I landed in Hanoi on Sunday afternoon and got a cab to my hotel. The first thing I noticed when leaving the airport was the amount of scooters. In Hanoi there are 6m people and 4m scooters! On leaving the airport I saw a man with his partner on the back then her suitcases sitting in front of him, to a point where he was only just peering over the top and could only just reach the handles round the side! On arriving in to Hanoi city centre it was just pure mayhem. No one took notice of traffic lights, roundabouts or going the right way down the road, it was just a free for all! My scooter highlight was seeing a family of 5 on one scooter, mother father and 3 children, none of which wearing helmets!
I arrived at my hotel after an hours cab ride, checked in and got ready to meet everyone else on my tour. Through my 5 months of travelling so far I hadn't been on a tour so wasn't quite sure what it would be like or what the people would be like. I wandered in to the arrival meeting (late.. Shock) and was a little surprised! The average age of the group was probably late 30s and there were quite a few 'older folk'! Luckily it turned out that through the tour we all got on really well and two English girls a bit younger than me also turned up the following day. I spent most the trip with them, but also formed a good friendship with a 60 year old guy from England who is a semi retired accountant whose wife left him last year so he's decided to travel a bit! He was a really interesting character with lots of stories and a great sense of humour!
The first day was spent in Hanoi where we walked around the city looking at the sights on way to the Hochiminh Mausoleum. My history knowledge on Vietnam was slim at best so I found this very interesting. That afternoon we headed to a water puppet show which are famous in Vietnam, and although it was clever and something I'd never seen before it dragged on a bit so I ended up having a kip during the second half! (As did most others from the group!)
In the evening we packed a weekend bag and headed for the train station to get our over night train to Sapa. The train was comfortable enough and straight after boarding I persuaded a couple of the group to come to the 'bar' with me! (An ice box with a couple of chairs)
We arrived in Sapa at 5.30am, boarded our bus and headed up in to the mountains. We arrived at our hotel and checked in then headed out for some much needed Breakie! At 9am we were back on the bus and headed to Ta Phin which is a small local village in Sa Pa. Here the locals took us on a walk around their village showing us the rice fields, how they farm and their houses. This was all very basic to say the least but I was overwhelmed at how fit the people are. Following us were the older local ladies of the village, who were about 4.5 foot tall but carried their grandchild strapped on their back and then all the merchandise they wanted us to buy in a big basket strapped to their front. They were so nice and let us in to their homes offering us food and drink. It is common there for people to get married and have children at 16, so i met one family with 5 generations living under one roof! It is here I also had my first experience of rice wine (a local alcoholic drink) that would lead to a very messy night later on in the week!
That evening we had a meal as a group and a couple of drinks, but nothing to hardcore!
Wednesday morning we were up early and headed out for our 15km hike in to the depths of the rice fields. It was a very hot day so this was quite tiring (as well as some pretty dodgy paths with big drops!) but the views along the way were magnificent. About 10km in to the walk we stopped at a village called LaoChai for some lunch and a few too many beers bearing in mind we still had 5km to walk! After staggering the last stint we arrived at a locals house (where we would be spending the night, all 15 of us..!) at 3pm and were free to do what we wanted. On route we passed a local massage hut so me and the girls went and got hour long full body massages, which were unbelievable!
That evening we all sat outside and enjoyed the local cooking. This was accompanied by a few beers, followed by a few too many beers! Later on the rice wine was produced and that was a sign of things to come! People drifted off to bed one by one, but I spurred on the rice wine drinking which ended up with people getting very drunk and one Switzerland girl being sick... Pretty much everywhere, including over my bag! The following morning I thought I would get some sympathy, but it tuned out that wasn't going to be the case! Apparently everyone heard me leading the way with the rice wine shots so it was my fault people were sick and had horrible hangovers! Oops! They were old enough to look after themselves I thought, but luckily didn't say!
Thursday, hangovers in tact, we headed off for another 7km trip up through the hills to get a beautiful view of the village before the bus picked us up and took us back to the hotel.
That afternoon we had a wonder around the local area, visiting the street markets and the church.
On route back to the train station we stopped off at the Vietnam / China border where just a 100m bridge split the two. Another sleep on the night train followed (no one seemed up for the bar this time though!) and we arrived back in to Hanoi at 4.30am on the Friday.
We got back to the hotel at 5am had a quick nap and some food, then jumped on another bus at 8am and headed for Halong Bay. This was a 4 hour trip and I thought I'd be able to get some much needed kip, I was wrong. The roads were ridiculously bumpy and it felt like I was back on Fraser Island! Any time I managed to drift off we would hit a pot hole and I would smack my head against the window!
We arrived at Halong Bay with headaches and headed out on to our boat. The boat was lovely with nice rooms, a big dining room/bar and a deck up top with sun loungers. We had some lunch whilst the boat headed out to the islands which was ridiculously nice. I hadn't had prawns for about 10 years, when I last tried them and hated them, but as this was the starter and I was starving I thought I'd try them again, and luckily enough my taste buds seemed to have changed and I loved them! Another 4 courses of sea food followed, all gorgeous, then we headed up to the deck, beer in hand, to enjoy the views. Halong Bay is absolutely stunning. It is hundreds of little rock islands placed around the green and blue clear seas, absolutely fell in love with it.
That afternoon we headed off on kayaks for a closer look at some of the caves and the beach. Obviously water fights followed and a bit of volleyball on the beach!
In the evening we settled down for another beautiful meal then went up top with drinks to enjoy the gorgeous sun set. The evening was spent on the deck just relaxing having some nice wine and beer.
I got up at 5am to watch the sunrise on the Saturday but unfortunately it was too cloudy to appreciate! After an early breakfast and early lunch on board, we headed back to the marina for mid day. Another head smashing bus journey back to Hanoi followed where we arrived at 4pm. We had a few hours spare here so me and a few others headed to the famous Hilton in Hanoi for a drink, got some food, then headed off to the train station (again!) to get our 12 hour night train Hue.
We got in to Hue at 6am, headed to our hotel, dropped our bags off, had some Breakie then headed out on a group moped ride which was great fun! We headed to local markets, saw the one of king tomb, had lunch served by monks at the local pagoda, visited Thein Mu Pagoda via a boat trip on the perfume river (stank of poo!) and lots of other little stops!
That evening we went out for a meal then headed out to a bar which turned out to be a rather heavy night!
The next morning we headed to the Citadel & Firbidden city with a massive hangover in ridiculous heat, not a good combo! We then took a bus to our next stop, Hoian, stopping off at Marble mountain on route to see some beautiful art work at Da Nang Beach.
After checking in at Hanoi we went for an Orientation walk around the ancient town seeing the different sights. That evening we went out for dinner then headed off to a pub to watch the play off final, wasn't happy about the result!
Tuesday was a free day so a lot of the group headed off to get some tailored clothes, I just lounged by the pool! In the evening I went off for a Vietnamese cooking class with the girls and a couple of others from the group which was great fun! The food also tasted lovely which I was quite surprised with! After that I headed to a bar with the girls where you pay the equivalent of £2.50 for a free bar, awesome!
The next morning I was up early for a bike ride around Hanoi (the girls stayed in bed!) it was class. We headed off to look at a duck farm, never seen so many ducks in my life! Then to a buffalo park. Here we got to hop the back of one and ride the buffalo down the track and in to the rivers, was an experience! Never realised how solid a buffalo is, just pure muscle. We then hopped back on the bikes and headed down to the beach. Apart from Halong Bay this was the first beach id been to in Vietnam and it was beautiful, so we chilled out here and had a swim. We cycled on to the marina and caught the boat back up to Hoian centre.
That evening everyone was rather shattered so we just had a quiet meal then headed for bed.
On Thursday we checked out and headed to the airport for our flight to Saigon.
After checking in to our hotel in Saigon we headed out for a city walk and visited the French post office, Nothedam Cathedral and the War Remnant Museum. That evening we headed out to a great street food market and enjoyed the local food there with some beer!
On Friday we packed up our weekend bags again and headed for Mekong delta. This was a busy day as we went to the tropical fruit gardens, coconut candy factory (where I got to hold a flipping massive python!) then a rowing boat trip down the small rivers followed by a ('safe') motor cart journey to our homestay property where we were to spend the night! The accommodation here was interesting as we had a roof, just no walls! After dinner here we played a drinking game called spoons, which was great fun and a game of reactions, with luck determining the final two. After 5 rounds and 12 people playing I won twice and came second 3 times... Whatever ;-)
Saturday morning we had breakfast at the homestay then made our way back to Saigon. On route we stopped off at the Cuchi tunnel which was an experience. Here we learnt more about the Vietnam war and saw the traps they used as well as the underground tunnels they would stay in. I attempted to go in to one of these tunnels and even
though these had been widened for western tourists i still managed to get completely stuck which was a bit worrying! After a bit of heavy breathing in and weird body shapes i managed to get out with just some scrapped shoulders! At the end of the tour i also got to shoot an M60 (a freaking massive machine gun!) at the firing range which was unreal! We got back in to Saigon in the afternoon and were free at leisure so I managed to find a local gym and headed for a much needed workout!
That evening was our last on the tour as well as Stephs (one of the English girls) birthday. So we headed out to a nice restaurant and had a great meal with an awards ceremony. I won the 'bottomless pit' award due to the amount of food I ate and the amount of booze I drank, about right I guess! We then followed that up with a few more bars before calling it a night.
A lot of the group headed off on the Sunday, but I still had another night in Saigon so headed out to the gym for another workout and then had a shop around the local market which was mental, people literally just grabbed you and pulled you in to their stall!
In the evening I met up with a couple of the others from the group who had stayed on and had a very interesting night! We headed to a different hotel, a 5 star resort one of the older couples were staying at thanks to a friend of a friend of theirs, who was a chef at this place. After having a tour of their room, which was like an apartment, Rick, the guy, asked me if I fancied heading down to the pool bar for a beer. When we got down there we couldn't go in as there was a private party, just as we were about to turn around we heard the chef call out and managed to get us in! We were just sitting at the bar enjoying a drink and then the guy who was paying for this party (a billionaire who's girlfriend was the birthday girl, as well as an Asian supermodel!) wandered over, introduced himself then invited us over! So an evening off awesome food and free expensive booze followed! Good times!
On the Monday I checked out of my hotel and met some of the remaining group again for lunch. I tried the famous weasel coffee here! This is basically coffee beans fed to a weasel then they use what comes out the other end to make the coffee! Was surprisingly lovely! I then said my goodbyes to the remaining group and headed off to the airport.
I am now on the plane on way to Bangkok to start my Thailand adventure where I'll be for the next 6 weeks! Vietnam has been absolutely awesome, and although every day has been packed full, resulting in me now being completely shattered! I have absolutely loved every second of it. The history of this country, the scenery and the people are just outstanding and it turned out doing it in a group was a welcomed change and we all got on brilliantly together! Speak soon! x