Our First Great Adventure

Got a seating bus from Hue to Hoi An. The journey was lovely the scenery through the mountains was amazing! It didn't take very long about 4hrs which seemed like less as we had 2 stops on route, the first at a proper tourist shop in the middle of no-where and the second at Marble Mountian; which is a cluster of five marble and limestone hills located in Ngu Hanh Son ward, south of Da Nang, which I have to say were quite impressive, especially with all the carved figures located at the entrances.

Within 20 minutes of arriving in Hoi An, I fell in love. A beautiful little town located on the Thu Bon River, the heart of which is the Old Town, full of winding lanes and Chinese-styled shops and houses. It's such a calm and relaxing place to be that I could see myself living here permanently. We had been warned by the hotel staff that we would be hassled by people trying to take us to thier clothes workshops, by the cyclo's and motoriders but that just wasn't the case, everyone was just so chilled out. The river front during the day was lovely and the little winding streets were really charming. We found a lovely little restaurant called 'Cafe 43' it had been recommended on tripadvisor as the number 1 place to eat and I can see why; The family that run the cafe are so polite, friendly and always smiling, the cafe it attached to their actual home, so when you need to use the toilet you are using their family WC, we enjoyed our lunch so much that we decided to come back for dinner. We also bumped into Chrissey and Stu, the four of us decided to take a walk down to the river front which was even more impressive by night. It was the end of a full moon celebration so there were loads of coloured laterns, some of which were floating in the water along with 3 large animal laterns; a fish, tiger and snake these were permanent fixtures. It was so calming that we found a little bar and just people watched and chatted for hours.

We had decided that for our second day we would spend it on the beach as we hadn't had the pleasure of seeing one yet. Our hotel had told us there was a beach located about 5km away from the hotel, however we had been informed by a dutch couple we'd had a brief conversation with that there was a much quiter, more local beach about 2km in the opposite direction so we decided to head there, we took a couple of bicycles (supplied free by our hotel) and made the journey. I have to say Im not generally a bike person they make me nervous but I really enjoyed the 20 minute cycle; the scenery was beautiful, green paddy fields with random water buffalo, small flowing rivers, sandy patches with cactus's growing. When we did arrive at the beach we parked our bicycles (they have parking lots for these LoL) and strolled down onto the sandy beach, we were approached by some women who owned beach front bars and were offered beds and umbrellas for free if we bought goods from them. Me and Danny just looked at each other, shook our heads as we wanted a spot were we could be alone. So we took a stroll further down the beach to a quite spot that looked as if it had been untouched, laid out our towels, stripped off (we had bathing suits on obviously!) and jumped straight into the sea. It felt so good, it wasn't as warm as it had been at Halong Bay but it was really refreshing. We messed around for a while then decided to catch a bit of sun. While we were laying there we had the privilege of watching a couple of local fisherman, casting their nets; one stayed on the beach holding one end of the line while the other using a round, weaved baskets as boat made his way out in the water to form a semi circle, laying his net as he went. This was a real traditional method, something I had never seen. The young man in the boat made his way back to shore and then slowly between the two of them started to pull the net in. We waited in anticipation to see what they would bring in. It took over an hour for them to pull the net in, they had spotted us watching and nodded and smiled in acknowledgment. Once they had managed to bring in the net they held it up for us to see their catch, it was such a great thing to have seen. We went for another dip in the water before deciding we'd done enough sunbathing - It really had been such a romantic experience. It was only when we got back to our hotel we realised how sun burnt we both were, Danny's shoulders were really bad, bright red and sore to the touch. We decided as we were feeling a bit drained and delicate from the sun to have a nice relaxing evening, we headed back to Cafe 43, as we'd both fallen in love with it not just for the food but the family as well. While waiting for our food Via one of the owners daughters asked if she could plate my hair, I couldn't say no firstly because she was so sweet and secondly because I love people playing with my hair, she kept telling me how beautiful my smile was, I really felt at home there. After dinner we headed back to the river front, found a nice little quite place with a balcony where we sat and talked for hours, while watching the locals go about their business.

Our third day was very quite, we had originally planned to visit 'My Son' however due to us both feeling a bit delicate from our sunburn, Danny was actually in quite bad pain, he could hardly move his arms as his shoulders as the skin was so tight and sore, he definitely wasn't a happy bunny! So we decided to put it off until tomorrow. After confirming our bus ticket to move onto Nha Trang we headed back into the old town, where we found a lovely little french style bakery. The cakes on offer were like works of art, we'd decided to treat ourselves to one but it took nearly half an hour to decide as they all looked amazing. In the end I went for a Chocolate truffle cake and Danny had a Mango Cheese cake; Mine was diabetic heaven pure indulgence, while Danny's was nice and refreshing. After spending the rest of the afternoon checking out the parts of the old town we'd missed; Japanese covered bridge, The Hainan assembly hall, the Zhao Zhao assembly hall and a couple of the ancient houses, we headed back to Cafe 43 for dinner, while on route a rep for one of the other cafes asked us why we hadn't visited them; we felt really bad I turned to Danny to say why don't we try but he just apologised to her and left it at that. We had been trying loads of different dishes but tonight opted for a traditional dish only found in Hoi An - Cao lầu made with noodles, pork, crackling and greens, we were told that the dishes unique taste is contributed by the water from an undisclosed ancient Cham well just outside of the town, whether this is true or not I don't know, but it was really nice.

Our final day in Hoi An was spoilt by the weather, it had started hammering down at about 2am a proper trenchial downpour and had no intention of stopping. Around midday the rain eased off a bit, I had still wanted to make the journey to My Son bu the tour buses had left at 8am - and I know I wouldn't have enjoyed it much at that time in the trenchial rain, as the rain didn't ease up/ stop until late afternoon we didn't get the chance to go as we had to catch our bus to Nha Trang that evening, plus Danny's shoulders still weren't feeling that much better. Once the rain had stopped we ventured out; walked thorugh the old town and over to Cam Nam island accessible by a lovely lantern lined bridge, there was very little for tourists on this side it was mainly locals houses. After walking round for a few hours we headed back to catch our sleeper bus to Nha Trang.

So we caught the 6.30pm sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue, which took 13hrs. Surprisingly it was actually quite comfortable, well Danny wouldn't quite agree as he got the worst seat on the bus, positioned above the tiolet!! Which also meant he didn't really get any sleep. We arrived about 8am and had been shrewd enough to get out last hotel to book our next hotel along with a free taxi pick up. I couldn't handle being bombarded with cabs and motoriders after such a long journey! We didn't half get some looks from the other passengers when we had our bags carried for us to a well nice 7seater VW. Our first day was pretty none eventful, we headed out across the perfume river to the local market which had two levels the ground floor was food and home utinsils while the first floor was clothing. I have to say it was an experience nothing like Chaple market! It was really colourful and loud everyone wanting us to buy something from their stall, some of which had lovely aroma's from the spices and fruits while others just plain stank! The clothing was mostly knock off Ralphs, LaCoste's etc with some traditional silk blouses and robes. Next to the market was a Co-OP Mart we decided to head in and have a nose about, Danny had been banging on about wanting crisps we thought this would probably be the best place to get them it was actually quite cool as it had a connecting cafe and KFC (burger and coke - 90p) we didn't participate in the burgers and just grabbed the Vietmanese version of pringles and a weird can of drink (my choice of course) it turned out to be root beer! So we found a spot beside the Perfume River and just chilled for a while, trying to work out what to do for the rest of the day. This well old lady came up to us, at first I thought she was trying to sell us something so quickly blurted out "no thank you" but she jsut kept rambling on, then I thought she was having a go at us for sittiing on the edge of the paveing (which looked out on the river) we both were looking at her blankly and eventually she walked of muttering to herself. 5mins later when we were leaving she came back Im not sure how but I eventually worked out that she wanted out empty drink can; I think they get money for recycling them, so we gave it to her and headed of for the Citadel, a forbidden city only for the emperors and thier concubines. Unfortunatley when we got there the ticket office was closed for lunch, we were then hassled by a couple of cyclo riders which pushed Danny to the edge; especially as he'd had little sleep. So ended up making our way back towards the hotel to find a beer! On our way we bumped into a couple - Chrissiey and Stewart, that had been on the same sleeper bus and agreed to meet up with them later that night. We then stopped at a bar called 'Why Not?' (I love the name) for a beer and met a really nice fella - Pete, who worked on the ships after a couple of hours chatting we went for soemthing to eat and then met up with the others and another fella - Liam. We had a really good night; had a beer with them at their hostel and then the 5 of us headed to a bar called 'Why Not?' (I love the name) we had a few more beers and some pool, Chrissiey & Stew had decided they would be leaving the next day on a 'Top Gear Excursion' which I have to say I was well up for; but at the same time I wanted to stay and see soem of the sights, we then all got talking about Christmas and the possiblity of meeting up to celebrate together - Will have to keep you posted on that!

Day Two, we'd booked through our hotel a boat trip down the perfume river to see 2 pagodas and 3 tombs; we'd been told by the girl we were to have an English speaking guide - that didn't happen instead we were put on a boat with a couple that couldn't speak a word of English which made us feel uncomfortable and what made it worse is that as Danny was boarding the boat he knocked over the mans potted tree (which we think was something religous) the fella was not impressed at all, Danny apologised and tried helping him but the man just ignored him and didn't allow him to help! That aside we headed for the first stop Thien Mu pagoda, which had live in monks, it was so lovely and peacful, but I had made the mistake (as I wasn't thinking when I woke up) of wearing a skirt and vest top! Which didn't really go down to well, although no-one said anything to me I did feel a little out of place! The monks had to keep looking at the floor when I walked passed.
We then headed to our next stop which was about 45mins up river to Tu Duc Tomb; which we had to acces through the Viet jungle with 2 motoriders, the journey was brilliant - real Vietnam, Danny said it reminded him of scenes from Platon. Oh My God, when we reached the tomb, I feel in love with it straight away with all its stone carvings, sculptures and figures; it has to be one of the most magnificent place I've seen, I didn't want to leave - If I could have bought it I would have! We then jumped back on the bikes to reach Từ Hiếu pagoda, located in the jungle off a little dirty track. Từ Hiếu was evening more lovely than Thien Mu, it was much smaller but had more of a calming feel - at one with nature, plus there weren't any tourist (except for us) unfortuanely due to my attire we were unable to speak to any of the monks as they had to keep looking at the floor; however there was a young boy (practising monk) that said hello to us and blessed us - I felt utterly privilaged as did Danny and a sense of serenity washed over me! Our fourth stop was ......... which looked more like a fighting school from an old Bruce Lee movie, compared to Tu Duc Tomb it was quite dissapointing but still lovely. Our motoriders took us back to the boat for lunch which was alrite quite basic; noodles, rice, runner beans with some sort of meat and these fired meat pancakes. We were expecting to then head for the final tomb but our boat men informed us we'd seen them all and that it was time to head back, both myself and Danny were really confussed at this point; I was adiment that we had another sight to visit but Danny couldnt be sure as we'd forgotten our map. So we headed back to the hotel both feeling that we had been mugged off, which dampened the whole trip. As soon as we got back to the hotel we compained, the staff rang the boat men and having found out he had shortened our trip gave us a discount, for whic we were grateful as it helped us to calm down and chalk it up as experience. Later that night we met up with Liam and then headed down to the Brown Eyes bar; which was well cool with its graffited walls plus it had a DJ, we met up with Pete for a couple of coktails (75p each) we had another great night, me and Liam teamed up to play doubles on the pool table (winner stays on) while Danny and Pete chatted away. We won two games though I should point out it was actually Liam that won the games LoL I wasn't playing on form but still well enjoyed it, we met quite a few people that night most of which were heading to Hoi An - so was sure we'd bump into them again at some point.

Our final day in Hue, was spent chilling. We got up late and had originally planned to get a couple of bicycles have a ride round and visit the Citadel after checking out places to stay at our next desintation Hoi An. This took longer than we had thought and after 2hours I was well bored and was starting to get a bit agitated so we took a break and headed out for a beer and some lunch. Time seemed to fly by and before we knew it we were getting ready to go and meet Pete back down at Brown Eyes. We had a couple of cocktails and a few beers we decided to leave at a reasonable hour as we had to get up early to catch our bus. We were both in amazement though as this was the one night we both felt quite drunk, even though we'd drunk less.

We finally made it to Hanoi; after the fright of our lives!On the way to the airport we were hit by a Turkish Lorry driver on the motorway, causing our car to sway into the fast lane! But thanks to Pete (Danny's Dad) and his quick thinking we were all fine; a little shaken up but fine. Luckily the car only really had surface damage, so we were still able to get the the airport to catch our flights and start our adventure.

Our first day wasnt that adventurous as we were shattered, but we managed a few beers in the bar across the road and got some traditional Vietmanese food in the form of a hotpot; which was really nice! We felt that we needed to make an effort to at least have a quick exploration of the city, by this point it was dark out, we managed to navigate our way through the streets and crazy traffic (they have no real traffic regulations here; its literally a free for all!) and got as far as Hoan Kiem Lake, we were both mesmorised by how beatiful it was - all lit up by multi-coloured LEDs on a colour change squence! I couldn't stop telling Danny how amazing it all was and that I was really glad we'd made the decision to come here for our first adventure together.

Our second day way a little more interesting, after being served breakfast which included a weird fruit call a "Dragon Fire Apple" which I thought was nice and refreshing a bit like a kiwi but white and not as sweet! We headed off to explore the city and find some of the local sight-seeing attrations. We had decided to head for the "One Pillar Pagoda" as the route also inculded the "Ho Chi Minh Mausolem" we managed to find this but unfortunatly due to it being a holiday it was closed, so we continued our search for the pagoda but after an hour or so follwoing the goolge map we called it a day! and headed bak to the Old Quarter for a few beers and some food. After which we decided to head back out again this time however having taken a wrong turn we managed to find ourselves seriously lost! Which I suppose gave us the chance to see the 'real' Hanoi, we found ourselves walking down small back streets in which the locals lived - it was a proper eye opener; with most people living and sleeping in small rooms or in the back of the tiny shops they worked from; a bit like in 'An Idiot Abroad" when he went to India! After another 2 hours of walking and serious sweating we gave up and got a cab back to our hotel! Due to my strong London accent the cab driver couldn't understand where it was that we wanted to go so I ended up having to write it out for him, it turned out we'd only been round the corner all along!

Day three we WERE determined to find the "One Pillar Pagoda" to our amazment between us we managed to navigate our way to finding it - we were well chuffed with ourselves (Go team WilliamsDrake LoL). It was exactly what I had been expecting, so beatiful and peaceful. We were spotted by a motorider; a sort or scooter taxi. The fella's name was Dung (pronouced Zong), he offered to drive us to more of the cities sight-seeing attractions, at first the idea was a bit scary - me and Danny on the back of a scooter driving through the crazy streets of Hanoi but Dung introduced us to his mate Ching who was well funny; therefore we'd have a driver each. I was then well up for it Danny needed a little more convincing but he soon came round to the idea. So off we set for the "Temple of Literature" it was amazing; I know Im over using the word but I cant think of another to explain it, the acrhiture was fantastic carved dragons, gold embelishments and weird statues - Wow. Our second destination with our brilliant motoriders was Hoa Lo Prison; I have to say this place did dampen our high spirits slightly seeing what the prisoners; who faught the French to regain pocession of their own country, had to go through on a daily basis was really quite saddening. Only a part of the building was open to the public, but that didnt stop it having a forboding, eerie atmosphere. I was actually quite glad to get out of there. Ching (my driver) could see it had affected us slightly and succeeded in lighten our mood and was actually quite comical. We drove around for a while though he was paying almost no attention to the road, instead he was checking out the young girls; for which i called him a dirty old man, he responded with "I love the ladies, they so beatiful". When they had dropped us back to our hotel Ching pulled Danny aside to give him a bit of advise which was that we should have fun (wink wink) and make baby! I thought was halarious. Later on after dinner, we checked out the night market - which was actually really diappointing! I thought it would be filled with loads of handy crafts, silk prints and fabrics etc but most of the stuff looked like it had come from Primark/ Fonthill road market!! It was a bit of a let dwon.

Day four and five were amazing! We had booked a trip to Halong Bay through our hotel. We were pleasently supprised to find our mini bus really comfortable with air-con and our lead tourguide was absolutly blinding! As were some of the other passengers such as Mr Lim who was just too funny; he'd brought loads of traditional Vietmanese food for his family to try and ended up offering it to everyone on the bus! I dug straight in but Danny decided not to participate; I couldn't even being to explain what it was that I was trying and to honest Im not sure I would want to know but it was nice! It took 3.5hrs to reach the bay and for the most part the guide had been directing all his attention towards me; which Danny thought quite funny. We had to board a small commutor boat to get to the actual boat we were staying on, which I have to say was nothing like what I had been imagining (I had thought it might be a bit pikey) but it was really nice, in excellent condition and really clean. Lunch had been prepared for us and we were both blown away with the quality and quantity of the food - 5 course all with the freshest of ingredients.
We sailed through the island formations, they were absolutly mind blowing; limestone rocks of various sizes covered with green foliage, each one was completely different from the next. We then ended up at a large rock that had been adapted for tourist to visit its internal cave; to be honest the cave itself wasn't really anything special but the views from it were breath taking. After this we headed back for the boat where we were givin the opportunity to go kayaking; me and Danny both jumped at the chance along with a few others on our boat - what an AMAZING experince; one of the best I've ever had, it was like being in a film. We were taken to a logan by our guide which we had to access through an aperture in one of the rocks, the water here was so warm and calm - it was so picturesque. Though I am abit disappointed with myself because I had bought a waterproof camera for such occasions but the strap supplied with it wasnt that great and I was well paranoid about damaging it while paddling or losing it in the water if our kayake overturned so left it behind!! After an hour or so we headed back to the boat, it was starting to get dark so all the boats had their lights switched on which gave a whole different atmosphere to the sea; it was magical. Once onboard we were served a 6 course dinner of the same quality as lunch! Then it cam to the evenings entertainment; which was a choice of squid fishing or karaoke; unfortunatly it was only myself and Danny that were interested in the fishing, so majority ruled and we had karaoke all night! It was fun to begin with but the music that we were singing along to, sounded as though it had been recorded on a an old 80's casio keyboard; at first it was funny and I joined in but after a couple of hours it started to grate! So both myself and Danny decided the best thing to do was head up to the top deck and just chill and enjoy our surroundings! When we awoke the next morning to the view of Halong bay we both had to pinch ourselves to make sure it was all real! we had a nice breakfast with everyone, sailed around for a couple of hours and then headed back to the bay to catch our minibus home.

Our last day in Hanoi, we decided to just chill, we'd seen most of the sights (well all the ones we wanted to see) so walked around for a bit, then found a nice pastry shop bought a couple of really nice cakes and a couple of cans of coke and just sat by Hoan Kiem Lake. It so so calm and relaxing even amoungst the traffic choas. We then decided it'd be nice to watch the Water Puppets; a traditional vietmanese show so booked a couple of tickets for the last viewing, it was interesting, Im glad I went even if I didnt quite get it.

PS.... The one thing I forgot to mention is that we had found a couple of shops (i think thats what you would call them) that sold draught beer - 13p a glass; unfortunately for us it wasn't until the last couple of days so decided to takle full advantage and this is were we spent most of our eveings LoL