Hello all. Sorry I have not blogged for a few days, the computer access has been limited. We are having an amazing time though, and have been very, very busy.
We departed from Hanoi at the jolly old time of 4am. There is a night guy at every hotel and our beautiful one at Hanoi got up to make us little breakfast boxes to take to the airport. He was so darling! The flight was fine, we slept the entire way. However, on arriving in Hue, our airport pickup from our hotel was nowhere to be seen. This was a scary experience as it is not like in Melbourne where you go to a taxi rank and jump in a car. Instead, you have ten or twenty men come at you- "You take taxi with me! You take taxi with me! Where you go!" There are lots of horror stories about taxi's in Vietnam too so we have to be cautious. Eventually we had to trust someone, so we decided to hop on the bus with the locals ($2). Our trust paid off as we arrived right in front of our hotel. The hotel then proceeded to upgrade us to a suite to say sorry. It is definately the nicest room we will have in Vietnam- our own living room, spa room, bathroom, wardrobe, king bed, balcony... It was pretty amazing. Worth about $150 a night which is huge here considering most of our hotels are about $30. After only having 3 or 4 hours sleep, we trekked off to the main attraction in Hue called The Citadel. It is an ancient walled city that contained the royal family centuries ago. To get there we had to cross the river in a 'dragon boat'- $1 each! From there we walked about 5kms or more around the Citadel. It was very beautiful but I was kind of disappointed to hear that it had been bombed during the war and a lot of the stuff is actually just replica's... not very authentic to me!
We then made the mistake of going to Dong Ba market where we ran away very quickly as the locals pounced on us... they actually grab you, it was pretty bad. We decided we felt safer on the other side of the river where the atmosphere is a lot nicer. We had lunch at a Vietnamese/French restaurant near our hotel- 6 courses with two drinks each for $7 each. There is so much French influence here... the bread in particular is amazing. French style baguettes except made with rice flour so they are very very light. We then had full body massages at our hotel for $9 each. The massages here are pretty crazy. They crack your back, find all the pressure points and at one we had in Hanoi they actually WALKED on our backs. I happened to look up at one point and there was literally this little Vietnamese woman standing on Craig's back holding onto these beams on the roof. They love Craig- some comments that have been made about him: "You very very handsome!" "Ohhh, big muscles!" "Ohh, you have nice bum, look very good in suit!". Very funny. I think he wants to move here...
The dinner we had that night in Hue was amazing. It was this little garden restaurant where we sat at wooden tables with candles and a kind of thatched roof. Each town has its own speciality and we have been sure to try it in every town. This one had the most beautiful steamed dumplings- I was shattered we were only there for one night and couldn't eat them again!!!
The next morning we left our luxury suite and moved onto Hoi An. A fabulous guide from Indochina Tours picked us up in a bus and we had a tour on the way to Hoi An with some more Aussies, a mother son duo from Kinglake! It was refreshing to see some familiar Aussie faces and we had some good chats about all the crazy things we had seen. The things we saw on the way were magnificant. It was like the Vietnam I had imagined... not the busy, bustling streets filled with motorbikes but beautiful rice paddies with farmers and water buffalo. We stopped at several places along the way where street kids would try to sell you things. Our guide asked us not to buy anything off them (he had such good morals) as he believes they should be in school getting an education. They are good though- we succeeded in not buying anything but they know their stuff. They ask where you are from and as soon as we answered Australia straight away it was 'G'day mate!'. Very sad though...
On the way we stopped at a 'Happy House' (coffee house) in the mountains with a very spectacular view. Whilst we were there we met the supplier of Mikimoto (correct spelling?) pearls. We are pretty unsure about the pearls here as we have heard about many scams, but our guide assured us that this guy would prove to us his pearls were real and not plastic.We believed him when he lit them on FIRE! They did not melt in the slightest. They were so cheap too, and very beautiful. You can probably guess I bought them! ;)
We also stopped at China Beach, where all of the Americans holidayed during the war, and at Danang which was the main military base for the Americans. It was really sad to see that such a beautiful place is being destroyed by tourism. It is such a nice little town but we drove along the beach where there are these HUGE resorts being built. It will be another Phuket in no time...
The most spectacular place our guide took us was Marble Mountain. It is a huge mountain made of marble (duh!) where the local villages sculpt the most amazing things out of stone. We watched some of the villagers make them and purchased some really nice small sculptures. Our haggling skills are becoming very good- we got them down from 60 USD to 25 for 3 pieces! The mark up must be incredible... After this we walked up the mountain- 500 steps made of marble! It was insane... and very hot. At the top, it was all worth it however. There were several beautiful old pagodas still being used by monks. Also, a magnificant look out, and then the most amazing cave I have EVER seen. It was HUGE and contained several mini pagodas (temples), natural waterfalls and sculptures in the rock. Also, interestingly, it served as the hospital base for the Viet Cong during the war. The Americans thought they were going up there to pray and never bothered them, yet they were hiding in this cave and launching attacks on the Americans. Pretty amazing stuff. It is interesting to hear about the war... it is only ever referred to as 'The American War' here. Never Vietnam.
We arrived in Hoi An at about 4pm and set off to the tailors. We had to get it over and done with to give the tailors enough time to make our clothes. I had a few photos etc of dresses I wanted made, and the first tailor I went to quoted me $1000 for 5 dresses and one pair of pants... I managed to knock them down to $500 but still felt it was a bit high. The next tailor we went to, recommended by Lonely Planet and Craig's mate, was well worth it! I ended up getting: two cotton dresses (long sleeve with patterned print), one suit dress with white around the neck and the sleeves, two pairs of tailored pants, a silk skirt and a thick winter jacket in grey for $330!!! I just had my fitting and the dresses turned out okay, I think I need a belt and some nicer shoes than thongs to make them work, and the pants were just perfect. Fit like a glove, I cannot wait to wear them! Craig got two suits, five shirts and a beautiful winter coat for about $400. I also ordered black leather boots for $35! Now the only issue is how to get them home... ! But that is a task for tomorrow...
Hoi An is the most beautiful town. Craig & I definately like it the best out of all of Vietnam. We already have plans to come back for longer. Basically, there is an old side and a new side, and they are seperated by a river. The streets are decorated with these stunning Japanese lanterns that light the streets beautifully. The people are so friendly compared to up North and barely bother you at all (with the exception of the 'G'day mate' street kids). Tomorrow we are wanting to buy some of the beautiful oil paintings available here, but are unsure whether we have already blown our budget a bit here...
Today we rented bicycles from our hotel ($1 per bike per day) and road around the town for hours. It is such an easy way of getting around. You have to get used to the constant motorbikes swerving around you, but if you keep your wits about you, its quite easy and very fun. We are planning to do the same thing tomorrow and perhaps head to the local beach which is about a half an hour ride. We are doing so much exercise here that I will be very angry if I do not lose weight soon- that combined with the light, fresh food has to be the best diet possible! It is taking its toll on us though, I have broken out in a massive heat rash and we are so tired at night that last night I apparently fell asleep mid sentence. One minute I was sitting up talking to Craig, the next minute I was snoring- I didn't even remember falling asleep!
The food here- also amazing. If you haven't realized yet, I am loving eating my way around Vietnam! There is so much variety, a lot of French and Italian, but we are sticking to Vietnamese as much as we can. Tonight we had the best meal we have had yet. For entree we had these beautiful spring rolls, these Vietnamese crispy pancakes that we are obsessed with, and 'white rose', the specialty of Hoi An which are rice dumplings filled with shrimp served steamed. For main, we had pork with rice noodles and a sweet sauce with herbs (divine!) and an amazing stuffed squid that would have blown the master chef judges away. All that plus two drinks each (mojito's for me!) and coffee after dinner cost us about $25- that is an expensive meal here, but it was so worth it. It was at a restaurant called 'Morning Glory' (funny, I know- it is the name of a vegetable here) that is a Hoi An institution. If you ever come here, go there... you will not be disappointed. I suspect we may have lunch there tomorrow also.
After this, it is onto Nha Trang, which is the beach strip with buckets of alcohol and beautiful beaches! I will be very sad to leave here though, and plan to make the most of tomorrow, our last day in Hoi An. I cannot recommend this town more, it is just beautiful.
If you have read up to this far, well done! I know this is a long blog but we have not had proper internet for a few days and I have so much to tell you all. We have taken about 350 photos so far but there is no uploading here so hopefully I will post some soon. I am missing everyone, especially my Mum & Dad terribly. I braved international roaming today to call them for 12 minutes... should cost me about $30! But it was worth it. I am enjoying writing these blogs as I feel it is the only way to keep myself speaking well- you should hear Craig & I, we talk to each other in broken English. I will be a horrible teacher if I get too used to this. It is seriously "You want to go pool?" or "I go toilet now"... We are trying to break the habit but its hard because we speak broken English to everyone else we meet!!!
Anyways, I best stop boring you with my stories now.
I hope everyone is well.
xx
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