Hanoi and Halong Bay

Hanoi is the capital of the north and I expected it to be much like Ho Chi Minh City. I was happy to find it much prettier and easier to navigate with narrower roads for easier crossing. Along the way people kept telling me how cold it was up there, but being Irish, I found that 16 degrees a perfectly normal temperature. At the heart of Hanoi is a large lake, adding to its beauty. Everywhere decorations were being put up for Tet, which is the Vietnamese new year, which this year was falling on the 9th of February. Although it might have been interesting to see, I planned to be well out of the city by then. I'd been told that everything shuts down for the week and it becomes hard to get around. It's there biggest celebration.

While Hanoi I visited a couple of museums, the first being the Hanoi Prison. It had been around for centuries, first used by colonist French to inhabit misbehaving Vietnamese in horrid tiny conditions. Then during the war, used to inhabit American soldiers. The museum boasts of its fair treatment of the soldiers, letting them celebrate Christmas and how the soldiers called it the 'Hanoi Hilton' cause it was almost like a hotel. We were shown videos of smiling Americans having a great time. A quick google search however would reveal a different side to the story, where inhabitance were tortured and forced to sign anti america declarations.

We also visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, but thanks to bizarre and awkward opening hours didn't actually get to the Mausoleum part. We did however get to go to the most bizarre museum I've ever been in, which was the Ho Chi Minh museum. It was a strange conceptual place where it seemed that they were trying to bring the audience into his head, illustrating his thoughts and ideas through post modern installations. Bizarre. And to add to the bizarreness I had a couple of different groups of young adults want to get there photograph taken with me. I can only guess because of my white skin and blonde hair. I politely declined.

While at Hanoi I also did an overnight trip to Halong Bay, although it was entirely the wrong time of year for it. The morning we left it was lashing rain in Hanoi, but during the three hour bus trip to the coast it stopped, but remained misty and cloud. It's a world heritage site and in the bay are more than 2000 islands of limestone mountains. Although it was pretty cold it wasn't so misty that we couldn't see anything, it was pretty cool to see these beautiful islands appear out of the mist.

We'd booked our trip through our hostel, it was the 'Castaway Tour' trip and was more expensive than most. Had it been sunny it probably would have been worth the money, as your brought to the hostels private beach on one of the islands where we stayed the night. Because it was so cold the only thing to do was drink, which was basically what we'd been doing the whole time on the boat too! It was good fun and there was a good and very interesting mix of people. My least favourite were possibly the 14 Irish nurses who had been singing our national anthem and randomly speaking in Irish for no reason whatsoever. Being around them was worse than being in Coppers. Another interesting character was a guy with I Love Cork scribbled on his arm, but was infact English. I never saw him wearing a top, just shorts, and it was cold. He had an invisible dog who's name he'd call randomly and run after. He also liked to show you where he wet himself a bit and I heard he had lots of photo in his phone of his and friends penis' dressed up as different characters.
Mostly people were more normal and just good craic. Drinking went on long into the night,drunken deep long conversations were had on the beach.

The next morning I said a sad goodbye to Louk and Karola who were going to Capa as me the Aussies and Rob got the boat back very early to Halong and then the bus to Hanoi. Hangovers all round!

Motorbikes and mountains- a journey to Hue

I had met several people who told me the short (5-7 hours) from Hoi An to Hue was worth doing during the day and by motorbike or scooter, as it is one of the most scenic routes in Vietnam. Thanks to relatively new tunnels through the mountains the buses could get between the cities faster, but skipped the beautiful costal and mountainous views along the way. The motorbike option has increased in popularity since in was featured on 'Top Gear'. However, I was still not feeling brave enough to motorbike in Asia, having seen too many bike injures in backpackers, and the crazy driving everywhere I went. I decided to opt for the easy option and signed up for an 'Easyrider Tour'. This is basically traveling from A to B or anywhere else you like in Vietnam on the back of a motorbike with your biker tour guide doing the driving for you. With the Dutch and Austrian biking themselves to Hue the same day I was joined with two Aussie sisters that morning. As typical Irish luck would have it, after days of glorious sunshine, that morning the heavens had opened and heavy downpours and grey clouds greeted us. Our drivers had brought us rain gear, and told us that the rain would stop in an hour. I was skeptical but it turned out to be true. Although the clouds and mist would persist at least we wouldn't be soaked.
My backpack and bag were wrapped on plastic and strapped to the back of my bike. Dressed in full rain gear and helmet off we went. We'd stop frequently along the way, our first at Marble Mountain. We had an hour to climb the rough marble stone stairs along the mountainside and explore the Pagodas, finding enormous Buddist statues hidden in caves and tunnels. A beautiful place, seemingly unaffected by the War, unlike many other temples and Pagodas in Vietnam which were sometimes bombed to complete ruin by the American soldiers. They believed Viet Cong soldiers to be hiding in them. Whether this is an adequate reason to destroys beautiful places of worship which are thousands of years old, I am unconvinced.

After marble Mountain we drove by and stopped at China beach where we met local fishers and admired the strange creatures they'd caught. Because of the overcast misty weather the visibility was a bit poor, so we continued on to visit a Giant statue of Lady Budda, built in 1997 by the Thai and Vietnamese government. She looks out over the sea as a protection and to bring luck (and hopefully no tsunamis).
We then continued up the mountains, with beautiful views the whole way. We stopped at several points to take photos, and climb rocks. However, even when your in the middle of no where, on a mountain, Vietnamese woman will appear from thin air, trying to sell you shitty bracelets. The Vietnamese approach to trying to sell to tourists is without doubt the most irritating thing about traveling in Vietnam. They are pushy and persistent and sometimes will follow you even after you've said no. That coupled with the fact they are always quoting you a higher price than what locals will pay, for everything. The result being that you find yourself being ruder and harsher to streetsellers and taxis, which is a shame because aside from this Ive found them to be a very friendly nation.

After our mountain drive we stopped for lunch in a small cafe where we were given mountains of various plates of food for a total price of €1.50. Sometimes uncertain of what the meat was, it all being delicious, I thought it best not to ask. There is no real danger of getting dog, even though it is popular in the north to eat, it is expensive and considered a delicacy. For the record, I've heard it's nice, but I couldn't try it myself!

We continued on until we got to Hue. It was an amazing experience, despite the cold weather, and would you believe, I still managed to get sunburnt!

Spending all my money in Hoi An

The bus to Hoi An was not as comfortable as the previous one, but it could have been worse. Behind me and Kate at the back of the bus were five beds/seats, right beside each other, with three backpackers on them. We got chatting to them and laughing how it was a good thing they knew each other cause it was pretty intimate. Then at the last stop the bus filled up and the two remaining seats along side them were filled by a fat, smelly, snoring German couple. Eek!

Turned out we were all staying in the same place, in the Sunflower Hotel. Even though it was only a two star hotel, it was still amazing, we had buffet breakfast and swimming pool. And it was cheap as hell.

Everyone I'd met who'd been to Hoi An had loved it and it wasn't hard to see why. Trees lined the streets, there was less traffic, which meant less beeping. It was a perfect place to rent bicycles and cycled through the town, by the river, surrounding countryside and to the beach. The weather was pleasantly warm at 27 degrees. The place is also famous for its tailors, which really were everywhere. Every second shop was a tailors, offering to make whatever you desired. Luckily I'd already been recommended a good tailor in town, thanks to the Irish couple in Nha Thrang. I had come prepared with photographs from a trip to Venice, where I was taunted with beautiful designer wear I could not afford. I got my dream winter jacket and silk dress made overnight. Amazing.

Besides shopping, the next best thing to do in Hoi An was eat. It seemed impossible to get a bad meal here. Everything was amazing, even the street food. The local specialty was Cau Lao Another delicious noodle soup rivaling Pho Bo of the south.
On our second night we found the most amazing restaurant conveniently located right beside our hotel. The food was simply amazing. Me and Karola (the Austrian from the bus) decided to do the cooking class here. Almost every restaurant in Hoi An offered them, but this place was far to perfect to resist.

The next day our class started with a trip to the local market where are lovely teacher walked us through pointing out exotic fruit and veg most of which I'd never seen before, and informing us what they were and how to go about eating them. In the markets the meat is displayed in the open air which seemed terribly unhygienic to my western eyes. Our teacher explained that to customers in Vietnam it is seen as a sign of freshness, and at the end of everyday the meat left over is thrown away. Before cooking, the meat is always soaked in salt water. I suppose this process must be efficient as I am yet to get sick from food in Vietnam.
Getting back to the restaurant, we started cooking. The four meals we made were fresh steamed pork and shrimp spring rolls, chicken lemon grass, Vietnamese beef curry and fish (shark!) hotpot. It was all delicious and pretty fast to prepare it was a morning well spent, and at the end we were given little packs with some if the ingredients we might find hard to find at home.

After three days in Hoi An, I'd done an impressive amount of shopping and eating. I thought it best to get out while I still had some sort of budget to speak of!