Good Mornin' Vietnam! Another stage of my trip completed, and Vietnam was a special one. One of the most beautiful and magnificent countries Ive ever seen. From the great vietnamese food, to the busy noisy crazy traffic, cheap clothes and DVD's, this is a country I would highly recommend to other traveler's. And to recite a famous quote if I may: "You were'nt there man! You dont know!"

Friday Dec 3: Leaving Cambodia for Vietnam took us on a bus drive along some of the worst places a land-vehicle can go (i refuse to acknowledge them as roads), bumpy as hell for many an hour and I guess along the lines of what we expected. An experience for sure. Arrived to stay the night at a little border town called Chau Doc before making our way to the south capital Ho Chi Minh City. In Chau Doc we went for a Brilliant motorcycle ride around and outside the town to see a few sights and a sunset, imagine 15 tourists on the back of a 15 motorcycles screaming and taking photos through a remote Vietnamese town, it was, I guarantee you, a sight to see. Sipping a local beer in a hammock & watching the sunset. "Life aint' bad"

Early next morning we drove 6 hours to get to Ho Chi Minh, had free time during the afternoon to have a walk around the markets etc. Soo many motorbikes!!! It was the last night for some of the members on the tour who were only doing Cambodia so we went out for a good meal and played cards and had drinks. Lovely. 2nd day in HCMC, I went for a long walk by myself to make sure I got to see all I had planned. Had brekkie at a local coffee shop and walked over to the 'War Remnants Museum'. Really cool tanks and old american fighter-jets sit outside on display from the days of the Vietnam-US war, and boy did I get a lesson in history here. Some of the photos inside were So graphic it makes you sick (no excageration here people). Worse than Korea. Other sights I visited included the french built old Post office, Notre Dame Catheldral and the old 1960s US officers 'Rex Hotel'. *Side-note* also went into 3 book shops to find the 3rd Millenium Saga book, ended up bying a fake copy for 5 bucks from a street seller:p. Leaving Ho Chi Minh, we caught our first of 4 overnight trains on the tour, heading to Nha Trang.

Monday Dec 6th: Woke up early as the delayed "Blue Train" rolled into Nha Trang station. Today I had my first ever mud-bath! Myself and 4 others went to a traditional vietnamese spa and had a fantastic 2 hour treatment including a mud-bath (great photos from that), a bath in a hot-spring, cool mineral pool, waterfall and jacuzzi. Be jealous. One of the many running-gags in south east asia has been to say "Same same, but different!" and today we went to the apptly named Same same but different cafe for lunch. Dinner at an aussie bar where we played 'ring of fire' after the meal and got mildly intoxicated. Dancing after this was one of the funniest things Ive ever been a part of. The name of the bar "Why Not Bar" says it all.

Vinpearl Land Day: TODAY, boys and girls, was Vinpearl Land day. An island just outside Nha Trang, in which to get to you must venture on the longest cable car in all of Asia. On Vinpearl Island you will find the following: An AWESOME waterpark, indoor arcade with free everything, an amusement park full-on with rollercoasters and all, restaurants, an Underwater World with the best aquarium Ive ever seen and more. 7 hours of absolute fun is what I had this day. Finally I got to be a kid and run up the stairs of the same kick-ass waterslide multiple times in a row. I saw sharks, Nemo's, stingray's and monster huge tortoise's. Went on bumper-cars, watched a 4D movie, played an Alien shooter and Street Fighter. Slept like a baby on the night train:)

Wednesday Dec 8th: Arrived in Hoi An, by far the most layed-back and relaxed city in Vietnam. A beautiful place lying along side the "Thu Bon' river and not too far from the beach. Here you will find traditional Vietnamese architecture amongst Chinese and French buildings. On our first day here, I teamed up with Andre the crazy russian and we rented bikes for a bargain price of 1$ and spent hours just cruising through the ancient allyways and markets that make up Hoi An. Rode to the beach and chilled out, visited the post-office and attempted an international phone call and discovered the DVD shops. 1$ DVD's anyone? Im not telling how many I got..... . Went out for dinner with the gang, had free beer and some delicious sweet&sour squid with fried onions, mmmmm!

Our second day in Hoi An (btw I always enjoy the towns we spend more than a single day), it was very much like the first. Me and Danski (given that nickname for his awesome dancing) got our "won dallah" bikes and road to the beach, post office and around the town stopping at the DVD shops and the markets. Coffee and cake at a local hotspot before retiring to the hotel around 3pm. At 4, myself, Mark, Kerstin, Gavin and Danski were picked up for our Vietnamese Cooking Class!! Vina our chef deserves an entire blog dedicated to her alone. We were all given funny nicknames which she excesivly used during our time in the market and in her restaurant. "Tall man", "Beautiful Lady", "Tiger", "Chunky Onion", and mine "Wrong boy". I started off as "handsome man" but she quizzed us on how to shop for the vegetables we had just purchased at the market and I got one wrong...so Im "wrong boy". hehe. "Mix together mix together mix together" in the tune of "jingle bell rock" was performed during the preparation and Ive never laughed so hard in my life. We made an amazing 5 course meal including Sweet & Sour chicken soup, Fried Spring Rolls, Green Papaya Salad, Fish In Banana Leaf and Aubergine In Clay-pot. Best meal in Vietnam.

Friday Dec 10th: Today we drove from Hoi An to Hue, the old capital of Vietnam and a city in the centre of the country. The most breathtaking scenic route in all the land driving over an amazing pass high up in the mountains and on one of the greatest driving roads in the world. Had lunch in Hue and went to see Vietnam's "Forbidden City". Unlike the one in China its not as big or as spectacular, but I still enjoyed it. Some of the fiersist battles were faught here and it was evident in the machine-gun bullet holes all over the place. Highlight was the fishpond! crazy fish... Had a good chili-con-carne for dinner and an early night recovering from Mark the australian's birthday party from the night before.

Saturday was our longest day of travel to date. 13 hour train from Hue - Halong Bay. Arrived at the hotel so early our rooms werent yet available so camped out in the lobby for a little while, had a few hours sleep before at noon, we set of for what would be the absolute highlight of the entire trip so far, Halong Bay.

The bus took us down to the harbour, were a majestic sight of hundreds of junk boats awaited the most visited tourist spot in Vietnam. We had a private boat booked for our group and we set out for the hour long trip it takes to get out to the islands. On the horizon, the thousands of Limestone islands grew taller and taller. Brisk wind and a light fog made for an even more spectacular sight when we were suddenly faced at the sight of the 2 time UNESCO world heritage sight. Astonishingly beautiful doesnt do it justice. Exploring the caves, walking and listening to the stories from our local guide and a seafood lunch all were warm-ups before the main event. We went Kyacking through Halong Bay. Guys...this is the absolute coolest thing Ive ever done in my life. By myself, paddling through caves and into mysticle hidden lagoons, oh man words cant describe. I have a video thats just laughable at how flabbergasted i am. Excellent excellent excellent experience. Gave Sander a ring on his 15th birthday (waaay sander!) and had Sea-mantis for dinner. Have you ever eaten a Sea-mantis?

Monday Dec 13th: We drove from Halong Bay after only 1 day (Not nearly enough) and made our way to the nations capitol Hanoi. I thought Ho Chi Minh City was bad for trafic...Hanoi will give any city in the world a run for its money of this one. Soo busy! 6 million people and 3 million motorbikes will give you an idea. Spent our day walking around the Old Quarter and in the evening we went to a great culture experience in form of a Vietnamese Water-puppet show! Unique for sure. Next morning I got up not in time for the hotel breakfast but just in time to visit Ba Dinh Square were Ho Chi Minh addressed half a million Vietnamese with his declaration of independence speech in 1945. Today its a shrine and pilgrimage site. And here, I got to walk inside the Mausoleum, containing Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body and see him with my own eyes. Interesting indeed. After this I went to the famous Ho Loa prison where US troops and pilots were imprisoned during the war, including Senator John McCain..also interesting. On this evening we had our last meal in Vietnam, I opted for some very delicious local food^^

Now our group is down to 4. "A Russian, Indian, Welshman and a Norwegian walk into Lao...." Look forward to the next blog guys;)

Agian, sorry for the delay and hope you enjoyed this entry. peace and love

matt