15/07/13

Hanoi! Stop being so nice! I uploaded the last blog in the bar, all I needed to do was leave the bar, walk to the travel agent and get on the bus. But no, you had to go and give me a free shot because I was leaving 30 minutes before happy hour?! I don't even understand, but thanks for the shot, it made my walk happy and tasty!

16/07/13

The night bus was the best night bus I've had, I don't mean to jinx it, but Vietnam is turning out alright! I had booked a hostel online yesterday and thought I paid for it too, but apparently I didn't. Now, when we got off the bus, there was a woman trying to coax everyone in to her hotel with the offer of a $5 room. My hostel is $7.50. So when I found out I hadn't paid for it, I didn't need to think 2ce about saving $2.50 (the price of a decent meal) and leaving. I got to the hotel and sure enough, they took me to a place with single rooms for $5. Private bathroom too! This is pretty luxurious, considering it's only $5 per night. I met a pair of Danish siblings at the bus stop yesterday, really nice people. They checked into the first hostel and I should be meeting up with them for dinner tonight. A place called 'Allez Boo' is said to exist which offers free beer when you order food. Not 'A' free beer, but 'Free beer'. Apparently it's not limited, but we'll soon see about that! Backtracking a bit, this was one of my reasons about working at the bar in Cambodia. When you work at a quiet bar like Everythang, you socialise a lot with the guests that come in, talk to them and find out tips. Allez Boo was told to me by an English guy one night at Everythang.

17/07/13

Hué is the home of free s***! I went to Allez Boo during the day to check out what the offer is with the beer and indeed it was free! But! Only 2 free beers. Ohhh. Well, we'll go anyway, 2 free beers is better than 0 free beers right? But I'm getting ahead of myself! After I wrote the last entry, I met the 2 girls in my room next door; Claudia and Whitney from Hong Kong! We had similar plans for the day; Look around the city, book a bus for tomorrow and chill out. So off we went, to the forbidden city. We knew we'd have to pay to get in, but 105,000D? That's like, $5! We agreed it was too much and complained about it with a German and a fellow westcountryman who were also in the queue. Instead of going into the forbidden city for 105k, we went to the pub, had an afternoon of drinking, playing pool and only spent 40k. Sometimes you don't need to do the cultural thing; you can have a better time with friends you just met, a few beers and a free pool table.

The evening consisted of going to Allez Boo, a group of 9 that had come together due to a mutual love of free beer! A German, 2 Brits, 2 Chinese, 2 Hong Kong-ers and 2 Danish. It was a good mix, and after arriving, the owner announced that he would give us 3 free beers! Things were looking up, but this was nothing, as we polished them off pretty quickly and the waitress asked if we wanted more beer. Well yes! Any time we had an empty glass, it was taken away and filled. After sinking about 6 glasses it occurred to me; What if the first 3 were free and now we have to pay for them? This was a false worry. We got charged for the food and that was it. Amazing. We're pretty drunk at this stage and decided to head to the bar. On the way to Allez Boo, we were given a flyer which gave us a BYOGOF deal. We went there, bought a drink, got one free. Then the shots started. Shots, shots and more shots. Free shots, periodically every 20 minutes or so. And then a Flaming Lamborghini to share between a few of us. It was a really early night, starting at 6pm and finishing at around 23:30 for me. It was an incredible night filled with drinking, dancing, chatting, banter. The lot. At one stage, I was dancing with a load of Vietnamese guys who I think were on a stag do. After which, they came over and gave me a beer. I went to bed, pretty drunk, knowing I wasn't going to want to get up at 6:45 for the bus to Hoi An.

This morning, I awoke to the sound of Claudia at my door; "It's 6:45, are you ready?". "What? Oh f***. Well. What? I set my alarm, how did it not? Okay, I'll be out in 10." I replied. I went back into my room to check if I had set my alarm to "On" when I saw the time. 5:45. I'm going back to bed. When I woke up at the correct time, we went for breakfast and got our stuff together ready for pickup at 8am. The bus journey was pretty casual, a minor 4 hour trip down some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen in South East Asia. There were golden beaches which seemed to come out of nowhere, towering mountains which were laced with bright green shrubbery, flowing effortlessly into the sapphire blue lakes. All the while, I was watching "Good morning, Vietnam" on my laptop. We arrived in Hoi An, but unlike Hué, we didn't have any people approach us to take us to a cheap hostel like we were hoping. So under my logical thought, and sunburnt neck, I suggested we hit up a café as a base whilst finding somewhere to stay. The first place we looked at had a 4 person, air-conditioned room for $20. That'll do. We checked in and whilst Whitney wanted to go around the temples and the town, me and Claudia felt a bit templed out. No, we'll rent a moped for $3 each and go to the beach. This beach, Hoi An's main beach is awesome. We did the usual; Swam in the ocean, played Frisbee, relaxed, it was f***ing awesome. On the way back, we went via some vegetable fields and saw some rural Vietnamese culture. This was before we found a cheeky restaurant around the corner from our hotel which had 3000D beer. This is officially the cheapest beer I have ever paid for. That's 9.3p per beer. I had 4 and vowed that I will be back tomorrow with everyone for another good cheap drunken night! In all fairness, we were going to get the bus tomorrow night but they didn't have any space, but staying an extra night seems to be what everybody wants anyway. We have all fallen in love with Hoi An. When night fell, we went for a walk around the market and the river where the bridges and streets are filled with an extremely relaxed but vibrant feeling. Hoi An, you cheeky little thing!

Tomorrow morning, we're getting up for sunrise on the east facing beach. I'm tired enough as it is, but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

19/07/13

The last 2 days have been incredible. Really, really incredible. Let's start with yesterday...

My alarm went off at 4:30 and I reassessed the situation and decided that yes, 15 minutes more sleep would be worth it. It was already getting light. We headed downstairs and left the hotel at 5am. 3 of us, on 1 bike. This is Asia, the most people on 1 bike I've seen is 5, so this was pretty tame. We whizzed down the empty road to the beach, the sky lit up with red clouds which had a tangy tint to them. When we got to the beach, I was amazed. Not at the sunrise, but the amount of people! "I didn't think that many tourists would come here for sunrise", I thought. But these people weren't tourists. Nope, these were the locals! Loads of them, swimming, relaxing, chatting. It turns out I, inadvertently, was doing what the locals do, and it was amazing. I obviously went for a swim, watched the sunrise and had a nap. This nap lasted about an hour and consisted of me turning myself periodically like a spit roasted pig over a fire. I still managed to burn my shoulders. 1 hour in the morning sun at 6am and I burnt, ridiculous. We moved to the shade and stayed there for hours. At about 8am Lars and Ben arrived, the German and Brit from Hué, and joined our relaxed beach morning. The 5 of us listened to music, played Frisbee, went in the sea and relaxed in the shade. The sand in the sun was just way too hot to walk on! The bike had to be back by 3 and after doing so, we split for a few hours to do our own stuff. I did nothing but catch up with facebook and laugh at Jim's hangover back home. When we met up at 6pm, we started drinking. 6 hours later, Claudia, Lars and I left. The night was full of entertaining and interesting discussions, none of which I will disclose on this blog. We tried to go into another bar to get more beer, but they were closed. The food stand on the end of our road had no bread left and everywhere else was shut. This was a depressing end to a great evening.

Today we got up early again, albeit slightly later at around 7am to meet the guys at the bar for 7:30. No, we weren't getting on it only 7 hours after leaving the bar, it was just a good meeting place. It was here that we headed off north, backtracking an hour and a half to reach what is known as "The Hai Van Pass" A notoriously difficult and dangerous road, but with stunning scenery and made up of hairpin bends and steep inclines. It was made famous by the Top Gear Vietnam special, but I'm getting ahead of myself as usual! On the way there the inevitable happened and we lost each other. Claudia and I made the decision to go to the start of the Hai Van Pass and wait there for the other 2 bike, hopefully they will just go anyway, right? Well, we were there for 20 minutes, music blaring by the side of the road, playing pooh sticks on the bridge and a generic 'See who can throw a stone closest to that leaf' time passing game, we were there for another 20, and another 20 before they arrived! Lars had a similar idea and was waiting down the road. Luckily he gave up before we did and we all headed off for the pass! You wouldn't believe how beautiful it was climbing the mountain on a winding road, seeing beaches below, forest and train track, The road, despite what I had heard, was in really good condition and I had no problems riding it with Claudia on the back. We stopped every now and then for photo opportunities reaching the top in about 30minutes. But the best was yet to come, the hairpins and bridges on the other side were spectacular. We stopped on the last bridge to take it in and have a rest, followed by lunch in an abandoned restaurant. The café suda and Phó we had there was some of the best I've tasted in Vietnam. We rode back through the pass and foolishly, because I was feeling a bit more confident, I viewed it more as a race track than a scenic ride. Nonetheless, I didn't fall off or have any close calls, I was safe at speed and it was so fun. But I still acknowledge that it was foolish. We got back, returned the bikes and headed to the bus stop, just me, Claudia, Whitney and Alec. Lars and Ben were staying in Hoi An for another day.

It's so good to have a group of people I truly get on with and who have a similar sense of humour, budget and drinking habits that I do.