Vietnam - Day 22 Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur

Up at 5:30am to catch an early morning flight from Hanoi, Vietnam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We are only here for the day and fly out on the midnight horror tonight.

Let's consider our options:

1. Hang around the Low Cost Carrier Terminal for 12 hours (the equivalent of a McDonalds store in Lockridge or for our British friends a Wimpy's store in the backwaters of Glasgow).
2. Put our luggage in storage at a cost of A$100, spend and hour travelling into KL followed by an hour travelling back out (about A$100).
3. Book a nearby hotel room for the day and hang around the pool and bar drinking and swimming.

We all voted for the latter (surprise!). I think we are all shopped out.

It was 32C and overcast. Perfect weather for lazing by the pool and being children again!

Vietnam - Day 21 Halong Bay to Hanoi

This is the view we woke up to this morning. Tia said it makes a change from waking up and looking at a fence.
We missed the Tai Chi on the deck this morning but got there in time for breakfast.

The surrounding cliffs are full of eagles. These graceful birds are incredibly powerful and agile with no mercy for their weak prey. Very much like the West Coast Eagles. The whole Scott family got down on their knees and payed homage to this mighty King of the Skies by singing "Flying High".  There were no sightings of inferior birds like hawks, magpies, crows or swans.

Our first stop was Surprise Cave. Apparently it is named Surprise Cave because when the French discovered it they said "mon dieu, c'est une grotte" ("my god, its a cave").

Can you imagine what this rock would have been called when the French saw it and proclaimed "mon dieu, c'est un énorme pénis".

Halong Bay is always full of sights.

Honest local fisherman plying the waterways, toiling to make an honest days work.

Pirates and bandits trying to rob you of your money. This woman tried to charge Brynley 200,000VND (US$10) for a box of Pringles. Everybody knows you can buy them in the supermarket back in Hanoi for 40,000VND.

After lunch we said goodbye to the boat and Halong Bay and made the long journey back to Hanoi.
Then straight to the pool for a two hour dip.

We decided to go back to our favourite restaurant, Quan An Ngon for dinner. It felt like the last supper so we really pigged out (well actually it was only Brynley that pigged out, he is afraid he is never going to have Vietnamese food again).

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Vietnam.

Vietnam - Day 20 Hanoi to Halong Bay

BREATH TAKING !!!!

Majestic, mysterious, inspiring and imperious is how Lonely Planet describes it.

There are many adjectives that can be used for Halong Bay but none of them would ever do it justice.

It simply is just STUNNING.

Halong Bay is a large group of incredible islands that rise out of the emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin and reach for the sky. If you watched the Vietnam episode of Top Gear you may recall that this is where Jeremy Clarkson waited for the others to arrive while sipping on a beer on an isolated floating pub.

UNESCO designated this as a World Heritage site in 1994. There is a campaign to have it voted as one of the seven natural wonders of the world. We have been to the Grand Canyon and we think Halong Bay wins hands down.

We left Hanoi early this morning for the four hour non-eventful drive to Halong.

Our cruise boat was "The Emotion". There were only about 28 rooms and 50 guests. The rooms were lovely but had no TV or Wifi. Jordan and Tia were horrified, how were they going to keep themselves entertained? Brynley thought that posting the daily blog was going to be a problem. We would just have to make do by watching the scenery!

However there was a surprise - they had a birthday cake and flowers waiting for Lisa in our room. All the staff knew it was her birthday and kept wishing her happy Birthday. We found out later that Lisa had deliberately made sure they knew it was going to be her birthday when she booked the cruise. Honestly, she can be such a child sometimes!

What can we say about the views. Even though Lisa took over 200 photographs you simply have to be there to appreciate the natural beauty and scale.

We visited one of the 7 fishing villages in the bay. There are about 200 people that live in this village on floating homes. Most live their whole lives on the water without setting a foot on dry land. They have a floating primary school, temple and normal community activities.

Even pet dogs!! Jordan suspected there would be a lot of inbreeding (like Tasmania) and expected to see people with two heads.

We were the last ones on the top deck at night having a few quite beers and soaking in the scenery. It was like the Marie Celeste after 10pm. Bit spooky!!

Vietnam - Day 19 Hanoi

It was our last full day in Hanoi today so we thought we would mix it up a bit with some shopping and eating for a change.

Lisa did some tremendous bargaining in one shop and bought just about everything we hadn't got yet. Tia helped by using those dimples and being cute with the shopkeeper. Brynley and Jordan stood outside and melted.

We decided to do something to better the world and had lunch at KOTO. It is a great story and makes you proud to be an Australian. The story began when little Jimmy Pham escaped South Vietnam as a child with his parents when the Americans withdrew from the war. After a couple of years they made it to Australia as refugees. When he grew up he got a job with tour group Intrepid and moved to Vietnam to review hotels. He became very upset with the plight of street kids and the disadvantaged. Consequently he set up a sandwich shop called KOTO (know one teach one). He helped street kids, gave them a job and taught them life skills. It has now turned into a 4 level restaurant and takes on about 30 kids a year. They do a 2 year course and go on to other jobs (most go to work in the big hotels).

http://www.koto.com.au/

We were so impressed and thought it was such a worthwhile cause that we donated $100 to help them set up a restaurant in Saigon. We believe that but for the grace of god we all could have been born street kids in the back blocks of Hanoi.

By the way - Lisa, Tia and Jordan thought the food was terrific. Brynley thought it was good but his Bun Cha was not as good as he has had elsewhere.

It doesn't matter where you go you always bump into ugly Australians behaving badly. This despicable pair really kicked off and made an ass of themselves.

Tia was so embarrassed she hid behind her new Conical Hat.

In the afternoon we relaxed in the pool. There was a big crowd there for the boxing so we thought we would impress them with our strength and agility in the water. No matter where you go there are always some ugly Australians behaving badly.

Vietnam - Day 18 Hanoi

After visiting the old quarter and market yesterday Tia has decided she wants a puppy for Christmas.

However Lisa and Brynley still prefer the traditional turkey.

Today we started off at the Army Museum and Flagpole. The Museum is a celebration of the Vietnamese Army and their victories over China, France, Japan and of course America. They have done a lot of fighting in their time.

The Museum has a whole range of tanks and planes which it claims were captured from the Americans (however most of the plaques show they were captured in 1975 which was 2 years after the US withdrew!) There is no doubt they got this F4 which was shot down over Hanoi. Very impressive.

We had lunch at a great restaurant recommended by our friend Quincy (from that mega 90's Australian band Blue Ruin).  Madame Hein is in a quaint house near the old quarter and up until 5 years ago was the Spanish Embassy.

Here we had some of the best food we have had in Vietnam. Lisa had the Cha Ca fish above. Brynley had roast honey baby piglet that he said was to die for. (which unfortunately is what the piglet actually had to do!)

We didn't think we ate enough so we wobbled over to Fanny's to pig out on ice cream.

After expending all that energy eating we thought it best if we relaxed by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. We didn't want to overdue it.

Suitably refreshed, we hit the Night Market to do some more shopping. Brynley and Jordan are suffering shopping fatigue but Lisa and Tia are still going strong. By the way - how many handbags can you look at in one night?

Lastly, we would like you to appreciate the traffic we have to contend with everyday. We have seen two accidents so far (three if you count Brynley unloading in his pants when he almost got hit by a taxi and a motorbike at the same time on the first day). We think a lady broke her wrist in the accident we saw last night. The surrounding traffic started to beep their horns straight away and were more concerned about clearing the motorbikes off the road than attending the injured. This video will give you some idea.

Makes you think of the good old times getting out of the drive-ins after the movie had finished!

Vietnam - Day 17 Hanoi

It gets pretty noisy early in the morning near our apartment. The mayhem outside generally starts about 5:30am. The mayhem inside starts whenever Tia gets up.

We spent today walking around the old quarter of Hanoi. We started at Hoan Kiem Lake where legend has it that when Emperor Le Thai To was boating on the lake a golden tortoise reared up out of the water with a magical sword to defeat the Chinese. It sounds like a Vietnamese version of King Arthur. I wonder if they have a Vietnamese version of Michael Palin in Monty Python's Holy Grail:

Dennis: You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

King Arthur: Shut up!

Dennis: I mean, if I went around saying I was an Emperor because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

Somehow I can't see it being as funny in Vietnamese!

Apparently there still are tortoises in the lake but they are rarely seen. Brynley (the smart ass) couldn't help pointing out that they are in fact turtles and not tortoises.

The quarter is made up of many small streets that specialise in ancient trades.

Like shoes! Tia couldn't help herself and bought two pairs of Converse sneakers (red and black).

In one of the Temples along the way there was the "Red Horse With Smelly Bum". Tia had to test the legend to verify its accuracy.

We ended up at the Dong Xuan Market which is a large market used by the locals (i.e. not tourists).

We stopped for lunch there and had...

a hot dog.

(We didn't really - we ate in a cafe back close to the lake). Fido was safe today.

Only one way back to the Hotel - by Cyclo.

Tia enjoyed it again. She was whooping and hollering. The driver didn't need to use his horn - everybody could hear him coming!

To cap the night off we went to the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. Water puppetry is a traditional Vietnamese entertainment that was invented during the floods. This one was better than the one we saw in Saigon although we still didn't have much of a clue about the story line. However I think it follows a fairly universal theme that you have seen a million times before - boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy becomes overly friendly with water buffalo, boy gets girl back.

Vietnam - Day 15 Hue to Hanoi

We took a holiday from Vietnam today.

It was very hot and sweaty and we had to fly up to Hanoi. So we stuck to the basics - shopping and drinking beer.

Brynley has only yelled at one person in Vietnam since we have been here. It was 2 days ago when we were on the tour and were having lunch at the Botulism Cafe. We were wedged in a corner, eating our own vomit, being pestered by flying insects and French tourists when a local sunglasses hawker wouldn't leave us alone. After Brynley said "no" 5 times he lost his patience and told the guy to bugger off before he inserted his sunglasses where the sun doesn't actually shine.

Well Brynley was obviously a bit more relaxed today and became his bestie. Jordan and Brynley spent half an hour with him and went through his complete range. They bought some sunnies and a flash cigarette lighter for Jordan.

It wasn't until afterwards that Lisa told Brynley that this was the guy he had told to bugger off a couple of days ago.

We had a little bit of time to kill so we had a few local "Festival" beers in a traditional Vietnamese pub called the "Why Not?" bar. Why not indeed!

Jordan has developed an earache from all the pool water he has hidden in his ear. Lisa went to the local pharmacy and got some medicine. We planned ahead and actually brought some antibiotics with us only to find you can buy them over here without a prescription. Now that's my sort of pharmacy - self diagnosis and prescribe the medicines yourself!

We then caught the flight to Hanoi and made it to our apartment in the late evening. Take away pizzas for dinner. While the Vietnamese have great food they make crap pizzas.

Vietnam - Day 16 Hanoi

Hanoi greeted us this morning with dreary rain and a dull sky. Makes a nice change from the steamy oppressive heat we have had before.

Our first stop to day was the Mausoleum of Lenin Ho Chi Minh.
"Uncle Ho" is the godfather of Vietnam and they hold him in the highest regard. Consequently viewing his dead body and paying your respects is very serious business.

First all your belongings get checked. You have to leave your bags but cameras are OK (even though photography is forbidden). Then you move further up the line and you are checked again. You have to leave your cameras and camcorders!! When you come out of the Mausoleum your cameras are waiting for you. Nice touch. Your bags however are still 2km back at the entrance where you first started. Communism at work.

There were hundreds of kindergarten children lined up with us waiting with anticipation to see the dead body of a 79 year old man that died 52 years ago. Nightmares anyone!!

Actually it wasn't really scary at all. It could have been a wax dummy for all we know.

During the war one of the American pilots parked his B52 in Huu Tep Lake. We took a stroll through the back streets to see it. Very strange. They have left the wreckage just sitting in the water rusting away as a reminder of the struggle against the American invaders. However there are no signs or plaques and it was bloody hard to find.

Actually it was bloody hard to leave as well. We got lost in all the little back alley ways where you could touch both walls with outstretched hands. We finally got out of there after half an hour merely by following where all the motorbikes were going.

In the end we just followed these two old girls. They looked like they were heading to the nearest tourist trap.

In Hanoi there is a famous prison which the Americans coined the "Hilton Hanoi". Actually the French built it and called it "Maison Centrale". The Viet Cong locked all of the downed pilots there. Presidential candidate John McLean was shot down over Hanoi and ended up being imprisoned there until the end of the war.

Unfortunately most of the prison has been carelessly knocked down to make way for a big development for "foreigners and overseas investors". Oh by the way - our apartment building is part of the big development. All you need to do is look up and you can see it. Nice to know hundreds of people have been tortured and killed on the site as we try to sleep tonight.

The guillotine that the French used to keep the Vietnamese in line is still there. There are some great photographs of heads in baskets. The "Vietglish" (bad english) sign out the front says "no frolicking in the prison". Bummer!  But Tia did make some new friends in one of the cells.

We called it a day after that. Jordan is still suffering from a sore ear but it is getting better.

Off to a good start. Found an absolute winner of a restaurant tonight courtesy of Trip Advisor, The Quan An Ngon Restaurant and it is only a stone's throw away from the apartment.

Vietnam - Day 14 Hue

It was another hot and steamy day in Hue. We explored the Citadel this morning.

The Citadel is the walled part of the city that housed the ancient town. Inside the Citadel is another walled citadel where the Emperors and his concubines resided. Unfortunately a lot of it has been destroyed - firstly by the French when they took Hue, then by the Viet Cong in 1968 for 3 weeks and finally by the Americans when they kicked the Viet Cong out.

Our first job was to try and steel the flag at the main gate. (Good camera work Lisa!)

Jordan and Tia got their portraits done in the Citadel by two blind art students. Either that or they were students of impressionism.

Actually we were in luck. The royal family were in residence today. They looked slightly familiar and are a good looking bunch of roosters.

The Emperors liked to ride elephants (presumably because of the number of motorbikes on the road). The weather was so hot today even this elephant had to throw his water over himself like most of us.

The weather was so hot Emperor Brynley had a few beers while sitting on his royal throne.

They wouldn't let us ride the elephants back to the hotel so we took Cyclos from the market. Each driver got paid $1 to peddle our lard asses about 3 km. Brynley heard his driver muttering something about a fat overweight bastard with a big nose. Brynley thinks the driver was obviously referring to one of the elephants at the main gate.

Tia really enjoyed the Cyclo as you can see on this video.