The streets are very small and are all old fashond alleys everywhere, relly easy to get lost! The amount of motor bikes is unbeliveable here, literally millions and it makes Siagon look like Dublin. You cannot walk on the foot path because of the amount of people and junk squeezed into the place. 13 million people live here and it feels like it. It is great to see but the sheer noise, speed, heat of it soon starts to get under your skin when combined with the constant scamming.
We booked into the hotel and even there we could not get in or out of the room with out the reception guy hasseling us full on to book a tour with him as all hotels here double as travel agencys. Its OK at first but constantly being asked what you are doing today or tomorrow bugs me, its my buisness what I do!! Its all very smooth talking and very friendly but the bottom line is extracting $$$ from your wallet. People will talk to you and badger you for hours if they think they can get some $ Often its quite funny but it can piss you off, one example is blatantly paying double or triple for anything here compared to locals. Yes, in Aisa tourists pay more than the locals, thats cool and no problem. In Hanoi its a different level. If I want to buy batteries for the camera they start at $5 and I have to haggle then down to 1.50 which is as cheap as I can get so far, they should be less than buck! Another one I heard is some firends were shopping in a normal shop, they paid, got the recipt and the woman scribbled out the total and wrote a much higher one down instead!! Mental.
So between noise hassle and scams Hanoi has turned out to be just a nessaccary evil as its the main transport hub for us to explore North Vietnam and move on to Laos.
To top this the ATM machine swallowed my Visa card which ended up being a pain in the arse as it was the weekend so we had to hit some friends up for a loan of a few quid (cheers Tania and Kathrine!!) Luckily I got travel insurance and the bank wired through money to me stress free, nearly.
The first night in Hanoi was a laugh, we went around in a rickshaw and had a few drinks in a cool little bar and talked with the manager there for ages about Vietnam and travel. Hanoi is full of intresting things and good people its just a lot of hassle finding them sometimes!

We booked a day trip for the next day to a place called Tam Coc and the old capital. It was 3 hours outside Hanoi and just what the doctor orderd. First in the morning we went to the ancient old capital of vietnam which was beautifull, really old asian palace situated in an area where the mountians just shoot out of the ground, really high and narrow so the look like pillars, very very exotic like! After lunch and a battery haggle we did aboat trip to Tam Coc itslef which is the same mountians but you can float around and under them on little boats as its all flooded rice paddies. The scenery was stunning and I nearly melted my camera. We had two girls rowing us for a few hours, it was very hot and I felt guilty getting paddeled around by girls so I have a crack at the rowing. Dee also had a go on the oars and we floated in circle for a bit then. We were the last back and jumped on the minibus back to Hanoi. Big sleep that night.

Hoi An

After 12 hours on a shitty packed bus with 2 crying babys and multiple nappy changes we arrived in Hoi An at dawn, pretty unimpressive at first but the hotel we ended up in was very nice, had a swimming pool in the middle of it and looked well exotic.
Slept most of that day after the night before on the bus and went poking around town that night.
Bumped into Matt agian and an Aussie girl , Tania who he met in Nha Trang . Got lost looking for the pretty old town part that evening but it was nice wandering. Some old dude whipped his dick out in front of us and pissed on teh pavement, which was nice.
Hoi An is a sleepy little town and there is no danger at all , unlike Nha Trang at night. we ended up just playing pool and slurping suds that evening.
We went to the beach the next day which was real pretty and lacking tourists so natrually we were pounced on when we arrived by the vendors selling all sorts of crap. These are poor people just trying to scratch a living but it drives you nuts after a while and has made my mind up to avoid beaches in Vietnam due to hassle factor. The whole afternoon was spent haggeling with these vendor girls and fending others off. They were nice but its a head wrecker after a while. So much for relaxing beach time.
Around 5 pm Matt and Tania turned up and we walked down the end of the beach where there was no sellers and had a beer and a smoke and played some guitar untill dark. It was nice.
That night we all hooked up for dinner and proceeded to have great night, drinking Sambucia and been ridden around all the so called night spots looking for 'Maximum Dancing' as the moto drivers put it. We rode miles into the country at midnight to find an empty barn with disco lights and a very sleepy owner wondering why we were here, so much for maximum dancing!! The drivers bought us back to town and we managed a lock in with a load of roudy UK folk, Vietnam is hosting the APEC summit so everything shuts down at 12 which is a pain in the arse.
Hangover day the next day suprisingly but I did manage to fing the old town which was real pretty and old, classic Aisa, took tons of photos and a bit of video. Very nice.
We met up for Pizza that night at a local blokes we had been at for a lock in that last night, good food :)
Me and Dee had enough of busses for now and the Hoi an to Hanoi leg is 16+ hours and notoriously bad so we ended up getting a taxi to Da Nang and flying to Hanoi the next moring which took an hour and saved a day and a night, it cost $50 each!!
So breckfast in Hoi An and Lunch in Hanoi. Hanoi is a different story, basically its a bastard of a place and I and everyone Ive met hates it and cant wait to leave!!!!

Nha Trang

Sorry guys, Ive been slack on the blogging! we been moving a lot and having all sorts of good and bad things happen to us so i will explain as follows:

After the 12 or so hours north on the bus from Siagon we got to the beach resort of Nha Trang.
We got there at 5 in the morning and got off the bus to be mobbed by motorbike drivers, they can be a right pusy lot and a pain in the ass sometimes. We got a taxi as we had our bags and got a hotel sorted , not our first choice but it was nice and $14 per night. balcony, TV sea view and all that so was OK. The balcony had a 3 foot railing and a long drop so we stayed well clear of it!!

We crashed out that day and then checked out the town that night, went for nice food in the Sailing club, rite posh it was. Nha Trang has a lot of beach, Diving, and massage/sauna's, when I say massage its the 'special variety'
It can be a bit dodgy at night also when you are walking around late so you have to have your wits about you. We had no trouble though. We meet up with Matt and the English teachers randomly agian and spent a few nights there drinking beer on the street with the locals for 15 cents a pop, dirt cheap and the best way to drink out here. All the locals basically live on the footpaths which are full of plastic chairs and tables, makeshift restraunts and beer pumps, motorbikes and various animals. Its also full of giant rats as the rubbish and food waste is strewn about everywhere.
You cant go on the beach at night as you may well be robbed!! That was a pity.
Dee and I arranged a boat trip around the Islands which were very beautfull. We thouhgt it would be a relaxing tip with snorkelling but turned out to be a giant piss up at 11 in the morning, the crew of the boat told us all to jump into the water and we they produced a floating bar and got us all hammerd on cheap wine, it was nuts! Dee also went snorkelling for the first time in deep water and liked it. Was a lovly day and then we were dropped at an island to chill on the beach for a while. We bumped into Matt agian as he was on another boat doing the same thing.

We all went after to an aquaium with lots of mad fishy things and a few sharks, was cool.
That evening we went make and meet up with the usuall crowed and got merry untill a foriginer we did not know started getting agro with a local , it got pretty heated so we left before any shit started.
Next day I did a dive with the Americans , was really cool as I did not have my licence with me but they let me in anyway with a refresher course. Was a 18 meter dive and we went through loads of huge underwater caves and saw lots of cool reef life and fish. We surfaced and then went for another dive an bit later, shallower and clearer water , say a moray eel, nasty looking critter!

That night we left for Hoi An, one of the prettyiest towns in Vietnam, Chinese/French buildidings, like something out of a movie. It was untouched by the war so is really special.

Leaving Siagon

Today Dee picked up a suit she had been waiting for, a fully taliord one exactly how she wants it for $45 and its lovly. How mad, Im gonna get me one made up to as I may just need one for the interviews back in the real world!!

We have decided to head north, we are basically making our way to Hanoi 1,700Km north near China. This should take us the next 10 days or so and this is the first leg.

We are going to a place called Nha Trang which is the best beaches in Vietnam. We are hoping the wether will be good as we have had mixed luck to say the least so far with all these monsoons and the typhoon!

So we are leving at 8 tonight and it will take 10 hours approx on a decent bus (I hope!)

Right, We gonna get some grub and then get the bus, Good luck all :)

Walking Siagon

Today Dee and I walked all day around Siagion's downtown, where all teh shops and markets are. Dee needed some shoes as sandles dont really cut it all the time as we painfully found out.
We went to a bunch of markets and shops and eventually found a giant top of the range shopping centre at european prices. We spent a few hours there and by the time we came out it was dark.
We had bought most of the stuff we needed and started to walk the 30min walk back to the gaff.
Its nice walking at night here as there is neon everywhere and the city is pulsing. I have heard a lot about Vietnam being dodgy sometimes but we have not had any trouble and have walked eveywhere, day and night.
We got back and Dee crashed out for the evening, I went of for dinner and tried to write this blog but fecking PC died and I lost it all!!!!

Cu Chi Tunnels

Today I went to the Viet Cong Tunnel system 20km outside of Siagon. The americans carpet bombed the place but never managed to get control of the area.
Its 200Km of tunnels that stretch from Siagon to Cambodia. Its pretty amazing to see when it was done with nothing more than bamboo and shovels and helped win the war for the Communist North.

Now the tunnels are widended a bit for the tourists but the are still tiny, long, dark , humid and intensly clostrophobic. I went through the main tourists tunnel and had a go on the original tunnels which there was no one else in. It was mad going down this tiny hole in the ground into these tiny tunnels. I aint the biggest bloke in the world and I had to be on all fours and my head stooped. It got so narrow I had to turn back, it was tight.
How whole gangs of blokes got around down here with all thier eqipment and rifles I dont know. It was impossible for me in shorts and a shirt!
At the end of the tunnel systems there was a shooting range of all things which was quite funny as all the tour groups of Koreans and Japanese middle aged women and men blasting away with M16's and the like!!! Unlike Cambidoa this is a designated tourist attraction here so was ligit and safe, instructors everywhere. I had a go on two rifles as it was only a few bucks.
After that we were dropped off at a Disabled Handicraft Centre which was staffed my all the people maimed and disabled by mines and agent orange etc. The work they were producing was amazing and if I ever own a gaff I will be coming back to by some of this stuff. Huge wodden panals polished like glass with minutely dietaild vietnamese drawings. Really nice but I only had 6 bucks on me : (

Got back to Siagon that afternoon, met Matt and arranged to meet him in an Irish bar that night on the other side of town. Our taxi man did not know it and dropped us miles from it but we found it eventually. We got a bottle of wine and it was a bit freaky, it actually did look like the grave diggers inside, not your normal cheesy irish pub. Odd to be here in the middle of Vietnam!

Matt turned up and we went to the local Vietnamese barbaque which was really good food, they had Rat, Worm, Rabbit, frogs, insects. I had an insect starter and some fish, was great and cool in a 'down with the locals' kinda way.

We got a taxi back to the gaff after and stayed up till 4 drinking vodka and smoking, Matt and I had a good long chat about everything and nothing and Dee managed to pass out in spite of us.

Good day!

Siagon

Right! I spent hours getting up to date with the blog last night and the PC crashed so I lost all of it, grrr!!
This is a condensed overview of whats been going on:

Siagon is mad mad busy, motorbikes, markets, neon, rickshaws and conical hats. Its crazy trying to cross the road but good fun when you make it.
Our first full day here was just taking it easy. We met Matt and the americans agian and had a few drinks with them, I tried some Cobra Wine which is a big bottle with a cobra fermenting into the wine. Tasty. Made me strong like bull. Easy day, nice hotel so we watched a lot of TV. you will stare at anything after a few weeks of no TV!

The next day we walked around downtown siagon which is like Dublin, big city with a small centre. There are not to many foriginers here which is nice, especially when you leave our district.
The vietnamese are cool, everyone charges double here as a starting point so its haggle city. Its hard to avoid being ripped off but we are getting the hang of it. We have to think in Euros, Dollars and Vietnamese Dong. You get 1 Million Dong for 50 Euro so its a constant maths excersise when working out bills.
Dee poked around a few shops for clothes but we had been givin bad directions and ended up only finding a Vietnamese version of TK Max. Dee spent a few hours there and I went for lunch, more relaxing me thinks.

After the shopping we went to the War Remanents Museam which is one of the best museams I have been to. Outside is full of tanks, planes, helecoptors and all sorts of American Hardware while in the two buildings there is a really good photo gallery with some hard hitting stuff. It was very well done and very sad at the senselessness of the whole thing here. The other building held clothes, ordinance, weapons, personal items from both sides. Agian brilliant but very sad.

I was outside and a guy came over to me to sell me a few books he had about Vietnam he had no arms above the elbow, one leg gone above the knee and one eye missing. Despite this he was quite a cheerfull seeming bloke and we started haggleing for a book. I settled on $8 from $15 which is nearly triple what you can get a book for but what can you do? Going to a museam and seeing bombs on display and then walking out and meeting a real person who has been hit by these are two different things. I consider it a tourist tax , Sometimes in some places our here it can be like you are a horror tourist seeing all these amazing things but equally a lot of harrowing stuff just below the surface. I cant explain, not clever enough ; )

We got a taxi back the 10mins to the hotle and the bastard charges us 15 Euro for 70 c fare as he had the meter rigged. In this town you agree the price BEFORE you get into the taxi. We forgot to do this and he hit the meter. I was pissed rite off with him but there is nothing you can do about it. We paid and learnt a lesson. I suppose 5 weeks and that is the first con, not to bad!
It was twice as bad though as we had been warned specifically about this from friends who it had happened to,Bugger.
That evening we bumped into the americans agian and had a few drinks and some food and talked the usual shite you talk about out here - the state of the world, saving the planet, blah blah blah...

Vietnam

Today we left early, meeting Matt from the previous night. We left in a taxi, only the 3 of us this time and made for the Cambodia/Vietnam border ; a tiny little place about 3 hours NE from Kampot that I cannot even remember the name of.
We got through Cambodia immigration and walked the few hundred yards through no mans land to the Vietnam Border control. We got through with no problems, after visa and baggage check. Vietnam was like coming back to the 21st centrary agian, paved roads and no mud.
We got a few moto bike drivers to take us to the connecting bus station about 30km away. they took us to thier friends mini van rental company and promptly demanded $20 each to take us to Siagon. We started laughing and soon got a bit stressed out when they all of a sudden seemed not to speak english when we mentioned 'Bus Station' Eventually they saw the light and took us there. That took 30 mins of time wasted.
Got to bus station and got tickets for $4 each leaving at 14.00 which gave us time for lunch which we had from a local stall, very nice and a buck each.
Got the bus which took from 2 untill about 10 to get to Siagon. We picked up another taxi to bring us to the local backpacker haunt, I was expecting Ko San Rd agian but was plesently suprised, very quite not many forigners around at all.
We rewarded ourselves with hot water and TV room and got changed. We went out around 10.30 for some food and drinks with Matt and some more americans we had met on the way, they seem like nice people, all english teachers in Bangkok.
My impressions of Vietnam so far are positive. It seems that everyone tries to rip you off as a starting point and then you can haggle common sense eventually. I think I can do it better, just need to have more patience!
The Vietnamese seem a very friendly and jolly bunch, everyone smiles and shakes your hand. A bunch of local women on the ferry boat today started rubbing our noses admiring how pointy they were as they see this as a sign of beauty.
This place should be fun.

Day off and quiz

After the day before we needed to revocer so we ate, had a few drinks and smokes and played a quizz that the guest house was holding that evening, good fun. The guitar came out and we had a bit of a sing song.We met a American guy called Matt who we retired to our room with in order to fininsh off the green stuff as we had decided to cross the border to Vietnam the next morning.
We succeded eventually ; )

Bokor Hill Station

Hard day today. We got rounded up for a day trip to the top of the local mountian where there is an old french abandond hill station, hotel, casino etc all perched on the edge of the rock about 1400m high. The hotel here is famous as its supposedly well haunted and I can confirm its well freaky.
We left early in the back of the pick up from out guesthouse in Kampot with 4 other people and our driver and guide. Belgen (sp??) and dutch.
The park entrance is a few Km outside town so we got ther quickly, paid $5 to enter. Straight away it was a vertical zig zag mud track cut into the side of the jungle. It had been and was pissing rain all the time so the mud was crazy. Sitting in the back of the pick up was a strain but good adventure. Dee managed to get in the front cabin as she still had bad feet and only flip flops. about 30mins in we hit a landslide which some locals were in the middle of clearing, it was a sheer drop the other side of the road, i dunno how far but if you looked over you could see tree tops , way down.
We got out of the 4WD and started walking up the track while they treid to get the jeep accross the slurry pit of a road. They got through eventually and an hour or so later we came to the Black Palace which used to be the kings summer resadence before the war here. The altitude ment that it was very cold and very wet, think Donegal in December and you are not far off what it looked like. There was mist and fog everywhere swiriling around the buildings and it was a very surriel sight. After a quick stop there we continued about another hour to the top of the mountian, getting wetter and colder all the time.
We got to Boker Hill Station about lunchtime. The visability was about zero, as the clouds blew you could see shapes of old buildiings fading in and out of view, very spooky indeed.
We had a qucik lunch of veg curry with the guides, very nice and then drove over the hill to the Bokor Hill Palace Hotel. It was 100% pure 'The Shining' matertal. This huge , gawdy european hotel sitting on top of a jungle mountian in the middle of sout cambodia, very wierd. The place has been gutted by thieves over the years and a few armies have used it as thier base so its just a shell but the structures are intact and its a very scary place.
The Khemer Rouge hid out up here and used the hotel as there base. They would round up people from the surrounding areas and bring them all the way up here to the hotel, tourture and kill the in the basements and the simply throw them over the wall a few yards past the hotel which is the edge of a 1000ft cliff.
I was a bit of a sceptic about this ghost stuff but I went into the basements on my own and lasted about 3 minutes down there. Deffinatly something very strange about the place.
It was so wet I could not take photos as it was just coming out as mist. I got some good video shots which I am looking forward to seeing.
We did not linger due to the conditions and retraced our route down the hill, seeing a lot of leaches, a big monkey and a few eagles. There are tigers and all sorts in here apparently.
About 5 we got out of the park and took a little boat down the river back to Kampot which was really nice, started to warm up agian :)
We were wrecked after that and crashed out early. Hard but good day.

Kampot

Today Dee was feeling better so we decided to leave where we were due to the rain.
we booked a taxi to the village of Kompot about 100Km away in a national park, jungle stuff.
The Taxi came and drove for 30 mins around town before stopping at the local taxi rank where we were told that he was waiting for more people to come. He said 4 sit in front and 5 in the back. This is a Toyota Camray, I dont think you can fit 9 in there. I am wrong. so we stared being squeezed in the back and ended up haveing to buy the 'empty' back seats so we could have some room. $4 taxi ended up costing $15 odd. Its the classic Cambodian taxi scam and we were dumb enough not to see it coming.
We finally made Kampot that evening, really quite , really small town under thing great big mountian plateau, really nice. No phones, internet, bars, tourists or life in general but we ended up staying in a nice french colonial villa. easy nite that night just dinner and we had the TV room to ourselves which was cool.