Ho Chi Minh

(Saigon)

Modestly renamed after the saviour of Vietnam, along with pretty much everything else.

 

I spent more time than I wanted to in this hole as it was a tight squeeze and I slipped on the way down. This left me rather helpless with my arms above my head and my legs too far in front of me to generate any power, luckily it was pitch black so I couldn't see anything that could have been sat with me down there... Amy also went down but I must have be too shaken up to take any pictures.

Rambo.

These parts of the tunnels had been adjusted to make them double the height and width of the origionals so that us western folk could fit. although at one point the only way to get through was to lie down.

Chinuk at the war remmenance museum.

When your a pineapple smuggler, you gotta know your limits. you never know who's watching...

Crocodile infested Mekong Delta. and apart from what you see in this picture, there isn't much else there, maybe the odd guy having a bath.

Fresh, warm coconut juice. is NOT the answer to the question "have you got anything for sea sickness"

Hoi An

By far our favourite place and most beautiful part of Vietnam has to be Hoi An.

Its a quaint little village maintained to have symmetrical ancient streets and buildings. Colourful and vibrant it is pedestrianised and completely flat we hired bicycles to cycle the streets around the markets and down to the beach.

The village is famous for tailored clothes, jewellery and shoes. Tim had some Yaley Couture clothes made and we also got some jewellery tailor made. We also found a corner shop with some excellent cookies!

As empty as the streets look... I did still manage to get myself run over by a fellow Vietnamese cyclist and with no help from Tim preceded to fall of my bike several times due to the initial knock to my confidence.

 The people in the village are so friendly and keen to show you their culture. This little boy came out to speak to us as we were cycling the paddy fields, he didn't speak English but hung around long enough for us to get a picture.

 This was.. unexpected. The tiny 'Buffalo-Man' had showed us that we could sit on the Water-Buffalo for a picture. We soon found ourselves thigh deep in questionable murky waters, sinking deeper and deeper, moving further and further from dry land. This is the only picture that hides Tim's distress enough for it to be disguised as enjoyment.

We felt that the dental care... or lack of it in Vietnam had to be documented.

Action-shot of Tim playing frisby whilst getting 3rd degree burns.

iMonk

Hue

In order to get to Hue from Hanoi we had to endure a 14 hour train journey, we had a cabin with 4 child size bunks which we shared with 2 friends and a family of cockroaches. needless to say, Amy slept for almost the entire journey whilst I tried to strike a balance between fitting my legs on shelf and keeping my head inside the only opening in a giant mosquito net (what is the point in having a mosquito net if it has a hole in it?). She still woke up cranky.

All before checking into our hotel, which meant we weren't as interested as we could have been, we visited a pagoda, a kings tomb and had lunch at a nunnery where after the meal the chief Nun made everyone (with little English) eat and drink any left-overs... that was a bit awkward.

The car that the shaolin monk drove to Saigon and used the petrol to burn himself to the death in protest of the war. 

 An Elephant that surprised us in the forbidden city. (just by being there when we weren't expecting it... it didn't do tricks or anything)

Bunkers at the top of the mountain on the way to Hoi An, a Vietnamese stronghold in the war.

 

 

Halong Bay

The description of our accomodation as a 'junk boat' left our expectations somewhat low, especially after having stayed in the equivalent of a London bedsit described as a hotel. BUT, the boat was to our delight a floating hotel...the good kind.

Unfortunately for me and Tim the 9 course menu was seafood...the bad kind.

We opted for the non-seafood option hence meat? We learnt Tofu is the worst food to ever be created when eaten 9 times over.

 As beautiful and clear as the sea was I could not be conviced of the absence of sharks! We went kayaking but I suppose Tim may have found it more enjoyable if I wasn't weeping everytime the boat swayed...

  We look very happy here... believe me this is not how this very same day began. ACCIDENTALLY I left the purse on a coach we travelled on..containing our cash, the cash card and the debit cards we need. Basically it was resolved and retrieved with all its contents. Shamed (by Tim) I no longer hold a position of any responsiblity over our valuables for I am untrustworthy... We will see.                 

Việt Nam

 If anything, Hanoi has made us appreciate the British road system, I would rather sit in rush hour traffic than take any kind of transport on Vietnamese roads. There are a mixture of cars, mopeds and bikes and unless you have a car you can go wherever you like. some of the streets are one-way..unless you want to go down them the other way and on particularly busy junctions there are traffic lights.. but you don't have to stop.

 Not many people in Hanoi speak English none more so than the man we were sent to when we went to a hotel for a massage. When asking the only question he knew "where you from?" we had lots to talk/smile about as he was a Manchester United fan. things such as "ahh Wayne Rooney" and "err Robin Van Persie".

You might be wondering "don't you need two therapists to give two people massages?" Yes, you do. Whilst chatting about which footballers we both knew, someone was trying to find anybody that was willing to give the art of massage a go.

...And that's how I ended up getting an hours massage off a young boy who had no idea what he was doing.

 Hong Kong was amazing despite some questionable Dim Sum and a smaller than average hotel room. Total offences following our stay now stands at four counts of tresspassing-most awkward of which was in an £8000 a night hotel attempting to see the view from the top floor in a key-only access lift...

Fortunately the nice rich Chinese man we shared the lift with enabled us to partly achieve our aim (after watching us press buttons frantically trying to look as though we knew what we were doing) - without openly judging. One of us did have to hold the lift door though, to save any further embarrassment of  getting trapped 23 floors up.

It was incredibly busy at all times, everywhere leads to a shopping mall and not the market type either; I think we probably stood out as the only people not wearing Cartier, Rolex, Chanel or Hermes...

After arriving in Vietnam it has become clear that the apparent chaos of Hong Kong was atleast organised-chaos!

There were a lot of similar ones to this but nothing really explained what they were about... but something about 15.. and China.. and Pandas.

 

 Who says you can't have a laugh AND save lives?

"Happy Valley Racecourse" which took us an hour by subway then a further hour and a half to walk to. we then had to "trespass" (apparently) to get in and realised there was no way out. which was rather difficult to explain to the mandarin speaking security guard.

Of course, this was not the famous Happy Valley Racecourse, which seems blindingly obvious now. the real one is much easier to get to... and you are actually allowed in.

 The REAL Happy Valley Racecourse. The secret is... its actually in Happy Valley, in the middle of Hong Kong Island.

A ceremony in remembrance of the 38 that died in boat collision in Victoria harbour the night we arrived. The famous light show that takes place every night will be postponed for 3 days... so no pictures.

 Silhouette's of us with Kowloon in the background.

Half of the Hong Kong Island skyline viewed from the Star Ferry.