Nothing's The Same Once You've Been To Nam! - Hanoi Vietnam

Previously in the adventures of Ben and Ollie, After nearly being led into a brothel, a near death experience with a rogue elephant, facing the life threatening task of crossing the road in Ho-Chi-Minh city, braving the evil flip-flops of Hoi An, and now in the adventures of Ben and Ollie..........

We would only be spending a couple of days in Hanoi sandwiched in-between them was a trip to Halong Bay. When the taxi dropped us off in the evening in Hanoi it dropped us by a small dark alley and we were like “errrrrr....... Is this the right place”. Our taxi driver assured us that our hostel was just a little bit further up. We started walking up hoping we wouldn't get jumped and then we found it, and the place was actually okay even though it was called the Victory Queen and we had to share a double bed the first night, Ollie tried to hide his excitement.

The next day we had another walking tour which didn't cost a great deal as it revolved around walking a fair distance around Hanoi city centre, at least we would earn our meals that way. The streets in Hanoi definitely had more of an old Western feel, most likely this was down to the French. Our walk started at the lake in the middle of the city which already made it more picturesque than Saigon (Ho-Chi-Minh). From the lake we made our way through the narrow streets to the market which was surprisingly large. Here we saw a fish try to jump out of it's tank but it seemed to have second thoughts in mid-air about suicide and just landed back in it's tank. We then got a little lost after veering off the track looking for food so we missed out on seeing a street full of toy shops that day. When finally returning to the track we visited a cathedral although we couldn't go in because it opened at stupid o'clock in the morning and for a couple of hours in the evening. We then got a bite to eat before a stop of at the Fanny's in Hanoi to get some more of that tasty ice-cream. After our break guess where we went next, I bet you can.

Yes that's right a museum, the revolutionary museum of Hanoi to be exactly. Even though we have already seen a lot of museums we still got kicked out before we got all the way round, what can I say we just just like to get our monies worth.

Walk The Plank - Halong Bay, Vietnam

We took an early morning bus from Hanoi to Halong which took about 3 hours. During which, Ollie spotted two guys and a buffalo on a motorbike. I unfortunately missed this but saw something similar on the way back.

On arrival in Halong we proceeded to our boat, there were so many tourist boats it was like encountering the Spanish armada but maybe just a little less threatening with cannons replaced by sun loungers. When we eventually set sail (a couple of Americans typically holding us up) we had lunch which was a little odd cause we sat at tables with strangers sharing food. I suppose this is nice in a way cause you are forced into conversing. I have to admit the weather wasn't amazing it was very much like a British summer say about 22 C and overcast. This wasn't ideal as the views of the islands in Halong Bay were slightly limited due to the mist, having said that you could still see quite some distance very clearly. I can see why is it a natural wonder of the world that's for sure, there are just so many little islands and with that cover it makes the ocean seem more like a lake, so incredibly calm.

We had a couple of activities planned for the day. The first was visiting a cave which gave some spectacular views over the islands below. The cave itself was also quite impressive it reminded me of the cavern that the fellowship have to go through in Lord of the Rings, mainly because of its natural features combined with the man made steps. After, we got back on the boat to go kayaking. It is worth mentioning that there were many other boats all doing the same sort of tour so whenever we had to moor, the boats would pretty much just push each other out of the way to create space, like boat bumper cars............'bumper boats'. Kayaking was great fun me and Ollie were in the same kayak and after a few seconds to get our coordination we were pros. We headed in the opposite direction to most circling round a rock before heading back in the other direction at some pace (we were learnding now). We overtook an Aussie couple before heading back via a small cave which was too tight to turn so we ended up reversing. Our last stop of the day was a small island setup to be a swimming area. It was quite late now and not really too warm so no-one besides myself even paddled in the water. The area also had a view point which involved climbing a few steps (shame that the weather wasn't amazing it would have been a good spot to see the sunset, oh well you can't have it all your own way).

In the evening we were separated for dinner. Ollie was on a table with four Aussies about the same age as our parents (basically old) and a Swiss guy, and I was seated with an English couple, a Chinese couple and a Portuguese girl (interesting mix). We had our dinner then sat around talking to the people at our tables for a little while before I joined Ollie with the Aussies, who probably kept a couple of families for a little while on all the booze they purchased.

The following morning we woke up thankfully before the boat blew it's horn. We then changed boat to head back to the harbour to get some lunch on LAND!! While making our final tour around the islands guess what???????

It started to rain a reminder of England which we quite enjoyed, while most other people went and hide inside.


Return of the Hanoi – Hanoi, Vietnam

After our trip to Halong we had till about 6pm to view the city for the final time, well at least for another 4 and a bit months. We took it pretty easy but we wanted to go to a street cafe and get the local food, we headed back to the cathedral and found the one particular cafe that smelt awesome when we were on the walking tour. We were clueless what was on the menu but luckily for us the owner was an expert in languages and recognised the international sign for hungry. She pointed at a number of different items in front of her and held up a 20,000 Dong note (less than £1). I have to say this was one of our best meals in Vietnam making us wish that we when to more cafe place for food but on the other hand it was a good way to finish Nam.

We walked around for the last time time taking a final look at Vietnam and we finally saw the dog meat section (apparently bad luck to eat in the first half of the month), should have got some but we were full from our quality meal earlier. We did managed to find the street full of toys that we missed on the walking tour and some how end up back at the lake even though we were sure we were heading away from it. We saw fresh beer advertised for 3000 Dong so we had to have some of that before we left.

So... sad times. That it is for Vietnam leaving me with one thing to say “Nothing's the same once you've been to Nam!”