Vietnam a travel blog by jon and katie view all 93 photos for this trip

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Vientiane to Hanoi Hanoi, Vietnam Since travelling we've been able to judge how hectic a place is by how much stuff people pile on the back of their mopeds. From a family of five on a 50cc bike in Bangkok, to the more serene views of a pig strapped down in Vientiane were nothing to prepare us for the crazed Hanoi moped culture before us. Our top five include a wardrobe (vertically), three widescreen tvs, 3 chairs and a table, a roll of carpet and my favourite was a woman boiling food in two big pots either side of the back wheel. I have no idea what would happen if pot lady crashed into carpet or table man, I guess the perfect ending would see them on their chairs, and drinking the soup on a lovely mauve carpet. It was difficult to watch the differences, until you see how used to this sort of thing everyone is, and it becomes kind of normal. When you start to understand the rules of the road, crossing the street becomes easier and you have more faith in cars and bikes knowing that they have to avoid you as well as the other vehicles. With this in mind, a few days into the Hanoi experience we jumped on the back of a local guy's bike to get back to our place, feeling safe with our helmets and in tune with the ways of the road we absolutely shot off. I don't know much about taxi driving but when I'm about as humanly close to a Vietnamese man as you can get without catching something I don't want to be reminded that we could all fall victim to a boiling pot of soup, or get taken out by a passing set of vacuum cleaners. It's such a great city to discover though, there's something going on around every corner and we found ourselves completely content with just watching the different customs and eating and drinking at the most random little stalls on the pavement. We didn't wittingly try any dog, but there were a few pretty tough meats along the way. The history of Vietnam is fascinating and horrifying when you discover more about the human suffering, and many of the museums and galleries were really interesting. The communist 'revolutionary' Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum was based in Hanoi, so we both went along to see his embalmed body before we left for Hue. It didn't sound that exciting beforehand but when you're that close to such a famous figure, and it's so lifelike, it's pretty well....weird...yeah just plain weird. The only thing about this travelling malarky is some people you meet are trying to outdo each other by pretending to be more bohemian or have slightly more radical ways of travelling. I don't think these people respect you if you want to discover the country, they would rather you were doing it in a 'crazy' way. So keep your eyes open for our next blog, because I will be pushing Kate around the rest of Vietnam in a traditional wheelbarrow. Jon and Katie x written by  jon and katie on March 25, 2009 from Hanoi, Vietnam from the travel blog: Vietnam Send a Compliment comment on this...

Hanoi to Hue Hue, Vietnam Hue, as with most of Vietnam, has loads of history, a great atmosphere and there is loads to see and do without having to go to another temple or pagoda. From what we already knew of the history sounded fascinating and we wanted to learn more. So we did the one thing we had been desperately trying to avoid, we booked onto a tour. A 12 hour day which we were assured would give us loads of time at all of the great places it advertised, turned into 10 hours on a coach with a guide who no one could understand with a 5 minute stop at each place. It included the Ho Chi Minh Trail which is now the Ho Chi Minh highway, not quite the same with tarmac and the Demilitarised Zone which is now covered in paddy fields and could be any part of the Vietnamese countryside. The highlight of the day was being able to go into tunnels where people lived for 5 years during the war. To see how they managed to survive and even found the privacy to result in 37 babies being born there was amazing. Our stay in Hue saw the arrival of the most important day of the year, my birthday!The day before the day of all days Jon went present shopping for 5 hours. I wondered what he was buying that took that much time and careful consideration but it included two and half hours for getting lost and an hour or two in the pub with a random Vietnamese guy. We spent the day on bikes checking out the city and doing a lot of chilling out in the shade because it was sooo hot. What's the temperature in the UK at the mo?!In the evening we went out for a meal at a really nice local restaurant only to be confronted half way through by the family who owned the place in a procession through the restaurant carrying a cake and singing happy birthday. There was also a little girl with a rose for me although that resulted in a bit of a battle between us as she did not want to let go, I didn't give her much choice. Seems that someone is a little more crafty than I thought, I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on him now. Hue has been chilled out and really interesting but it is now time to go to the seaside, Hoi An here we come x x x written by  jon and katie on March 26, 2009 from Hue, Vietnam from the travel blog: Vietnam Send a Compliment 3 comments...

Hue to Hoi An Hoi An, Vietnam The term 'fish wives' apparently comes from the fact that the wives of the fishermen coming back from a catch would fight amongst themselves for the biggest and best fishes. Arguing and angry wives fighting over raw fish didn't seem that enticing, especially at 6 in the morning, but it turned out to be a highlight of the stay in Hoi An. To see how the local people live and make their living from the river was a real honour, and some of the fish were pretty damn big. The tunas and barracudas would have bought in a good wage for a family and you could understand the competition between these ladies. The local market sold the most amazing fresh vegetables and also fish from the morning's catch; so we decided to learn some Vietnamese dishes and do a cookery course. It was cool to see how to make such tasty local food so quickly, and hopefully we can practise some on unsuspecting 'volunteers' at home. Night fishing was the idea for the next evening, just us and a Vietnamese guy who said we could cook and eat whatever we caught on the boat. You will catch lots, he kept saying...lots of fishes! Coolio! We caught nothing. But the experience was excellent was worth it for the lightning show and our 'guide' alone. The forked lightning was crashing down and we had a good laugh teaching the boat driver some English. Although, I don't know how but he now thinks stars are called forgets, and that a crossroad is pronounced as 'goatud'. Just turn left at the goatud and you'll be fine. Excuse me? I blamed Kate. She blamed me. It was her fault. Visiting the nearby bombed ruins at My Son was a really stark reminder of the recent history once again amongst the architecture of 8th century cham temples. Another thing Hoi An is famous for is the sheer number of tailors selling amazingly cheap clothes, so 3 dresses, 2 skirts and a blouse 'I need' later we left for Nha Trang and scuba diving. The ocean life is supposed to be some of the best in Vietnam so we can't wait to get down there and experience it. Oh yeah I might need to learn how to dive first too. written by  jon and katie on March 28, 2009 from Hoi An, Vietnam from the travel blog: Vietnam Send a Compliment comment on this...

Hoi An to Nha Trang Nha Trang, Vietnam Oh I do love to be beside the seaside! The deep depths of the crystal clear waters of South East Asia have been trying to tempt me from the beginning of our travels but NhaTrang was to be the place. I'd never heard much about Vietnam as a scuba diving destination but had seen some cool underwater pics and to be honest diving is just awesome anyway. Okay so I haven't dived in the UK yet but NhaTrang did not disappoint. I was a little bit nervous about diving as for some stupid reason I haven't dived for 4 years but it all came flooding back and was brilliant. The guys at the dive shop were really nice and it was an ideal place for Jon to take his first tentative steps into the amazing world of diving. I say tentative but he took to it like a natural. His going to kill me for saying this but his instructor came straight over to me after their first dive before he'd even taken his kit off to tell me that he's the best he's ever had, not bad hey. We did 3 days of diving and saw loads of cool stuff, lion fish, frog fish, an octopus, loads and loads of beautiful fish and a massive moray eel. Now that Jon's done his open water we can just go diving together, pretty cool. It felt so good to be back in the water and I can't wait to go again, hopefully in Thailand before we go home. NhaTrang as a place is quite uninspiring and it rained everytime that we went outside but when it has brilliant diving it is still alright in my eyes. On our last day we decided to take it easy and wallow in mud baths and natural springs for the day, life's tough. After being in quite a touristy area it was great to get out of the centre and chill out with so many locals and the soft skin, it was good. Just wanted to add something about diving, I thought it was amaaaazing, can't wait to get down there again. Hopefully on our way back through Thailand:) written by  jon and katie on April 10, 2009 from Nha Trang, Vietnam from the travel blog: Vietnam Send a Compliment comment on this...

Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam The sleeper buses' beds just seem to get smaller and smaller, the beds are made for tiny Vietnamese woman and no-one bigger. I'm built like Ian Beale and I had trouble getting 3 hours sleep in one of those things, they must do it on purpose, damn those 5ft+ tourists. When we arrived in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City it was pretty hectic, and we just collapsed. The next day we decided to go to the very anti-American war remnants museum which was a really difficult few hours. The suffering of the Vietnamese people in the war was very well documented and photographs of the various torturing and napalm-related injuries were very difficult to absorb in one go. That was enough for one day and we decided to do what anyone else would afterwards, get plastered. This was a great plan, but we got sidetracked by the local game which was being played in the centre square. It's basically just keepy ups, but with a long shuttlecock, and it's great fun. Two hours later and dripping with sweat we went to a local street 20p a pint place and got half drunk. I hope shuttle footing or whatever it's called takes off in the UK, because I don't have a job and this could be a feasable way to make a living. We only spent a few days in Saigon so I'll quickly knock through some sightseeing stuff to get to the best bit of the trip. We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral - cool to see a ceremony there, went to the out of town Chinatown - really hectic and the food was superbative, oh and we also checked out the food market - marketlike. But the my favourite bit was watching a half naked obese man fall asleep whilst sitting down cross legged on the floor. It was kind of like a cartoon and he ended up with his nose touching his ankle. This man was our hotel manager. These are the kind of places we've been frequenting. I thought it was a bit harsh to wake him up with a sudden scream but it had to be done. Thirty minutes later we were eating snails. Trips should always end this perfectly. written by  jon and katie on April 13, 2009 from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from the travel blog: Vietnam Send a Compliment comment on this...

Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta Ben Tre, Vietnam The Mekong Delta promised a more laid back, relaxed pace of life among paddy fields and small villages giving you a brilliant chance to meet local people and get a more rounded view of life in Vietnam, it sounded great so we were off. First stop Ben Tre, well after an accidental night's stay in My Tho. The minibus stopped at a bus station with a big sign outside it saying Ben Tre, at last, so we dragged our tired bodies into a nearby restaurant. As we were looking around for somewhere to stay we realised that we'd got off too early and Ben Tre is a local brand, brilliant! Through experience we have learnt that when someone wants your money they'll say whatever they have to so it's worth being wary of a tuk tuk driver who says it's 5km to the nearest guest house. Through experience we have also learnt that sometimes you need to just hand over the cash and get on with it. With heavy rucksacks we walked and walked and no one else appeared offering a lift and nowhere to stay appeared either until 5km later we stumbled upon a seedy motel, needs must. The description of Ben Tre was spot on. We got a motorbike the next morning and the ride there was awesome, through palm tree lined villages with kids and animals running around everywhere and no other tourists. It felt so good to be off of the tourist trail for a bit and in such an amazing part of Vietnam. We arrived at a homestay to be greeted by a guy called Phat, who could give Del Boy a run for his money. He was a really nice guy but we quickly learnt that whatever he was offering we could get a lot cheaper somewhere else. However, there were free bikes at his place so made the most of the chance to explore the area which was absolutely stunning. Somehow we managed find somewhere with a tv just in time for the Stoke vs Blackburn game, understandable, almost, in England but a rural village in Vietnam?! They have got one thing right though, there would be less trouble in English pubs if they just served iced tea. Although we were a bit tight on time we still managed to slow back down to the Mekong pace of life and went on a boat trip to a floating market where locals still buy and sell produce from boats, amazing to see even though we had to be up at 4.30 to go. The only part of life in South East Asia that we seem to struggle with is the idea of getting up early and going to sleep early, we normally take the option of sweating alot in the middle of the day. The people here are really friendly and seem really happy to accommodate tourists and through a lot of sign language and broken language want to know all about you. One night at a small family restaurant we ended up with a slightly unfair exchange of our disgusting rice whisky for the owner's really good red wine. The only thing that was confidently said was "mot, hai, ba, yo", cheers is definitely the most important Vietnamese that we learnt. ' It's another long boat trip along the Mekong for us, back to city life in Phnom Penh, see you in Cambodia! x x x written by  jon and katie on April 16, 2009 from Ben Tre, Vietnam from the travel blog: Vietnam Send a Compliment 2 comments...

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