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Nikki's World Travels
Ok well i arrived in vietnam without too many problems - i did worry that my bag would be there when i arrived and i had trouble finding the bloody gate in bangkok airport and the woman shouting at me on the flight as i apparently hadnt preordered my veggie meal - whatever happened to the customer is always right and remember to serve with a smile?? but apart from that it was cool. I grabbed a taxi to the hostel and was a lil concerned that he wouldnt take me to the right place as you hear so many stories but it was cool! My hostel in hanoi was fab and really friendly - i met some great people there. On the first day i headed to uncle ho's mauseleum with two tasmanian blokes and we could only but laugh at the strict rules set in place - that was the first time since id arrived that i actually noticed the communism in the country. We could not even turn around to go back to the other museum that we forgot to visit - we did get told off quite alot as we were not going teh right way in the line - unbelieveable!! Then we went to the museum and the art was a lil strange to say the least. I walked round the old quarter and looked at the different streets - the all sell just one craft - there are streets for shoes, steel, iron works, etc so very convenient if you're just looking for one thing!
I bumped into chinita (an american from the hostel) on my walk so we bought some tickets for the water puppet show (very famous in vietnam) it was very cool - the vietnamese music didnt annoy me too much as it went with the story of the puppet - it was really different and wonderful to see.
On wednesday me, chinita and louise hired some motor bikes and riders and headed out into the outskirts to check out some pagodas - it wasnt until i went on these rides that i actually started to love and enjot vietnam as to begin with i wasnt sure if i was gonna like the country or not! Its amazing that the streets are absolutely packed with motor bikes swerving each other not looking at lanes ( as they just dont exist) and it is chaotic but on the other side of the street the old women are lost in their own little worlds practising their tai chi - such a contrast!
So we had a great time on the bikes going to some random lil villages and driving past the rice paddies, the bikes piled high with anything and everything and seeing all the water buffalo (ano sa-ji for all us fake akha speakers althoguh that does mean the meat not the animal - oh well!) We went to one pagoda and taked to the old woman chief there and she was 92 ( and looked it)! That night we headed out for some food to celebrate christy's birthday (american) so we had a nice meal and some drinks ina bar but the music was amazingly loud so finished the nite in the hostel bar. Well tomo we are headed to halong bay to go out on a boat! should be fun
love nikki
xxx
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