SYDNEY

Recently I have been posting a lot of blogs in one go. That is because I got so behind in vietnam with the cold and stress of travelling in the country.

I still have a few more blogs on vietnam to post and then there are the Australia ones. but I just had to post this one showing my neice Carmel(who lives in Sydney ) and I, having cocktails by Sydney harbour. She then treated me to a fantastic meal in a very posh restaurant overlooking the harbour and Sydney opera house. It was such a contrast from Vietnam I was in heaven!!!!!!!Thank you Carmel!!!!

HUE

I could not cope with the extreme cold weather any more in Hanoi, and I did not like the aggressive atmosphere. Also it was the lunar new year in a couple of days and the whole of Vietnam was on the move to be with their families for new year. Most things were booked up or cost the earth. I managed to get a bunk on a sleeper train heading 14 hours south to HUE, for an extortionate price, but I just wanted to move south. I hoped that it would be more temperate.
Hue served as the political captital of Vietnam until 1945.
Now those of you who have been following my blog will know that I was an advocate of overnight sleeper trains after my experience in Thailand heading to Chang Mai. Well all that is about to change!!!!



It was chaos at the train station in Hanoi with everyone trying to buy a ticket to get home for Tet(Lunar new year). When I found my carriage I was shocked. It was tiny and there were four bunks very close together with no curtains or privacy, and dirty bedding. I had been allocated a top bunk. I hauled my rucksack up onto the bunk and locked it to the railings alongside. I felt very vunerable.


I had just settled and resided myself to the fact I would be sharing with three other people when a whole family piled into the cabin.


They totally ignored me and proceeded to pack all their belongings and boxes into every available bit of space in the cabin. Including a blossom tree that they were taking home to their family (it is tradition to do that for new year). I felt so claustraphobic. They then doubled up on the bunks,top and tailing, so the room was packed and there was no air. I was stuck in there for 14 hours with them!!!!!!!!!

When I went to the bathroom they did not make it easy for me to climb down from the bunk and they took the opportunity to rummage through my rucksack.They did not even close the zips for when I returned. Thankfully I keep all the important things on me or in my smaller rucksack which I take with me everywhere.So they did not find anything.
Needless to say I did not get much sleep.When we approached my destiation I realised they had taken my thick socks from my bunk. So I just kept pretending to search and asking them and pointing to my feet. This carried on for about fifteen minutes until the mother said something. Then the father popped his head round from the bottom bunk and passed me the socks. I smiled and said thank you ,but in my head I thought, about time too you theiving b.....d!!!!I was so glad to get off that train.
I then got to a guesthouse and they said I could have a room with a computer for an extra five dollars. I felt crap and thought I would stay in my room doing my blogs and resting, so I agreed. When I got to the room I discovered it did not work. I called to reception and they said they would give me a discount of three dollars as it was broken.I argued that I would not pay any extra. They wanted me to pay two dollars for the privialage of having a broken computer in my room.But I just flipped and told them I would pay the basic rate and that was it.Eventually they agreed.
I needed to get out of the guesthouse so decided to take a bicycle taxi to see the Citadal


The moated citadel though heavily bombed by the Americans it is still impressive.
The taxi driver set off and after about ten minutes of going round the back streets I asked him where the Citadal was, he kept saying "yes" "yes" and peddling..and he said something about no ticket. I felt poorly with my cold, I was tired through lack of sleep on the train and I was in no mood to take prisoners!!! I snapped at him and asked him where was he taking me.
It transpired he was taking me around the perimiter fence of the citadal to save me money. I was furious and jumped out saying that I actually wanted to see the blummin Citadal. He wanted twenty dollars for taking me round the back streets. I gave him a couple and went on foot in the rain to see the citadal.


I was glad I had made the effort as it was lovely to wander round.
but I vowed to move on further south the next day. I was getting sick of being ripped off and lied to all the time!!

HALONG BAY

Being a glutten for punishment I booked a two day trip to Halong Bay. It is one of Vietnams marvels and a Unesco World Heritage site.There are more than three thousand islands rising from the clear emerald water of the gulf of Tolkin.

Ha Long means where the dragon descends into the sea. The legend says the island of halong bay were created by a great dragon that lived in the mountains. As it ran towards the coast its flailing tail gounged out valleys and crevasses; as it plunged into the sea the areas dug up by its tail became filled with water, leaving only bits of high land visable.




When we got to the Junks that we were to sail out on and spend a night on, there were lots and we literally had to clamber over the other boats to get to ours. It was chaos and there was no consideration for health and safety! some people really struggled to get on board(no not me!!! well just a little bit!)

It was also the coldest Vietnam has been for 40 years!!!!!! so we all sat huddled inside with as many clothes on as we could find in our bags.



They did not even provide hot drinks, we had to buy them to try to keep warm.

The windows in my cabin did not close properly and there was no window in the bathroom just a big hole in the wall. I managed to plug that with a spare towel.
I used my gloves and a spare pair of trousers to block the gaps in the other windows and door. I also slept with all my clothes on including jacket and hat!
But saying that it was beautiful and I am so glad that I did the trip.We went to see some amazing caves and some nutters actutally went out kayaking in the freezing cold. I stayed on board and took pictures for them.



The next day we just sailed around the bay and had a good time. I was with a very friendly group so it made it a bit more bearable with the cold. And by this stage I had come down with a sore throat and cold.But I was still smiling!!

PERFUME PAGODA

I decided to book a trip to the Perfume Pagoda which is about 60km southwest of Hanoi.It is a complex of Pagodas and Buddhist shrines built into the limestone cliffs of Huong Tich mountain. Vast numbers of Buddhist pilgrims come here for the lunar new year which was due in a few days. I chose the scenic river trip.Which is retrospect was a big mistake because it never stopped raining for the whole trip. Basically four people sit in a little tin boat that is rowed for an hour by a young woman.


But we felt very vunerable because we were in a tin boat, on water, in a thunder and lightening storm!!!!!. There were about six boatloads of us on my trip and we all kept trying to see the funny side of it, even though we were freezing and wet.The waterproof capes they gave us were more shower proof than waterproof! I am the first one in purple on the left of photo. I also have nearly the entire contents of my rucksack on underneath to try and keep warm!!

The main pagoda is about 4km from where the boat drops you off. Thankfully two years ago they built a cable car sytem so we all voted to go on that rather than walk along the slippery path.

At the top it was beautiful. We decended into caves where the pilgrims go to pray.



There are various rock formations that signify things like male of female offspring. Many young women pray for the sex of their next child.There was one giant rock that you are supposed to hug if you want a rich man.Well as you can imagine they had to prise me away from it!!!!!!! I clung on like a lampit!! only kidding its what they are like not what they have in their pocket! (yeh right)

On the way back we all refused to go back in the little tin boats for an hour and we paid a bit more to get a boat with an engine.But it was still open to the elements so we got soaked again.But Some of the Irish tourists gave me a bottle of beer and we all just sat at the back of the boat singing in the rain, with rain dripping off our noses, and it was good fun!!
When I got back to the guesthouse they had a little heater I could rent. I was thrilled. I sat for a couple of hours hunched over it drying my clothes out.I did wonder what the heck I was doing, but it is all part of the experience!(I know I am using a lot of exclamation marks,but Vietnam makes you like that!)
I then met up with the Irish lot afterwards for a fantastic Vietnamese meal.

HANOI CONTINUED

Hanoi is situated on the Red river and the Vietnamese take passionate pride in their national identity. The final resting place of their former leader Ho Chi Minh is in a glass sarcophagus set deep within a monumental edifice. That is despite the man saying in his will that he wanted to be cremated!!!


There are crowds of people who go to pay their respects. It is very daunting. There are guards all over the place and they shout at people who have hats on or who smile or talk. You really are herded through. I got their just as it was closing for the morning so they rushed me , literally shouting at me and clapping their hands to get me to run to the entrance of the mausoleum to queue up. Thankfully the taximan came with me, so he showed me the way to run. It was hilarious really and I had to stop myself from laughing. Then we went into the chamber and filed round his embalmed body, which incidently gets a three month holiday to Russia every year to be maintained. I have to say I was moved by the solemn way many of the Vietnamese people walked around.
I then went onto the Temple of literature.It is so peaceful there. The building is dedicated to confucius. It is a well preserved jewel of traditional Vietnamese architecture in the 11th century style with roofed gateways and low-eaved buildings.


I loved walking round it despite it being bitterly cold, my fingers were stinging it was freezing.I thought if I ventured inside it would be a bit warmer. But even the musicians inside had woolly hats and scarves on. I do not know how they managed to play. The music was lovely and peaceful.


My room at the guesthouse did not have heating, but you could hire a heater.Only they had none left the first couple of nights I was there. So I literally slept with my clothes on and a woolly hat!(That is after all the blummin hassle I had gone through to get to this place from the airport.It sounded good in the book! I suppose I only paid 20 dollars so I could not expect much!But I had hoped to be warm)l Oh the glamourous life of being on the road. On top of it all I began to feel as if I was getting a cold as well. I wandered round the market streets of Hanoi in the evening and I just found the people aggressive and unfriendly. Thankfully I found a great cafe with a little heater so I sat reading there for ages reluctant to venture back to my cold room for the night.

HANOI

Feeling suitably chilled out after my time in Laos I decided it was time to head for Vietnam. Little did I know what lay ahead!!!!. but first I had to cope with the flight from Luang Prabang.

the airport consisted of one little landing strip and a small building. The check in procedure was farcical..they went through the motions of checking you through security, then you could just wander about freely after you got your boarding card!

I managed not to shout out too much on the plane. But I did feel the pilot was coming into land a bit too fast for my liking so I found myself calling out " oh slow, slow slow down!" much to the amusement of the very sympathetic Chinese man next to me.

From the moment I landed in Hanoi the travelling experience changed for the worse! I had been lulled into a false sense of security, because the adventure so far had been pretty much plain sailing. But vietnam was to be a lot tougher. I could not get any money out of the ATM machines but they wanted people to get cash from their credit cards at special counters for extortionate rates. Then I was surrounded by taxi touts when I got through immigration. It was quite scary. I told them which guesthouse I wanted to go to.But they took me to three others in very seedy areas of town. They kept telling me each one was the one I wanted to go to but I knew it was not even though they did not have names above the door. They actually steal the identity of other hotels to try to lure tourists , and they are in a horrible state. It does warn you in the lonely planet, but guess who had not read that bit yet?
Anyway eventually I got very cross and said " if this is the hotel is my boyfriend here yet?" They looked worried and said "you have a boyfriend?" and I shouted that I was meeting him at the hotel I had asked to go to !They then hurriedly got a taxi and I was taken to the place I wanted to go to in the first instance. But it shook me up a bit.




The city of Hanoi is just so hectic there are so many motorbikes and I just do not know how they manage to get around but they do.It is a communist country but with capitalist ideals and so everyone is out to make a fast buck and they constantly rip you off. Which is very wearing and you have to be on your guard all the time.


Rather than risk crossing the roads on the first day I decided to take a cycle taxi.But that is not without its risks as you are at the level of the traffic.It was also very very cold and rainy.And I have to say I was not prepared for it being quite so cold. It was something to do with a cold weather front that was coming from China.

I decided to have a day of sightseeing, first I went to the women's museum, which was fascinating.It showed you what the women of vietnam did to protect their country during the war and I was really moved by their bravery.

PAK OU CAVES

Don, Norma, Ingrid and I hired our own little boatman to take us along the Mekong to see the PakOu caves. They are about 25km from Luang Prabang up the Mekong river at the mouth of the Nam Ou. The caves in the Limestone cliffs are packed full of hundreds if Buddha images. And at the lunar new year many Local people go to pray at the caves.

It took about six hours round trip with lunch at a little riverside cafe and the scenery along the river was wonderful.

Oh and for all of you who messaged me about the massages !! you may be worried I have not had any for a long time...

well I did manage to have a couple of foot massages in Luang Prabang!!

I also took a hair raising bus trip up the mountain to see the Tat Kuang Si waterfalls. The bus tyres were bald, so the bus was sliding all over the road. The driver also seemed to be in a particularly bad mood. He was playing chicken with all the other vehicles on the road, and thankfully winning!! All the passengers were just stunned into silence! When he parked the bus it is kept rolling so he wedged a stone behind the wheels and walked off. It is strange that I would not dream of getting on a vehicle like that at home, but here it just seems the thing to do!!
But the journey was worth it when I saw the multitiered waterfall tumbling over limestone formations into a series of cool,turquoise-green pools.I had a fantastic swim even though the water was freezing!




The driver made everyone wait until he was ready to go and had finished his game of pool with the locals.He was not bothered that some tourists were shouting at him to come back to the bus. But it put him in a sufficiently bad mood to make for another interesting journey down the mountain. I am sure he knew how scared everyone was.
I was so relieved that we stopped at a village to see local craftwork for a while, so that I could steady my nerves.


And when we got back to Luang Prabang he stopped the bus at the outskirts of the town and told us all we had to walk the rest of the way. He really was the John Cleese of bus drivers!

LUANG PRABANG

Sandwiched between Thailand and Vietnam ,Laos is a little bit if paradise! Although it is famous for being the most bombed country in the world it maintains an air of calm that makes you unwind.
It has only been open to tourists for a short time and that is one if its beauties. I stayed in Luang Prabang ,which is a really lovely place along the Mekong river, for a week. It is still not too touristy and it is not overrun by traffic, so it is easy to unwind and take a step back from the hustle and bustle of life on the road.

The locals are such nice and friendly people and

(Sorry liz I know you do not like the photos at this angle!)


particularly loved their night market. Every night they put up their stalls along the roads which are closed to traffic. They are such nice and friendly people.
I tried out some of the local food with a group of people I had met on the Mekong river trip and a fantastic 75 year old German lady who was travelling on her own to Laos for the 4th time.

I climbed to the top of a hill at the centre of Luang Prabang to check out the temples and Buddha's footprint....yes really there was a massive footprint in a cave and they are convinced it was made by Buddha, but I have to say I was not as convinced.But I was glad I did the climb because the views across the valley were beautiful.



I also enjoyed chatting to the local monks who are eager to improve their English.




And of course after the decent I needed to chill out by the edge of the Mekong with a glass of wine and a book.



It was good to stop rushing around for a while and just to take stock of where I had already been and what I had achieved so far on my trip.