Friday 4th Feb - Josh's Post (Cara forgot things)!

Have just been instructed to write entry detailing amazing 'Tet eve'. Began with our instant travel family meeting at the dubious "Pepperonies" authentic Italian Ristaurante for overpriced pizza and ubiquitous "Bai Hoi" 3x jugs for 230,000 Dong and proceeded to the Lake and became instantly engulfed by the masses of mostly young locals gathering for fireworks and entertainment. Our party kept together in the throng thanks to yellow star flags waved enthusiastically by front and rear, much to the amusement of locals. I received handshakes for my efforts, also wearing a Ho Chi Minh badge to show solidarity for comrades.

NYE entertainment.

Locals were not so supportive of our Western dance stylings and spontanious display of fun, receiving harsh stares and "check out the crazy white guys" photos. Fireworks didn't dissapoint, did Ho Chi Minh proud, but locals not accustomed to recreation time had completely vacated the Lake within minutes of ending. Night ended in group finding the 'Le Bar' Western night spot for more overpriced drinks and bad 90's dance music and of course more Tits for Tet public nudity. Finally back to "Real Shit Cafe" (i.e. Real Darling cafe referred to previously) in a thick of haze of Tet offering smoke having got temporarily lost to find historic "Tube" temple, a moment of relative quite and calm to reflect on the 2nd New Years Eve for the year.

Offereings for Tet - these were out the front of almost every home on our way back to the hostel after the fireworks and fun.

Thursday and Friday 3-4 February 2011 - Last Days in Hanoi

Today we woke up at the "Real Darling Cafe" and immediately checked out and checked into "Red River 1 Hotel" which is soooo much better. We have a rash from God knows what, and couldn't even bring ourselves to shower in their facilities. When the Lonely Planet guide said "it's possibly as old as the old quarter itself" they must have been referring to the plumbing and the mould on the walls and ceiling. At our new place we were allowed to check in at 7am and have showers before meeting up with Hester, a lovely Dutch girl from Utrecht.

On our first morning (i.e. Monday morning) we went up for free breakfast at our hostel at 7:45am where we met Hester who was about to leave for a three day trip to Ha Long Bay. We asked "what time?" and she said "8:00am".... next you know we were all packed up and on the bus to Ha Long Bay together. Hester ended up sitting next to "the girl with the hangover" who ended up throwing up - fortunately she had enough forsight to bring a bag! The vomiting girl ended up being Helen (from Australia, and actually quite lovely), but by the end of the trip was nicknamed "Tits for Tet". That's because her party trick was flashing her boobs randomly... Quite embarrassing when in the pub in Hanoi (a city that still has very much a communist vibe). Ah well, just as long as she doesn't get herself arrested I'm sure she'll be fine.

It's now Friday the 4th February and we're waiting at the airport in Hanoi for a flight to Danang. We decided it was best to leave the city since everything is closed for Tet, including all the major museums, tours, most shops and some accommodation.

Josh and Cara out the front of Ho Chi Minh Museam, which was closed. Josh assures me that my white sports shoes Totally matched my black skirt and tights. Thanks for that. ;-)

We are now 'four' - Josh, me, Hester and a new tribe member called Gabriel from Denmark. We met Gabriel yesterday while Hester and I were booking flights to Hoi An. He came into our Hostel asking whether he could book a bus today to Hue, and the lady said "yes" (which seems to be a standard answer when people don't understand a question)... We saved him from the torture of explaining what he wants and eventually finding out that all of the busses and trains going south are full (or not running) because of the Tet holiday, and that we had just booked flights for only 930,000 Dong (AUD$45) with Jetstar. So within 5 minutes he was also booked our flight and our accommodation in Hoi An. A wonderful 'coincidence' that we all happened to be wanting to go to the same place at the same time... one of the joys of travelling has been meeting people that have new stories and experiences to share.

Hester, Gabriel and Josh in the bus from Da Nang to Hoi An.

Last night we all went out to a little street food place that had open grill plates and you could cook your own beef with fresh herbs and vegetables. It was really nice, but 100,000 Dong (AUD$5) each which would be cheap at home, but a little expensive for our budget in Vietnam. It was a fun experience for our last meal before we leave for Hoi An.

Open grill street food.... yum!!

Earlier that night Josh had to give himself his first maxalon injection as he was feeling super sick, and couldn't eat. He had a sleep in the afternoon and I gave him some Reiki - still not 100%, but I'm sure he'll be feeling better in no time. The only other crappy thing about our last day was that the water puppet show was booked out until the 5:00pm show on the 5th Feb - Johnny won't be very happy that we missed it... apparently it's very good! :(

Later on the 4th February ....around 10pm...

We flew Jetsar Airlines to Joi An and arrived at midday - managed to hook up with two other travellers to make a party of 6 to taxi from Danang Airport to Hoi An. It was around 400,000 Dong ($20) for a 40 minute trip- not bad? Our accommodation is called Green Fields Hotel, and yep, it's a dark green building that can't be missed. Check in was a totally different experienced, being seated by a staff member and offered wet towels and juice while sorting out the paperwork. The hotel also has a pool, sauna and movie room... we must be in a tourist town!

We checked in and then searched around town for some yummy food, which is one of the main reasons why we came here. We weren't dissapointed with our first dish, which was pork noodle salad from a street vendor in on of the main streets in the centre of town.

Hoi An is also popular for its tailors, where you can apparently take something in or pick an outfit from a picture in a magazine and have it made within a day or so. We'll see how good they are tomorrow when Josh receives his shirt and shorts that he ordered this afternoon. It was a little bit of fun, but we may have jumped the gun with our order, as we could have had a shirt made for $15 instead of the $20 we paid - if we had maybe shopped around a little more. A walk around town after we placed our order revealed possibly hundreds of tailor shops to choose from - and that's during Tet when most shops are closed!! We enjoyed strange banana cocktails for free back at the hotel from 6:30-7:30pm, and then pretty much crashed. Tomorrow we try scooters!!

2 February 2011 - Back in Hanoi

It's the Vietnamese Tet (aka New Years) holiday, and while all of the shops are closed, many of the street vendors are still working.

We hastily departed Monkey Island Resort at 8:30am this morning, followed by a short bus ride back to Cat Ba where we were greeted by the many small vendors fighting to sell weary travellers bottles of water or boxes of Mr Potato (similar to Pringles) chips. Because of Tet, we didn't get to do our morning activity since our guides were keen to get home to their families to celebrate this important time of year with their loved ones... this was fine with us, since we weren't really up for touring after a rather big night on the local rice vodka. It was a very long and seedy six hour bus ride back to Hanoi, but we had a great night getting to know our 9 travel companions over 5 bottles of vodka negotiated at 250,000 Dong (equivalent to $12.50) a bottle. Not feeling too bad now considering how much we drank!

I forgot to mention in my previous post that yesterday we took the kayaks out and toured the limestone karst lanscape around Monkey Island for a couple of hours. Josh had is own double kayak and I went with Helen (another new travel buddy). We discovered floating villages and every household had at least one, but up to 5 dogs!! Very funny! Kayaking thru this floating village and all you could hear was dogs barking and crazy trance music blaring. I don't know if it's special holiday music or whether it is what they listen to all of the time?? Helen's oar was broken though (one of the ends was on the wrong way) so our kayak was constantly turning right. Ah well.

We've found our accommodation for the night, a little place called 'the Real Darling Cafe'.... Lonely Planet says that it's possibly as old as the old quarter itself. We're hoping this is a good thing?

Photo's to come!

First Travel Blog Post - Ha Long Bay, Vietnam 1/2/2011

We're our second day into a three day tour of Ha Long Bay and so far in this tour we've had six separate tour guides, boat rides on 3 different boats, tours of caves and floating villages, kayaking, and much more.... for only $85 (and that's the deluxe option!).

Today we arrived by Boat Cruise to Ha Long Bay with a company called 'Asia Cruise' - We came ashore at a small wharf at Cat Ba Archipelago Biosphere Reserve (although the sign says it's a "Blo"sphere... but I'm guessing it's a "Bio"sphere). Fingers and nose are freezing, and conversations within our group of 11 revolve around how to best retain body heat. Despite the unanticapated freezing cold, we're loving Vietnam so far!

In Cat Ba we climbed to the top of a mountain which gave us an incredible view of the archipelego. Josh and a number of others in our group braved the climb to the top of the rikkety man-made viewing tower, but I thought better of it. I was happy enough with the view from the bottom of the top, and thought I was brave enough to climb all the rocks to the top with railings that had rusted away to nothing - literally!  I'm glad we chose to treck rather than cycle.

 This is a picture Josh took of me from the very top of the riketty structure - with zoom.

 ... without zoom.... (yay for our 18-200mm Sigma lens!)

Josh at the top of rikkety structure... with his brave face on!

Later, we arrived at Monkey Island Resort after a couple of hours of trekking in the rain. Amaaaazing! We went to feed monkeys (as you do on "Monkey Island") who were so cute, but pretty scary at the same time - they say not to stare at them, but it's hard to break eye contact when they 50cm away and snarling at you! We survived unscathed and a little more monkey-wise none-the-less. After the monkey feeding we had the option to climb to the top yet another mountain - Josh jumped at the opportunity and without hesitation found his own path to the top, and I, more hesitantly, joined the climb. These rocks were almost metallic, sharp and grippy, so despite my less than perfect balance and dwindling fear of heights, I eventually made it to the top with only a bruise on my knee and a rip in my fisherman's pants! The incredible view from the top, and sense of achievement and freedom, was well worth the challenge, and I think I'm earning the right to lose the reputation of having 'princess feet'!

Josh and Cara with monkeys.

Josh right at the top of the Monkey Island mountain!

I have feelings of virtigo just looking at me standing on the edge of that cliff! It was really worth it though. Such a beautiful view!

A closing image.... one of my favourite sunset shots we caught in Ha Long Bay.
Well that's it for the first post.... I hope that this post was coherent - and that my future posts become a little more poetic and informative!