Vietnam

We were picked up at our hotel by our guide (still not sure what his name was but we called him Pete). So he took us to the train station and when the conductor starting yelling at him we realised there was a problem..the tickets for foreigners cost more and are different, so we held up the train for a little bit.

The 3 hour train ride on the wooden bench seats on a rickety old train with people smoking all around us wasn't too bad, and glad when we eventually arrived in Haiphong. We were picked up by cyclos, suitcase and all we were transferred to our hotel which was really nice for a change.

The following day we were taken to the 'hydrofoil' (something which looked left over from the war), and off to Cat Ba Island where we jumped on the back of motorbikes and taken to the other side of the island for our boat cruise. We were the only tourists on this beautiful old wooden boat and sat up on the open deck with a bottle of wine and enjoyed hours of cruising around Halong Bay admiring its over 3000 beautiful limestone islands, and green water. The were little villages everywhere of tiny houses floating on water. We stopped only once to visit what was a secret cave, which was a small hole in one of the limestone islands. We were then cooked a huge seafood feast, this was definately the highlight of our trip to Vietnam.

The following day we set off on a bicycle ride through the countryside of Haiphong. We passed through villages of rice paddies and other farms. We spent most of time replying 'hello' as the locals seemed as if they hadn't seen too many westeners, but they were very friendly and we got a lot of pointing and laughters, greetings and a few 'Bonjours!'. The women here work so hard!! It really is equal opportunity in Vietnam, we've seen women unloading truck loads of bricks, cementing, farming, you name it, if a man is doing a labourous job there'll be a woman doing the same thing.

Hoi An is like a resort town. The locals seem to be obsessed with sweeping their streets, so we found Hoi An very clean. All the buildings are normally painted yellow with dark brown wooden carved entries. Its very picturesque. We caught motorbikes into town and back every day, on one of the trips the taxi rider was a young girl half of my size!! But off we scootered, no worries, we don't mind for one dollar! Anyway Hoi An although beautiful was a scheming little town. 'Hey where you from? You enjoying holiday? Come into my shop' constantly!!! They are even tricky enough to ride up beside you while you are on the motorbike taxi and start talking to you and then the conversation ends with 'I've got a shop would you like to have a look?'. Anyway, the cafes in Hoi An were beautiful, there was not a slummy one amongst them (which was a change). The town was full of both tailor shops and art galleries. The art here is amazing, I must say its inspiring.

Banana delivery man - Hoi An

Stir Fry anyone? Hoi An

We had a 4 hour drive from Dalat to Nha Trang, mainly down the 1000m decent from the hillside town that is Dalat. Possibly the scariest 4 hours of our lives. Our personal driver 'Toung' informed us that he was a very "careful" driver when he picked us up from the hotel. In a sense he was, and for the most part he drove quite well, it's just the whole Vietnam driving conditions that make it a little crazy, like the need for him to overtake buses on the hilside corners... with 100 foot drops to the ground below.

However, as scary as that sounds... the hill billy hoods that we passed really had us concerned. Just before the foot of the hills, we drove through a shanty town, and just on the outskirts was a group of beer swilling, shirtless early twenty odds... with a GUN!!! Obviously concerned... we asked Toung what the go was..... with a somewhat of a hesitation... to make something up... he suggested, "don't worry.. just shooting birds!" Funny, I haven't seen a bird since we got to Vietnam!!!

Anyway, reaching the foot of the hills we hit the "highway!"... a very narrow two lane 100km stretch of road with shanty town lining every meter... shanty town with cats, dogs, cows motorbikes and people just an outstretched arm away.

So.... try and picture travelling along a CBD street in peak hour at 100km per hour.... with elevator music blaring.... Toungs favourite... it was just a surreal experience!

We got to Nha Trang safe and sound... althought we felt like we had just done 4 hours on a show ride.. bit green around the gills!

Our first day in Nha Trang was spent on the beach. Our hotel owns a piece of it across the road. We hired day beds each. Jo had a massage by two ladies for 45 minutes. This sounds great... but when they pulled out what looked and smelt like a mixture of engine & fish oils for her massage... we were quickly back to the hotel for a shower!

Toung, the driver, who is actually a Nha Trang local, suggested a great cafe... the "Cyclo Cafe". We ate there 3 times! It has definately been a highlight of the whole trip. One of the dishes we ate was coconut chicken curry served in a fresh coconut, and when I say fresh, it was actually cut off the tree in front of the cafe while we waited.

On our second day we decided to risk our lives with Toung again and set off on a day tour of the Nha Trang countryside. We visited families, each with their own traditional trade. For example there was the clay pot oven makers, rice paper makers, conical hats, traditional mat makers, coffee bean roasters and bakery. We ended the day visiting a kindergarten where the kids were so excited to see us foreigners and even sung us a couple of songs, which was so cute. Then Toung took us to one of his favourite Vietnamese restaurants on the river where he ordered a feast, although we were not entirely sure of the contents of some of the dishes.

Dalat is beautiful! We were up at 5am this morning to walk around the lake which the town is built around, it took us a little over an hour and still the locals are doing their peculiar stretching, playing badmittion without nets and this time there were quite a few groups in circles playing a game where they kicked a small bean bag in the air. We seem to still attract lots of attention around the streets, yesterday when we were out exploring school was out and the school kids found us quite amusing, lots of giggling, lots of 'hellos' and even one 'welcome to Vietnam'. We took our 'Easy Riders' tour (which we've later discovered were imposters!), anyway, after much haggling and negotiating we took our tour on the back of old Yamahas winding up and down hills, quite a hair raising experience but they were careful drivers. Saw some great things but Dalat the town is beautiful, its located in the hills, (a little like Maleny), and built around a lake, and the whole town if full of flower gardens. It is surrounded by farms which produce vegetables and flowers and sold to most of Vietnam. It is also alot cooler, quite the opposite of HCMC. Unfortunately the beer here which is called 333, or Ba-Ba-Ba in Vietnamese is the same price as water, so its a little hard to make a decision when in a cafe, so.....we are on holidays so Ba-Ba-Ba!!!!!!!

The buildings here are gorgeous, they are all beautifully rendered in colour, we've seen in all bright green, pink, yellow, and have that french villa look about them, and being on hillsides give them so much character. The tourist attractions are a little spoilt by what must be thought to enhance the attraction but..locals dressed in cowboy outfits offering photos to be taken on their horse is a little tacky, there was even a man dressed in a bear outfit at the waterfall we visited here today, what are they thinking??

As I sit here Hotel California is being played its pretty funny hearing Vietnamese singing along to the Eagles - I wonder if they are getting their royalties all the way from Dalat!

We had drinks last night at Larrys Bar (Larry was the L in DHL Worldwide Logistics) apparently. Buy one get one free at $1.50 a beer isn't too bad. We met a Yank who claims to manage a restaurant in Las Vegas, so that kept us entertained for a while.

Well tomorrow we are being driven to Nha Trang the beachside resort, but just before we were talking to a couple of locals and they told us that Nha Trang is a bit dangerous, not to go out at night and not to carry a handbag. Bit of a worry, considering how blasay we are getting about security now, I've ditched my money belt and neck pouch, so will have to get back into the swing of being alot more cautious.

Delivery vehicle Dalat - take it steady!

Fruit & vege stall, Dalat

"Motorbike Sir?".. we think nearly every family within the 3 million population here in Ho Chi Minh City owns a motorbike, will carry anything on it, and there are no road rules other than beeping the horn just to say you are on the road. The most we've seen is 5 people and even saw a family of 4 with the woman breast feeding on the back! This is an amazing place and can't quite get the smell out of my nose, but the people are the best. We have met so many locals, they all want to know how many babies you have and seem to love Australians. As one cyclo drive said 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi'! We got accosted by a cyclo drive (a three wheeled bicycle) the first 10 minutes of leaving our hotel and quickly negotiated a half day tour with 'Sang' and his friend. This was an awesome way of experiencing Saigon being in amongst it. We've learnt a few Vietnamese words which always gets a big grin, so many smiles. 'Sing Chao' (formal hello), 'Gamon' (thanks), 'Chao Tum Bit (goodbye), and a few more. We are also getting better at crossing the road, if you look straight ahead and don't freak out the motorbikes just go around you, its amazing. We have also got to love their coffee which is served with a filter on the top and drips through, its strong but not bitter, and the Beef Noodle Soup "Pho" is great. We set off a little far on our second day there and walked up every alley way and streets around, the fresh (I use the word fresh cautiously) food markets are displayed so neatly but the meat displays are a worry, the locals seem to prefer to check the meat displayed on boards with their hands, I'm sure the germs are all killed when the meat is cooked (I hope!). We did all the touristy things on the first day such as War Museum, Reunification Palace, Pagodas, parks etc, it makes you want to wear a shirt that reads 'I am not an American'. The second day we got up at 5am to go to the park where it was peak hour with exercising, badmitton, tai chi, shadow boxing, lots of strange stretching, and organised exercise classes with bamboo lead by a guy on a microphone, we just followed everyone else doing laps of the park walking. It was a great experience. The shopping is pretty good but kind of not in the mood for it at this stage, although we did get a massage for $7 US for 70 minutes, sounded pretty good and was pretty good until the masseurs asked for $7 US tip.

Anyway at the moment we are in Dalat, we flew here this morning with a plane full of American Diplomats, you don't think that plane trip was noisy!! So far so good, have booked an 'Easy Rider' - motorbike guide, for tomorrow so both of us will be on the backs of little Hondas with tour guide 'Hung' to show us around, so will update later.

Our first cyclo ride