GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!

First of all - OOPS. Let me apologize, I have not updated my blog in a VERY long time. Since then, we have picked up a new travel partner and switched countries. This entry will be long (maybe a tad boring at times) but nonetheless, it will cover all that has happened. Lets begin...

We headed to Vang Vien quite some time ago. The town was quite laid back, but a bit too catered to tourists for my likings. Every resteraunt you passed showed reruns of every season of 'Friends' ever produced. I have never watched that show before, but I feel as though I could tell you EVERYTHING about it. We tubed down the river on the second day we were there. I hate to be picky, but the Cowichan River is WAY better. Sure, there were stops for food and drinks along the way, as well as a few good rope swings and things to jump off (I bailed hard on one swing) but the Cowichan River is much more clean and peaceful.

We left Vang Vien for Vientiene on the 5th of June. We stayed a pretty dodgy guesthouse, but it seemed to do the trick for one night. We took a small walk around part of the city : Vientiene was a beautiful and you could really see and feel the heavy french influence.

The next morning, before our flight to Hanoi - we found ourselves hanging out in a nice air conditioned cafe...where we met Jonny - a fellow traveller from Sydney Australia on our slow boat into Laos (he stayed at the rat infested guesthouse in Pak Beng as well). Turns out we were taking the same flight into Hanoi, Vietnam.

In the Vientiene airport we were greeted by a guy promoting his guesthouse. He promised our ride into town for only a dollar and all we had to do was look at this place... saving money already I thought. It claimed to have air conditioning, free internet, free breakfast, good location, etc etc. The GH sounded too good to be true - so, I put my name down. Our flight to Hanoi was GREAT - way better than a 26 hour bus ride! We even got stuff to eat (tops Air Canada already).

In Hanoi - we were greeted at the baggage claim by a man carrying a sign with MY name on it - best thing ever! We ended up staying at this GH with Jonny for 12 bucks a night - A/C, TV, free internet - it was the poshiest place so far. We did a small walking tour of Hanoi that night to discover that this place can easily be deemed 'motorcycle nation'. The traffic is NUTS. The trick, we discovered, is to walk, and not panic wehn motorbikes are heading straight for you - its a but difficult at first - but you get the hang of it.

The next morning we all took a trip over to the Ho Chi Minh museum where we attemped to view his embalmed body. Well, we got too hooked up in this great museum about the history of his life and of Vietnam - that we were too late to view his body (it closed at 10 30 - who knew?). After that failed attempt, we hopped on the back of three motorbikes and zoomed over to a 3 story market - I reckon the ride was the funnest part..

That night for dinner we found ourselves in what appeared to be the upstairs of someones house. It was like they converted the place to a resteraunt and served only one dish a night. The 3 of us sat down and had food tossed in front of our face at once. It came out in this big clay pot with hot coals in the bottome keeping everything really hot. It was GREAT (and fun too). After dinner we were asked to join a group of men for a drink. Turns out they were all pilots for Vietnam Airlines that just came back from Frankfurt. They were heaps of fun to talk to and had tons of jokes for us. The chairman of VA was even present, and from what we understood he was ready and willing to give one of his pilots 15 days off with salary to be our personal tour guide for our stay in their country. They also want us to phone them when we reach Saigon so some of them can show us around... we'll see. My dad doesn't sound too impressed with this last idea...sounds fun though!

The next morning we left for a 3 day tour of Halong Bay. It farther north that Hanoi and is a a UNESCO world heritage site that contains over 3000 limestone islands. The tour was well worth my 70 bucks - they pick you up right at your hotel door and drive you 3 hours north where you get on a huge 'junk' boat and have a 'white linen lunch' thats delicious. We cruised for a bit and stopped at one island to go into some caves, and another island to hike to the top for a great view. We anchored down for the night after some swimming in the (a little too) warm ocean.

Day 2 of the trip was by far the best. We kayaked amongst some of the islands for a few hours in the morning and then changed boats after that. On this new boat it was literally just the 3 of us and our guide. We ended up stopping on a tiny beach for the afternoon and sat on lawnchairs in the water before (and after) having lunch. That night we stayed at a hotel on Cat Ba island and watched the first game of the World Cup at a pub. We got the time changes a bit mixed up so we played fooseball with some Swedes to pass some time. The last day of our cruise was just heading back into the port - the scenery is amazing!

Later on that night (June 10th) we took a sleeper train down the coast of Vietnam to Hoi An. The train wasn't nearly as nice as the ones in Thailand, but still sleepable nonetheless. In our taxi ride from the train station into the center of Hoi An, our cab driver, as always, had a great suggestion of where we should stay while here. We checked it out.

I feel as though i will never stay in a place as nice as this. I mean, it is 20 dollars a night (so about 7 bucks each) but I think it might well be worth it. The rooms really nice, it has a TV and a minibar, as well as a bathtub ( a rarity). They even gave us silk bathrobes in the closet. They give us bikes for free to explore the city and theres an all you can eat breakfast buffet. Good deal I think - too bad its STILL out of our budget....

So our first day in Hoi An was great. After a swim in the pool (oh yeah - it has a pool too) we took some bikes to the center of town and had some clothes tailored for us and then went on a marathon bike tour of the city - Hoi An is awesome - very nice people, there's a river running through town, and about 6km away is a great beach that will be visited frequently during our stay here....