As I was walking to catch the sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue (down South), I bumped into an English guy I’d met back in Luang Prabang. After talking with him for a bit we both agreed that we were looking forward for a change of scenery and perhaps the chance to see a different side to Vietnam. At the same time he introduced me to a few Swedish guys he had met on his Halong Bay cruise, all of whom were 19, and it’s always nice to meet other younger travelers so we hit it off and all boarded the bus.

During the bus ride I realized that I actually had barely any time left in Vietnam if I planned to spend a week in Cambodia and still be back in Bangkok on December 14^th. The Swedish guys were on the exact same schedule as me so we agreed we’d all skip Hue, stay on the bus for a further 4 hours and go to Hoi An. In the morning when we arrived in Hue, we all got off for a moment and then the Swedes lost their seats so we were split up, them in Hue and I on my way to Hoi An. Fortunately I was still with the few English people I knew back from Luang Prabang, so when we arrived in Hoi An, we walked into town and found a place to stay for the night.

The city is made up of purely tailors, restaurants, travel agents and hotels. There are over 300 tailors in this small city, so needless to say 10 minutes after arriving I was getting some pants and shorts made. The next day they were ready and extremely cheap to have made, considering the quality of them. There isn’t much else to do in Hoi An. John (the English guy) and I went down to the beach that day, and whilst it was nice to see a beach for the first time in a while, it was cold and far from beautiful. Afterwards John and I found a few places where they sell 15 cent glasses of draft beer. Cheapest beer in South East Asia.

Later that night John, the two English girls we were with and I went out for dinner, and then across the river to a place called Aussie Bar, which featured me as the only Aussie. We played a little pool, had a few beers with some others at the bar and then went back home, whilst it poured down during a thunderstorm so great that it flooded our street- lovely Vietnam. I should note that immediately that day we’d noticed a change of attitude in the locals. They were extremely friendly, less annoying and went out of their way to make sure you were enjoying yourself. For example, after dinner we walked up a street trying to find the market. 10 minutes had passed and we heard someone beeping at us. It turned out to be the girl from the restaurant who had spent 10 minutes looking for us because I left my $2 in change by accident!

The next morning we woke up too late to join one of the cheap tours to the My Son ruins- the remainders of the Cham Empire or something like that, so we had to organize a private one ourselves. This meant spending $7.50 each on a private minivan, as well as the $3 entry fee, just to walk around in confusion for a couple hours. It’s sad because when you’re there you can only imagine how beautiful My Son would have been 50 years ago before America decided to destroy it in a seemingly pointless war. Check out the photo of them with the bomb- it was awkward because we knew we weren’t meant to smile but Jon related it to a penis… so we did.

We walked around it for an hour or so and then went back as I had to pick up my clothes from the tailor and catch the bus with Jon to Na Trang, a place famous for its beaches, which really aren’t that great at all.

The night bus to Na Trang arrived at 5am, which is quite inconvenient when you can’t check-in to your hostel until 12pm. Jon and I dropped our bags off there and found somewhere open to have breakfast. We later headed to the beach, which was an experience in itself. You literally never get more than two minutes of peace, with vendors approaching you in an attempt to sell you anything from alcohol to bracelets, massages to marijuana. If you do intend to have a few beers, it’s essential to make a deal with one of the girls so that she gives you a large discount in exchange for you buying your drinks exclusively off her for the day. With the others, in an attempt to have them leave us alone, we would start talking to them about pointless subjects, try to sell them our cigarettes, beer and fruit, and at times even ask for their love and devotion. Our record was 5 separate vendors at once- I’d only go back to try and set a new high score. Not much else to say about Na Trang. We went out that night to a bar called Why Not?, where I tried to sell my services as an internationally-acclaimed promoter, but only scored a free beer. The people were a lot nicer there too, especially the staff at the hostel, Backpacker’s House, with my friend there even giving me a dragon fruit as a farewell present!

I left early the next morning to catch a bus down south to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), as I wanted to meet up with those Swedish guys back from the bus out of Hanoi. I was with a couple guys I’d met in Halong Bay. It turned out we were the only Westerners on the bus, which was actually half full, instead of the usual ‘over-flow, sit on the floor’ situations we’d been having before. It’s actually hilarious with these buses because every time they try and make the foreigners sit at the back of the bus in the shared seats and on the floor, even if the bus is empty. You just need to basically ignore them and just sit wherever you want until they get physical. The bus driver and his friends decided to play a joke on us and try move us to a small public bus instead of our own, constantly laughing at us for playing along. I watched some Vietnamese Pop videos at the lunch-stop, which was enjoyable.

After a long bus ride we finally arrived in Saigon, where I was reunited with the Swedes after a sad few days apart. We found a guest house where we were shown a private 5 person room for us 4, with fridge, bathroom, TV, free breakfast etc. She told us $6 a night but she felt adventurous so we told the lady that we wouldn’t pay more than $5 each a night. We started to leave and she finally gave in, as long as we wouldn’t tell anyone how much we were paying. We became quite good friends with her though.

We found a place later that night with $1 beers and $2 buckets, where we could also choose the music. Needless to say, a night of me playing ABBA for them as they begged me to turn it off took place. Photo of the Swedes and me at dinner below.

The next day we planned to go see the Viet Cong tunnels, but with the tour starting at 7am we had a repeat of the My Son day, and missed the tour. Our only option was to get either an expensive taxi there or catch the public. We caught the public bus. 2 hours and 25 cents each later we had no idea where we were, no one spoke English to us, and we were hot and tired, so we spent another 2 hours getting back.

A productive day. Afterwards we got dinner, where again we were bombarded with people trying to sell anything and everything. We decided to play along and every girl who came up with a huge stack of books, we’d ask that they find us Lonely Planet Sweden. An impossible task. Some would just say no, others would run off for 20 minutes on the phone and come back almost in tears, but at the end of the day they all learnt their lesson. Don’t mess with an Australian and 3 Swedes.

We woke up early the next morning to catch the bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I’ll continue with that next post.

Vietnam Photos

I wrote a lengthy post about my trip to Halong Bay a few bus rides ago but after the computer died and I lost everything, I decided I’d get around to it a couple days later. It’s been a while now and much has happened since, so I’ll try describing my time in Halong Bay briefly now.

Situated 4 hours or so north of Hanoi, Halong Bay is likely to become one of the world’s ‘new’ seven wonders. It really is amazing, whilst at the same time confusing, but regardless, it acts as host to countless tour groups, from small families to older couples, from Vietnamese tourists to 18-30 year-old backpackers. I opted for the more ‘youth-orientated’ cruise- a 3-day, 2-night boat trip put on by Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel, or in other words, a booze cruise. However you actually do participate in quite a few activities and of course get a chance to see the real beauty of Halong Bay.

We left early for the cruise and started the trip up north. After the 26-hour Vientiane to Hanoi bus, 4 hours was actually quite enjoy enjoyable and went past quickly. Due to so many people signing up for the cruise on that specific day, we were put onto a 2nd smaller boat that at night joined up with a 3rd smaller boat. We boarded the boat just in time for lunch as we made our way into the heart of Halong Bay. Afterwards we joined up with the other boat, jumped over to theirs and began drinking and diving off into the bay, which was actually a pretty massive jump even though it doesn’t look like it. Kayaking was next on the agenda, with a small trip taking us to a famous cave. Beer, darkness and cave exploring never goes well together.

I’ll skip to later that night when we again left our boat to be on the other one, where it was basically a night of drinking games and socializing with everyone else on the boat. We separated into 2 tables to play one game, and somehow the other table ended up pretty much naked. I’m not sure if I was better off as I had to swap clothes with a Swedish girl, resulting in me wearing a slim black dress for the evening. It turned out that my legs looked unbearably sexy in it so I wasn’t complaining. As the night winded up we went to bed with a 7am wake-up the next day in time for a 7.30 boat check-out.

We spent the better half of the morning taking several boats to the ‘Castaway Island’, a small piece of beach claimed by the hostel, featuring luxurious open bamboo huts where you’re given a thin mattress to sleep on, next to another 5-10 people, and even a mosquito net! I felt like a King. The island had plenty of activities organized for us to do, such as wake-boarding, rock-climbing, kayaking, tubing and volleyball, but, regardless of the fact that I’m travelling and in South East Asia, I spent most of the day relaxing with the other lazy people.

I did however get convinced by a Dutch guy I’d met a few days before to come kayaking as he had a bag of beers and just seemed so happy that I couldn’t say no. We finally made our way across the water to another island but soon realized that it didn’t actually have a beach of sand, but rather a beach of slippery rocks that we figured we’d be able to walk through. We were wrong. As the waves got stronger, we tried to pull the kayak out from the rocks but kept getting pushed back and falling into the rocks. It ended with a few bruises and several cuts but at least I can say I did some form of physical activity.

Later that night we continued with the drinking games after a big dinner, again going to bed early due to an early wake-up the next day. By 5pm the next day we were all back in Hanoi, tired but as it was my last night in the city I felt the need to go out still.

A few friends I’d met all the way back in Chiang Mai and had seen since then in Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng came to the hostel and surprised me. They’d brought along with them a really cool Israeli guy who didn’t make me feel bad for my awful Hebrew, and we spoke throughout the night, leaving me feeling pretty awesome that only we could understand the conservation. After 3 days having to listen to Swedish without a clue what was being said, it felt nice to be on the other side of the table. We ended up at a small random bar where they gave us our own room and Nagilla, and I eventually convinced the Vietnamese waiters to start dancing with us, which is always a game changer.

There isn’t much else to say about Hanoi. Backpackers tend to hate it. The people there tend to be colder, the food and alcohol is more expensive and there is a limited amount of stuff to actually do there. There are numerous stories you here of people getting mugged, pickpocketed, ripped off, and in general just taken advantage of. When you come to a city with the intention of trying to learn about it, meet its people, see what it has to offer and really, give your money and improve their economy, you don’t expect to be taken for a ride, but in Hanoi we as travellers tend to feel as if we’re just seen as money-bags.

Anyway, I left Hanoi the next day to head south, but I’ll talk about that in the next post.

Tomorrow I head to Cambodia for the next week with a few Swedish guys I met a few days ago, before returning to Bangkok to catch my flight to Myanmar, and I’m really looking forward to getting away from the big cities and back to an atmosphere similar to that of Laos.

Vietnam Photos

I know I’ve been really bad with updating, but I’ve been on a 3-day cruise in Halong Bay and only arrived back yesterday, so it’s been hard to keep the posts current. Fortunately, the internet is extremely quick here in Vietnam (in comparison to Laos), so I can upload all of my photos finally.

After Vang Vieng, I kayaked down to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, with a couple of American girls I met the day before. It’s a 4-hour trip down 2 different rivers, but the irony of it all is that you take about 3-4 hours in bus-rides to/from the river, whilst the bus ride from Vang Vieng is 3.5 hours. Obviously I’m not a very athletic individual so you’d probably wonder how I made it down the river. Well, here’s the thing. I had the guide in my kayak, and we got along very nicely, regardless of the fact that the only English word he knew was ‘jump’. On the bus-ride to the river, my cigarettes must have fallen out of my pocket and out of the tuktuk, so he felt sorry for me and shared his Lao ones with me throughout the day. We stopped by the side of the river for a makeshift barbecue and I thought I’d show off and have a handful (more like pinch but still) of chilies, leading to me being in agony for half an hour, tears pouring down my face, me wiping the tears with the chili still in my hand, me being blind, me being sick, me being awesome. Photos from the day will have to wait as the American girls have them but for now here’s a picture of the guide I was with (on the left) and another Lao guy:

After getting to Vientiane we finally got to the bus station and got on board the 24-hour sleeping bus to Hanoi, Vietnam. It turned out that there was a group of probably 15 foreigners on the bus and I’d met most of them a few days before in Vang Vieng, so we ended up having an okay time, suffering through it together. However, and I mean this in all honestly, I really didn’t mind it. After boarding the bus I got comfortable, talked about Justin Bieber with 3 Vietnamese guys in front of me, took a couple magic pills and went to sleep.

10 hours later and we’re at the Laos-Vietnam border, with Vietnamese trance music being pumped throughout the bus in a very successful attempt to wake us all up. It was border crossing time.

My tips- have food/drink, a jumper, cigarettes and be comfortable enough to walk for a couple kilometers, because after crossing the Laos border, that’s exactly what you have to do in order to get to Vietnam. Oh, thank you bus for only taking the Vietnamese passengers across.

After finally getting into Vietnam, we saw them opening the luggage-area of the bus. Confused why, we hurried over to find out. Before we got a chance to look there was an awful smell that pushed us back and away from the bus. We then saw 4 dirty little pigs running around our bags. Welcome to the VIP Sleeper Bus. They’d broken free from their cage (secured by a couple English girls’ backpacks) and had spent the past few hours shitting and pissing over every one’s bags. Fortunately they spared mine, but others were not so lucky.

For the next leg of the journey I was awake, which got a little boring but the frequent food/drink/pee/smoking breaks made it tolerable. At the first food stop I became friends with a couple of the girls working there who kept laughing at me. There was one who spoke enough English to translate for all of us. They were surprisingly fixated on my wristbands from tubing (they’re very colorful), and one of the girls asked for one (and then another- they never know when to stop). I got a free can of coke out of it though and I feel as if a couple of them were heartbroken as the bus drove away. I told them I’ll be back. I probably won’t but I feel bad about it. Finally at 7.30pm we arrived in Hanoi after a total trip time from Vang Vieng of 36 hours. Tired I found Hanoi Backpackers Hostel and got a bed.

At this point I was starving and alone so taking a recommendation from a guy in my room, I walked down the street and sat one of the many BBQ restaurants. You pretty much just choose beef or chicken, maybe get rice, choose your size, and then they bring over a small hotplate, some olive oil, raw marinated beef and some sauces. Then you have to cook it. Fortunately I was informed of this beforehand (as they don’t speak any English), but still, if I’m going to cook anything I want to do it in privacy, not on a packed street in Vietnam in between a Vietnamese couple and 2 Vietnamese girls. As the smoke from my mess flooded the neighboring tables, the 2 girls helped me cook it and I managed to finish my meal and run away back to the hostel.

The next day I went with a couple people from the hostel for a walk up to the nearby lake, checked out the local skate park, had some KFC and went out for the BBQ again with a big group this time (yes, Bryce made friends).

It was an early night though as the next morning I went to Halong Bay. More on that in the next post.