Hanoi

50c pick and mix. That's Hanoi.

Busy but slow. Yuck yet beautiful. Friendly and awful. It has it all. Just depends on what you pull out.

I spent about 4 nights here in all. It's like the port to all of the places around it.

My first day was spent sitting next to the nearby lake, just relaxing for once and as I'd planned, reading a book. I never actually read more than a few pages though as every 5 minutes I'd get approached by a local wanting to practice their english with me. I didn't mind one bit and I ended up teaching a group of uni students english out of a book they had.

Later when the sun had gone down, I headed back to my guesthouse; grabbing dinner on the way. When I got back I actually started reading but was shortly joined in the dorm room by 3 polish guys and a Catalonian. They were drinking and invited me to join them. We talked for a bit and then they headed off for the town and me for bed.

Didn't realise at the time what this meeting would bring about...

Best lunch ever!

Baguettes are only 2000 - 3000 dong over here or around 17c each Kiwi. That is with fillings of chicken, cucumber, sauce, veges, cheese and sometimes tomato. They always ask for 5000 but you cn haggle it down to the vietnamese price if you know it.

I also bought an ice-cream the other day and was asked for 10 000 dong (about 80c). Again, they really cost 5000 but you have to ask for it. Then while i sat eating mine, i watched two other tourists came along and pay 15000 each. Then the vietnamese lady came and laughed about it with me afterwards (o:

All this talk about food has made me peckish... time for some street food i think. laters all

Let's start an epidemic...

Everyone comes to Asia worrying about all the diseases they might get. The one to look out for most is a smile!

Smiles truly are contagious over here. You say hello to anyone with a grin (especially little kids) and not only theirs, but your day brightens so much. Everyone loves to smile here.

So easy. So cheap. So happy.

So smile one for me back down under (o:

Who's cheating who?

So when we haggle for a cyclo or a moto, they always start with a price 3 times what is normal. But even then it is still around 10 times at least cheaper than back home in NZ.

So who is ripping who off? Them for over charging but trying to make a living or us for haggling a price that is already rediculously cheap?

Teaching in Asia

Jo can give a better account of this than me as he's been at is for real (paid) for like 2 months now. see jomaworld.blogspot.com (Pics of kids from Laos school):

My first teaching was when I tried to read a book next to the lake in Hanoi. Every twenty minutes or so I would get approached by someone wanting to practice their english with me. I ended up teaching a group of school kids english out of books for a couple of hours but it was good fun. Also met a guy who wanted to take me out for a meal of cat and dog!

Hardest part is that they can't hear some of our sounds (and I can't hear the difference between some of theirs). 'Sh' sounds like 's' to them. Makes some words fun...

I also did a spot of volunteer teaching around the local schools of the villages around Vang viang in Laos. Here we had morning classes where we pretty much did what we wanted. If we weren't there to teach, the kids would have no teachers at all. I have to admit I didn't do too much teaching here anyways however as I was having way more fun just playing with them and at that age why not?

The night classes were a bit more serious and they understood english quit well. It was sort of like we were preparing them for jobs. Again, using books we helped improve their pronounciation and so on. Nice to give a little back for once.

Hue...

Right now I am in Hue and about to head off to Hanoi (Capital of Vietnam). It is proper monsoon today and after yesterday that is hard to believe.

V's for Vietnam...

Yesterday was a perfect blue day. I spent it with an Aussie guy Ricky looking around. First we went to the royal cidatel which was so so to be honest. Some amazing building but to me they were just buildings. Yeah, not much to say about it. Here's some pics instead...

Me and Ricky...

Royal guys...

Getting friendly with the wildlife...

A building...

Another one... (see what I mean? They are all just buildings!! Cool ones admittedly but still)

Then in the afternoon we stopped being tourists and just went for a relaxing bike ride. First we headed for this bridge which supposedly has an amazing scenic ride to it amongst rice fields and rural villages etc. We rode along not really knowing where we were going and after giving up hope of finding the bridge we came upon a little cafe in the middle of no where.

We pulled in and spent the next hour drinking sugar cane juice and, while Ricky took a nap, I learnt how to play chinese checkers - really quite similar to Chess I think. Only problem is that the symbols on the tiles seem to change on every board and so once a few moves have been made i forget which are which (Bishop, pawn, castle etc - though they're not called that. Instead they are given names like 'motorbike', 'car', 'horse' and 'gun' over here depending on their moves). So after I had solidly proven I had no hope of ever winning a game we biked on only to find the bridge was just 50m down the road!

There were duck farms everywhere too with hundreds of the buggers...

When we arrived at the bridge this guy on a boat saw us admiring his progress up the river with his two young kids and offered us a lift. We jumped aboard and went for a ride down the river. Nice still water. Perfect blue sky. Beautiful scenery on either side. Then I took the helm (that what it's called when you steer?). Instantly the kids were in fits of laughter, the boat was rocking every which way as I tried to keep us going in a straight like down the river. After about 20cm I promptly steered us straight into the bank. Fun times though and the owner didn't seem to mind (o:




The boat and his 'crew'...


Afterwards we met a farmer with his water buffalo who let me pet them - we couldn't work out if they'd attack us or not and so it was a very cautious approach up to them. The farmer just smiled when we tried to ask if we could pet them. In the end it turned out they were quite friendly and like the cows back home, they enjoyed a good scratch behind the ears - the horns were pretty intimidating though and I was ready to run if needed i have to admit.

Who's minding who?!

I spent a while talking with this guy - or it was more of both of us talking to each other in different languages and not really understanding anything and yet understanding each other perfectly. We were sitting on a grass ditch watching some kids play soccer and so I soon went and joined them with Ricky too.

The soccer was a great laugh with kids everywhere going every direction and laughing the whole time at us though god only knows why. We played till we were verging on heat stroke and then headed back for some more cane juice.

Afterwards we found it was only around 3pm so we biked off down a random road. A few km's on we found a side street and peddled down. We met some girls half way who kept telling us to turn around (I think they thought we were lost) but we kept on to see where it went. It ended in a residential area and when we got a dead end we found ourselves at someones house. They invited us in for tea and what followed was a replica of the conversation with the farmer only this time it involved about 14 of us!

They also invited us for dinner but sadly - very sadly! - we had to go as it was getting dark. Before we left they wrote a letter for me in Vietnamese which i didn't have clue what it was on about. I have since had it translated and it says how they were glad to met us, sad they couldn't understand english very well and that they would love to remain friends. Pity I'm off. They were a very welcoming and friendly family. And of course they had the daughter they kept trying to get to talk to us. Hahah. But they were really nice.

The family...

We had stayed until dusk at their house though and realised that we had better head off before it got so dark we wouldn't be able to find our way home. You're going to love the photos of the sunset! Amazing! Ricky took them and will send them on to me when he can. Truly amazing.

So peddling home we stopped for dinner art this cafe real quick. All the options were in Vietnamese but they let me wander around the cafe's kitchen looking into all the pots until i had an idea of what was on offer. Very friendly people! I had full access to their home! I ended up ordering fried baby frogs - delicious! I love frog it seems. They were so good! Then once we'd eaten (all of 80c NZ for about 40 frogs) we went frog catching with their daughter after laughing about how we'd love to try it - I put back all i caught though (o;

Then home to bed after a few tidbits off the street like vietnamese doughnuts, wontons and sweet breads.

Then today I awoke to solid rain. Extreme monsoon. Best yet. And I can't even begin to describe the thunder! Wow!!! I have never heard anything like it. It was like a bomb had gone off in the room next door. So loud! Like nothing I have ever heard in NZ - probably 10 times louder. Took my breath away.

But I leave Hue today so i figured i'd better do something. So i cruised to the market. Bought a t-shirt (i have to buy XL here and they're still tiny!) and some fruit and caught a cyclo home. Cyclo's are like lazy-boy seats attched to a bike behind. Cost nothing and are a pleasant way to cruise around the town.

Anyway, the roads right now are completely flooded in some parts of the town. To get here I walked up to my knees through water down the middle of the street. Even the cockroaches are dying and floating down the streets in droves. The rain just won't let up!

Dalat...

So what better place for recovery than up in the fresh air of the mountains and away from the coast where the heat and the cool water are constantly inviting you to swim.

So i headed for a place called Dalat. Beautiful mountain vistas where we (I had met up with a Canadian, a Hungarian and an aussie - poor me, haha) spent our time going for walks through forests to view waterfalls, the bush and a mixture of wildlife (not that we actually saw too much of this – mainly butterflies and birds).

View over Dalat...

Me and a waterfall... (who zooms in when taking a photo of someone with a waterfall? Seriously?!)

Same waterfall... (zoomed out!)

The waterfalls were pretty cool but the largest in the area which makes a full semi-circle has been reduced by government water diversions (2005) used for irrigation and it is now half it’s former size and glory...

On the way to go trekking. This is Dustin the Canadian looking sexy...


We also went jungle trekking – myself and the Canadian. We headed off up a mountain road – tar seal – wondering if this is what they call trekking in Vietnam? After a few kms of this we were gettting a bit worried before we saw a trail heading off to one side advertising the highest peak around – 1950m.

Tar seal trekking...

We saw 'Zebras'. Seriously. They had painted black stripes on a white horse!

So we headed up and it was a change and a half walking wise. From tar seal to muddy overgrown paths but the change was definitely for the better! A little ways in the path split in 3 and of course we took the wrong one. An hour on we turned back as the path was heading into a valley and we wanted the peak. The path was also turning into solid jungle with the walkway dissapearing for metres at a time...

Anyone seen path?

So we cruised back, tried another path and met and American who said the peak was another 40 min away. Sweet as. It was here i noticed i now had a companion joining me to the top; a little leech had suckered onto me but i let him fill up and he soon left leaving only a tril of blood down my leg to remind of all the wonderful times we had had – and it bled for ages!

The sneaky wee ankle-biter...

One the way back down we met some Vietnamese oil tycoons who offered us a lift in their truck rather than having to walk for 3 hours. Bonus! They also offered to drive me home and since it was raining I jumped at the chance. I gave them the buisness card of where I was staying and the bus driver dropped me off "nearby" as he put it. This turned out to be a two hour walk! Should've stuck with Dustin and the bike! But I had kind of been hoping they's take me out for dinner (o:

The tycoons...

All these tours were on motorbikes as well so I haven’t been scared off. I just pay a lot more attention now to the road!

Accomodation was also awesome. We had a $10 room with 4 double beds, fans, t.v., hot water showers etc. And for once the hot water was a welcome luxury. Dalat is frigging freezing! I slept with a duvet on each night. And this is coming from Nga trang where i slept at one stage with my feet in the fridge!

Cold times: Grant and Hungary looking miserable on our motorbike trip to a waterfall. We ended up stopping and going back for beer at a roadside stall until it passed...



Meals were also around $2.50 kiwi all day eating baguettes and noodle soups with tarts and danishes for dessert with hot soy milk - delish!

Pineapples seemed to be the roadside food of choice here....

But after 3 days in Dalat i figured it was time to move on. I headed back to Nga trang, on to Hoe an, decided it wasn’t for me and am now in Hue – 23hrs of bus rides continuously! So ready for a bit of relaxation i think there are some nice beaches here somewhere...

Dairy farming Vietnam styles...

Nga Trang

Vietnams premier dive spot...

So who crashed their bike and can’t use it? Me! First day here we went for a swim as i figured salt water cures all. Maybe it was good for me but it stung like a million salted burning needles being poked under my skin while someone else poured vinegar all over them! I ended up ‘meditating’ on the beach trying to ignore the pain (o:

Next day was spent on a boat trip out to four neighbouring islands. It included a snorkel in a marine park (couldn’t see shite all and the coral was pretty wasted and a few lazy fish but not many). Instead the time was spent doing flips and jumps off the boat and happily enough, the sting had hugely reduced since yesterdays swimming episode.

Next was lunch on the boat – prawns, fruit, fried fish, rice, spring rolls, stirfry, tofu, sausage and on and on. We were very well fed! Then it was time for the floating bar.

Here they give you a life ring and you jump in the water and get fed wine by a floating bar man also in a modified inner tube. He kept grabbing people and pouring wine down their throats to a chorus of drunken westeners yelling “Jo!” which means cheers in Vietnamese and some other words i don’t remember. Then Dan (one of the americans with us) snuck up and tipped him out of the bar and became the barman giving out whole bottles of wine until everyone was happily tipsy.

Next was dancing on the boat deck to the sound of the boats own personal boy band – they were awesome! The drummer was playing on a plastic drum, an upside down dog bowl and a drum that was more duct tape than drum but he sounded superb.

Then it was on to an island to play sports (accompanied by a few bottles of wine we managed to weasel out of the guide) and then back to the boat and off to an aquirium. We never actually made it inside the aquirium either but spent the remainder of the day jumping off the boat again
All in all it was well worth it and we finished the day by all meeting at a beer bar before heading off to town.

Now, after chilling at Nga trang with Conrad, Dave and Lexi for 3 days; i have to leave. The problem is that they snore so loud at night! Like frigging jet-fighters taking off with a load of distressed elephants ridden by screaming babies inside!

No, but for real i have to leave as they are about to begin a few days of scuba diving and i need my motorbike grazes to heal and though the water is good for them, they need to be dry for a bit. And it is only 30US a day for 2 dives!!! Bugger!

Beer hoi

Beer hoi is like kegs of home made beer sold on the street sides a glass at a time. Not the strongest but it's cheaper than drinking water!

$1NZ = 7 beers

Need I say more?

Motorbike crash

Cruising home later that night, I total my motorbike. Like it's a write-off. I did a full 360 flip going around a corner when i hit some sand. - Why do I always forget to take photos of the good stuff?!

I had taken this corner and looked down to change down a gear as it wasn't working (the bikes were playing up heaps) and when i looked back up i was heading straight for a gutter and realised I needed to turn left, fast!

I went to do so, hit some sand and my bike jumped hard right instead, threw me into a metre deep gutter, did a full flip itself and then somehow we ended up together back on the road.

The gutter (taken out a bus window the next day)...

I was pretty good health wise - just heaps of grazes all over my body and face but the bike was pretty ruined. Leaking oil, pieces lying on the road etc. Had to hire a truck to take it back but I'm all good and i just paid off the owner so it's all good if a little crazy.

Just a few grazes...

Things looking scaby...

But we're now in Nga trang (Vietnam's premier dive spot) and i can't swim as it hurts like buggery!

Oh well. Life goes on.