14th June - Dien Bien Phu to Muang Khua (Laos)

We slept better than we had in a few days and woke up at 3.30am feeling ok but a bit foggy. 

After showering and packing I was hungry and had time time to mull over the aesthetic difference between Matt's maggots and my 'caterpillar' (why does that sound rude?)  and so considered giving the lychees another bash. I picked up the bag to pluck one out and was very startled when suddenly it started shaking extremely vigourously and I saw something green furiously wriggling about. I screamed and hurled it, trying to mentally process the overnight transformation of the caterpillar. As it landed, I was relieved when a familiar gecko scurried out and under the bed.

We were over at the bus-stand early and bagged a seat with ample leg room. There's always the risk of having a huge sack of rice or someone elses bag shoved under your legs and so filled the space with ourselves and our hand luggage and hoped for the best. People did keep shoving massive boxes and other objects at us through the window but most of the time, we passed it on and it disappeared out of the dorr and on to the roof.

The bus was mostly full of Westerners and we chatted to Nick and Sam from the UK for a while. Many of the people on the bus has travelled with them from Sapa the previous day and so there was a general air of comfortable silence.

The border crossing from Vietnam was fairly straighforward although they tried to send Matt off without giving him his passport back because they thought the picture on his was of a girl! The Laos border crossing was much more long-winded and they kept trying us all for additional 'fees' and holding our passports to ransom. It wasn't very expensive but it was annoying and Matt and Nick were the last bastions of stubborness and so did a little male bonding.

We took a lunch stop at a little cafe and debated changing some money with the bus driver but decided to hold out for a better rate and so payed with Vietnam Dong. Unfortunately, I came across a manky tofu which exploded in my mouth and covered my tongue with foul-tasting liquid which refused to budge and so I found myself wishing for green peaches again.

Upon our arrival at the village of Muang Khua, we were made to alight from the bus and watch a man travel across the dividing river on the ferry - a floating platform clearly designed for buses and trucks which was pushed by what looked like an old US patrol boat and guided by a cable system. We were then crammed onto a tiny boat with all of our bags and charged to be rowed across.

We were met by a mature American guy who was hoping we would be taking an onward boat trip down the river to Nong Khiaw. He'd been in the village for a week just waiting for someone else to come so that the boat would run. We suggested we might all do the trip the following day and he receommended the hotel where he'd been staying.

We still didn't have an Laos Kip so our first stops were frustrating attempts to change the stack of Dong we'd had to bring because we were out of dollars. The exchange rate was terrible but we had no choice - who would have thought a bud-driver would offer the best rate?

We checked into hotel with most of our other fellow bus passengers and after a shower and a rest on the communal balcony, went to explore the tiny village a little more. There wasn't much to see but we did brave the suspension bridge, which shook, swayed and clanked quite scarily as people sped past us on mopeds.

The road we had travelled on was still being built and so we watched the locals clearing trees by hand and sitting watching the big digger clearing a passage through the hills, as kids on bikes made a BMX-style track over the progress they'd already made.

Back at hotel we chatted on the balcony with our bus-mates: Miriam and Amber (2 Kiwi girls who were biking around Asia), Lucy and Vince (a french couple in their last 2 weeks of a year-long trip), and Sam and Nick (both nurses from the UK).

Went for a drink and were joned by our last 2 bus friends, Miriam and Sander. They were only travelling a few weeks a much bigger budget than us and so had checked in elsewhere. They both had interesting jobs and we discussed Miriam's work as a Communications Specialist (one of the top 5 or 10 in Holland apparently) and Sander's work as a radio DJ and general media darling before heading back to get some rest before our boat journey the following day.

13th June - Mai Chau to Dien Bien Phu

Our early morning dawn chorus shaved about 2 hours off our intended rise at 6am and we looked in envy at our Italian bunkmate who was flat out and sleeping peacefully.

We took a taxi to the junction where we'd been told we could flag down bus and were dropped off at a petrol station. There were several people who looked like they might work there and just one girl working but they tried to chat to us a little and were very helpful in identifying the right bus. One of the nice things about Vietnam is the equality between men and women and they socialise together everywhere.

We had been told that we should haggle on the bus because they would try to rip us off, which was a good thing because we did not have the money to pay for the fare that they ask us for. They wouldn't bargain much though and we considered getting our bags back off for impact but didn't want to risk being left. Even for something that doesn't techinically cost them anything, the Vietnamese will not haggle further than they think is right and will quite happily not sell it than 'lose out'.

We stopped for lunch and Matt and I bought some fabulously red-looking lychees and some bread. The bread was really sweet and came with a tub of something they we soon found was the Asian favourite - condensed milk. It was interesting but not all too unpleasent.

I was still munching mine when Matt dug into the lychees and expertly started peeling them and popping them into his mouth. When I took one and complained about how squidgy they were, Matt assured me they were very ripe but fine. He looked down at the one that he's just opened and saw some tiny milky-white maggots scoot back inside the fruit. Despite feeling quesy at the maggots he may have already eaten, he perservered and tried a couple more before catching another infestation.

We debated just throwing them away but since there were 2 kilos I had a go at taking them back to the stall. I used my finger to gesture wriggly things inside and surprisingly, she gave me our money back. More surprisingly she gestured for me to return them to the place on the stand that we had bought them from. Icky!
There wasn't enough time to get any more food and we were herded back onto the bus to continue our voyage. A kilometre or so up the road there was a bit of discussion and we did a U-turn and pulled back into the rest-stop - where a very-relieved looking passenger that we had forgotten, climbed back on.
Later, a few hours and many scenic views later, we stopped at a stall at the top of a hill so everyone could buy fruit from the colourful minority women. They didn't have much apart from marrows and some of the tiny, under-ripe green peaches that they seemed to be so fond of so we didn't indulge. However, the old man in front of us insisted that we shared some of the ones he'd bought and, although they were bitter and crunchy, they weren't as bad as other ones we'd tried and they satisfied our hunger pangs a little.

We arrived about 5pm to a few awaiting touts for the hotels in Dien Bien Phu. We wanted to get food first but one of the touts thought we were following him to his hotel just across the road and so we said we'd have a quick look. As we were crossing I heard an urgent whistle and a shout and turned to see a local man shaking his head at me to warn me off. As tempting as it was to find out what he was talking about, we politely declined and went to reintroduce ourselves to noodle soup.

We looked around a few local rooms but since we had a 5am start the following day we didn't have many needs apart from proximity to the bus station and wifi. We found a place called Thu Diu where I got to show myself around before checking in. A few other Westerners were arriving at the same time and had selected the same place and so we performed brief greeting rituals and heded out to find some fruit.

We explored the first actual supermarket we'd seen in Asia for a long while but it was fruitless (pun not intended but a pleasent surprise all the same) and some of the massive outdoor market but we were tiring and so headed back to our hotel with 2 more kilos of less ripe looking lychees and some green oranges (that always messes with my head).  We attacked the lychees with considerably more caution than usual but it didn't take long until I found one with a tiny, green caterpillar thing mooching around in it and so we abandoned our vitimin C fest.

12th June - Mai Chau

Our stilted house seemed to amplify sound and so we had quite a restless night of shouting villagers, cockerels and early-rising locals passing on the morning's news at full volume.

We took a walk from the village to the local town with Toke. Not much at all to see but we did duck into the shade of a covered market and came out with a parasol brolly and a new fruit knife in the shape of a fish that Matt accidentally aggressively bargained for.

To avoid the dullness of the town, we ventured down a few alleys and made our way back through the rice fields in the baking heat. I was really grateful for my umbrella but have no idea how people manage to work at those humid temperatures. It's very humbling.

We were in a different area to yesterday's rice-field walk but you could see how everyone was on a very similar schedule and that progress had been made since yesterday. More of the houses in the village had big piles in rice or were drying the husked grains on big tarps in the street.

We considered moving to somewhere cheaper but liked the atmosphere at the place and felt too lazy and cheeky to pack up and then come back for dinner so we spent evening chilling and chatting with Toke. We learned a new card game and found out that Denmark has more pigs than people before saying our final goodbyes and heading to bed.

11th June - Hanoi to Mai Chau

We said our goodbyes to the wonderful Tuey and her helpful staff at Viet Fun and followed the man who came to collect us to take us to the bus. The man was much more helpful than any tour guide we've had so far so we were sorry he was only taking us to the end of the road. 

It turned out that instead of the huge crush of a full consignment of backpackers and their hefty bags squeezing on to the minibus, there was just Matt and myself. It was pure luxury - but only while we were stationery. It also made Matt's ticket search of yesterday quite entertaining as there must have been a very patient man at the end of the phone agreeing to the same price each time.

We bounced around mountain roads and our driver stopped for us to take pictures over-looking an impressive vista. Very soon afterwards we had a terrifying near death experience as some girl pulled out in front of our speedy minibus on a push-bike. The driver slammed on the brakes and swerved, leaving half of the tyres on the road and the bus filled with the pungent smell of burning rubber but thankfully avoided the girl. Even the driver was shaken up and so it wasn't so long after he'd climbed out and berated the girl that we stopped for a cup of tea.

The place may have been a restaurant-type affair but was filled with huge pieces of wood that had been carved into sculptured animals and big pieces of furniture. We sat with the driver as he investigated Matt's phone, drank tea out of tiny cups and stared at a giant wooden toad before setting off again.

The bus dropped us off at The Nature Place in Mai Chau where there were already lots of people sat having a delicious looking lunch. Matt went for  quick check around a few of the MANY other homestays but nothing else stood out so we decided to stay and join them for food.

We sat with a very nice Japanese couple and found out that the group had been there on an organised tour for a couple of days but that it had been too hot for them to get up to much. We were joined by their tour guide who was a very friendly and chatty young Vietnamese woman who showed us lots of interesting photos on her phone. She had started organising photography trips for tourists around some of the more beautiful areas of the north. They were really catching on but she had trouble promoting them further or responding to requests because, even though she spoke great English, she could not read or write it.
Just before the bus set off, Matt noticed a missing wheel nut that he thought might not be so great on the twisty mountain roads. He mentioned it to the driver and he didn't care a jot so we waved goodbye to the group and hoped that they got there okay.

We wandered the village for a while and explored some of the local handicrafts that most of the houses had on sale. It was much more low pressure than we expected and in many of the places, they were too busy having their afternoon nap to even notice us.

One of Matt's favoutire stalls made basic but effective bamboo pellet (stone) gun and some rather hefty-looking crossbows. Thankfully he concluded that they were a little bulky for our luggage and that we may struggle to get them onto a plane and o we left them and the village and headed off throught he rice paddies.
In most of the countries that we have visited, we have spent many hours looking out of bus windows and watching them working the fields. I've often wished to be closer and see more but they are very far-removed from the bus stops in major tourist towns and difficult to get to. Even if we could get there, the idea of just strolling through while everybody toils away seemed ridiculous and rude but today, that's just what we were encouraged to do and just what we did and it was great.

Men and women of all ages wore their conical hats (sorry I don't know the name!) and maxi-cover clothes as they waded through the water-logged fields, scything, bundling, piling and carrying the harvest. Many said hello or smiled at us as we passed and none of them seemed at all annoyed that we were there.

We tried to walk up one of the huge hills and couldn't find a path and so just meandered down the main road for while. Groups of farmers sat by the roadside having a bit of a rest and a chat while other individuals scooted past us on nbikes piled high with crops. Big, scary ox rested by the roadside and stared at us as we passed. Some houses were already working on the seperating the grain from the stalk using pedal-powered machines and called 'hello' as we passed. A few more had no anumals to feed the stalks to and so were burning piles of them, sending  plumes of sour smoke into the road and air.

On the way back to the village we came across two groups of women carefully heaving and steering their carts of crops down the narrow, raised paths between the fields. They stopped to gather their breath before having to attempt the steep slope that we had just walked down. After a short exchange of gestures and words, we helped them trundle their carts up the small hill. They loved this and were delighted at our joining in. The carts were heavy though and I imagine probably the last thing you want to deal with after a long, hard day harvesting in the hot sun.

Back at the homestay we were given such a large amount of food that we wondered if we were expected to help ourselves and pass the rest on but apparently not. A Danish guy came over and had dinner there too and he was given almost as much to himself and so we heartily tucked in, enjoying the break from noodle soup. We were also given rice wine, decanted from a 10 litre container into a 2 litre one and then served by the cupfull. They give bigger servings of tis pure ethanol brew than they do their tasty coffee.

We chatted to Toke for a while then Matt went to bed as I went with Toke to try and find the 'bonfire, music and dancing' we had been told about and encouraged to go to. After a few wrong turns down very dark paths with no torch to rely on, we finally stumbled across the only thing that resembled what had been described to us. There was no bonfire and it looked like a private show that had been put on for a tour group but we stood with the locals at the other side of a broomstick barrier and watched for a while. It was very similar to the life-based dance that we had seen so often in Asia and though it is nice to watch, I really struggle understand why, after such a hard day toiling and working in the fields, they would want to dance about working and toiling in the fields.

It was quite relaxing though and we soon wandered back to our respective stilted house to get some rest.

10th June - Hanoi

This morning we finally sold the bike. 200 long-awaited American dollars were handed over by New Yorker Norman and his Vietnamese girlfriend. It wasn't as much as we'd hoped but we were glad to finally be able to move on.

I showered and got hooked on back-to-back episodes of Glee (I know!) while Matt went in search of bus tickets to Mai Chau. They were originally twice as expensive as we'd thought they'd be and so he trailed from place to place trying to find out the best price. He eventually realised that they were all just continually calling the same place and so came back to our hotel to book them from there.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful: the highlight being our search for machine lubricant for my Ladyshave and Matt's multi-tool so probably best not to dwell on that too much.

We spent the evening at our favourite haunts for our celebratory goodbye to Hanoi. We went to Beer Hoi 45 again for our last few jars and then popped to the noodle stall at the end of our road to squat on teensy stools and stuff our faces. After several days of waiting to leave, it was almost sad to be finally going.

9th June Hanoi

Woke up with a bit of a hangover. I printed out more bike adverts to replace the ones that had been removed over night. 

Decided to wander through the french quarter to Lenin park which is between Thien Quang lake and Dao Hoa lake.  Just before the entrance to the park was an old SEGA arcade which was dark and dingy inside and had most of the machines switched off. One of the few machines working was air hockey so we had a quick game.

Had a wander through the park, watched people fishing and a man playing on his own with a paper plane. The park has a few old fairground rides, some of which are covered in rust and some which look like they might not be so deadly. The park also has a "muscle beach" style workout area full of muscular Vietnamese men.

Just outside the park we stumbled across a frozen yoghurt store where we could pick our flavours and toppings. It turned out to be fairly expensive but was lovely. Being all modern I decided to have a look on Foursquare for recommended food places nearby and we set off to a food stall nearby. After a few minutes walk we were at the location shown on the map but couldn't find the correct place so we we just sat at the nicest looking street stall and ordered some Bun Rieu Cua which we'd never heard of but looked good. It turned out to be crab noodle soup and was as good as it looked.

Wandered back in the general direction of the hotel, past the opera house and towards the lake. We walked into a small square where skateboarders were attempting to jump some steps so we stayed and watched them for a while before heading back to the hotel for a nap.

We'd been craving lychees for a while and there's normally at least one person selling them on the street near our hotel but not tonight so we wander around a few streets with no luck until heading back and bumping straight into a woman selling them from her bike right near the hotel.

8th June - Hanoi

A pretty uneventful day. We've seen pretty much everything that there is to see in Hanoi. Despite being crazily busy, there isn't that much to do other than a few museums that we're not really interested in and going to see Ho Chiu Min's body at the Mauseleum - which we're never up in time for.

A good few hours were spent looking for a pair of shorts for me. New clothes are always a bit of a trial because Asian women are so tiny and I am not. I tried to look at some things on a stall in the huge indoor market but got my hand slapped away by the woman, who gestured that I was too fat for them.

I found a pair in a shop that had been recommended as selling 'big' sizes by Tuey. Matt helped me pick up everything that was in the largest size and I took them to the changing room, stepped over the woman working there who was asleep in the middle of floor and proceeded to try and squeeze my chunky, sweaty limbs into them. Nothing was very suitable and I soon went off the idea because of the heat and the unlikeliness of finding anything.

After we'd been shepherded down a particular set of stairs and out of the door, Matt spotted a more suitable pair of shorts in the bargain bin and so I made my way back to the sticky-hot changing room. This time, the woman inhabiting it was awake and playing with her phone, though she was still prostrate on the floor. The shorts fit and so I happily made my way downstairs to pay, only to remember that we hadn't been to the ATM and so we had no money.

All that sorted, we pretty much spent the rest of the day mooching around before deciding to go and see how much beer hoi you had to drink to get a hangover. At Beer Hoi 45, we met Harry and Sabi - an Australian guy and French girl. They were really nice and we made our way through many beers, talking about Harry's career as a chef and Sabi's experiences as a language assistant in Birmingham.

On our first visit to Beer Hoi 45, the guy there had shown us a picture of a hugely fat English guy and told us that he had drunk 17 beers. We worked out that those 17 beers had still worked out cheaper than one pint of lager in the UK and much cheaper than in Paris and Australia!

On our way for some food at the end of the evening, Harry's arm was clipped by a bike. He was fine but the bike went down and skidded down the road a bit. The driver was uncharacteristically apologetic but as there was no real damage done, we all went on our way. Given the sheer volume of bikes and people, I'm amazed it wasn't much worse but thankfully it was a quiet time in the street and so no-one else was hurt.

7th June - Hanoi

Had a few calls and emails about the bike in the morning but by the time I'd responded other bikes had been bought, etc. Eventually an Australian guy called and I took him up to see the bike in the parking garage. This parking garage also has a number of Honda Wins for sale and when I was getting my bike out to show the guy, the owners of the garage took them to look at their bikes. Eventually I got the bike out and the potential buyer took it for a ride. When he returned he complained that the back end felt loose and when we looked the rear wheel had come loose and shifted forward, leaving the chain very slack. I found this very odd as the bike had been fine on the ride to Hanoi and hadn't been ridden since. 

I took it around the corner to a mechanic who told me it needed a new chain and sprocket which I didn't believe so tried another garage a couple of doors further down who straight away said all it needed was the rear wheel putting back in position. Two minutes and $1.50 later it was sorted and riding fine. Unfortunately the damage to the sale was done and I didn't hear from the Australian again.

When I returned, Anji had got chatting to two people from the hostel across the road, Bo and Loic. We decided to go for some beer at the Bia Hoi place Anji and I had been to the previous day so headed over there for a few before moving on to the Bun Cha restaurant that had been recommended by Tuey, the manager at our hotel.

We then headed over to the "Hanoi Hilton" prison museum before being told to leave half way around as it was closing and then on to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum which was closed. After wandering around the park surrounding the mausoleum we decided to head towards Lenin park again, had a few beer hois on the way and spent some time watching the dancers.

 

6th June - Hanoi

In the morning Matt had fun trying to print off some posters to advertise the bike while flooded the bathroom. This wasn't at all intentional but was quite funny. I think I've mentioned the 'bidet' type attachments that they have in Asia, which are basically trigger-operated pressure hoses to be used instead of a toilet brush and also in the absence of toilet paper. Unfortunately, the pipe of the one in our bathroom had persished and sprang of very powerful leak which shredded the hose further and left me soaking wet, gasping for air and wondering what I could do from a remote back room of the 4th floor with no telephone down to reception. Luckily, there was a stopcock on the shower that did the trick and I got changed out of my drenched clothes and traipsed down to reception to report it.

We spent most of the rest of the day searching the many bag stalls for a Timbuk2 bag that Matt had spotted on our way past as we headed back to our hotel yesterday. Though he maintains that he didn't imagine it, we couldn't find it and so Matt started the first of a series of negotiations regarding a different one that he quite fancied.

To keep myself entertained, I considered buying some doughnut-type things from one of the very persistent woman who walk around with baskets of them hung around their necks. She tried to charge me $5 and I was just in the process of bargaining when we were surrounded by a bunch of Malaysians all trying to talk to me, her and each other. It got very confusing and when Matt turned around -  it looked as if I'd started a bit of a riot. I ducked out, had a quick chat about Malaysia with a nice couple from the group and the bag-search continued.

The next few hours were spent discovering the joys of 'bia hoi' in a very cheap place in the old town. I'm sure one of us has mentioned it before but if not, it's a beer that is brewed fresh every day and served at outdoor stalls. We were paying 5000 dong per glass (about 30p) and it is just perfect for hot weather - it's not too strong, very pleasant and occasionally very cold. It's also about half the price of water!

A nice man in the the bia hoi place helped me learn some Vietnamese words and how to pronounce them. They have 6 'tones' in Vietnamese and it's very easy to get it wrong and say something completely different to what you intended. He also showed us a picture on his phone of a big English guy who had drunk a staggering (to this guy, not so much to English people) 17 beers. I'm hardly surprised when it comes to less than the price of a pint back home!

Later that day, we watched a lovely sunset over the lake then popped back to our hotel for a quick change (stopping in each direction for Matt to haggle with a bag-shop owner of course) before heading to the Water Puppet Theatre.

Water puppet theatre originated in the rice paddies of Northern Vietnam over 1000 years ago and puppeteers were originally male (they feared that women would take the knowledge away to their husband's families) and trained for a minimum of 3 years in the art form. 11 puppeteers and several musicians make up the one hour show.

We were lucky enough to get a seat in the middle of the 2nd row, next to an interesting Swiss surgeon who was in Vietnam volunteering for Operation Smile - an international organisation helping children with cleft palattes.

The 'stage' was set with a house perched on a body of water and the orchestra played their bizarre looking instruments for a while before a man came out and banged a gong to signal the entrance of the first set of puppets. I had read that the puppets were very realistic and since the man had a big papier mache head (in the style of Frank Sidebottom), I was initially very impressed by how life-like he was. When the tiny puppets appeared in the water in front of the house I realised my mistake.

The puppet show depicted typical events from the lives of rural people, including catching a frog and collecting coconuts, and was accompanied by music and singing. The show culminated in the puppeteers emerging from the house with lotus flowers and a big chinese dragon lit by black light. It was all very pleasent and was very much enjoyed by the few Vietnamese children amongst the many Western tourists.

Final price wars were undertaken on the way back to the hotel and Matt emerged the victorious owner of a $10 geniune Jack Wolfskin bag. We'll soon see how long this one lasts him!

5th June - Cat Ba to Halong Bay to Hanoi

Following a rather meagre breakfast at Sunflower Hotel we jumped on the bus back to Halong Bay. We hadn't been on it very long before it broke down. A replacement bus was surprisingly quick and about 20 minutes later, we were speeding along as though we were several hours late.

At Cat Ba we climbed on a boat and made our way to the top deck to sunbathe on the very hot wooden loungers as we made our way through the beautiful karst dotted around in the water.

In Halong Bay town we stopped for food at restaurant. The few plates of soup, rice and tofu we were given wasn't enought to sustain the 6 people on our table - so much so that the table next to us resorted to eating the left-overs from a recently-vacated table of Vietnamese.

When I went downstairs, I noticed that our surly guide had a feast of real food and so asked if there was any more to come. He motioned to his food with a gesture that said "You can help yourself to mine you greedy cow" and I resisted the temptation to pick up the lot and carry it upstairs and explained the situation instead.
Back upstairs I explained what had happened to the group and soon a woman from the restaurant came up to check. She screamed and shouted at the poor boy who was waiting our tables and when he came back with the food she beat him. I felt terrible, especially as the addition of more rice, tofu and a small plate wasn't worth the discomfort we all experienced.

The two minibuses taking us from Halong to Hanoi turned into one and it would have been uncomfortably full just with the adults and children that were in there, but with the huge bags under our feet, absolutely no wriggling room and the palpable fury of our fellow passengers, it was crammed to bursting. Every swerve was bone-crushing and accompanied by loud moaning and huffing. Matt and I made use of the time to play an entertaining game of Jenga on his tablet.

Back in Hanoi we could not stand the thought of another noisy night at our hotel and went on the sweaty search for a new one. We'd resigned ourselves to staying in a dorm room and were only slighty comforted by the fact that they had a free beer happy hour when we came across VietFun. Thankfully it did not live up to it's party name and was just a nice but small room with a tiny bath and aircon that we negotiated down to the same price as a dorm. It tuned out to be a very good choice as the staff were exceptionally lovely and we ended up there for 6 days. The only down-sides were the 4 flights of stairs that we had to climb each time we wanted to get to our room.

We chilled for a while and I concertinaed myself into the tiny bath before heading out again. We found an ice-cream place and explored the city a little more clutching tasty, home-made lollies.

We stumbled across Lenin square and could see from a distance that there were loads of people and music playing. We side-stepped the tango dancers on the pavement and dodged maniacal rollerbladers to make it up the steps for a closer look.

It was absolutely incredible and a little like stepping into 1980's America. There were so many bodies, all engaged in their own form of excercise, entertainment and socialising. Teenagers clustered in street dance groups performing all kinds of solitary and coordinated dance forms. I realised that I've never seen breakdancing 'in the flesh' and these ones were absolutely astounding. We also fixated for a while on the groups 'popping'. We even witnessed a 'faceoff' of sorts as one pf the body poppers had a breakdancing dual. If they weren't dancing, they were rollerblading, skateboarding or doing bike tricks.

In amongst all of this there were families teaching small children how to skate and watching or steering countless small children in electric cars. It appears that they get trained for the mayhem of the roads from a very young age and none of them made a discernable effort to stay out of the way of the others. There were countless collisions between old, young and younger and every time they would get entagled, fall and then just get on with it - unapologetic and tear-free.

As well as all of this there were drinks-sellers, people with baskets of trickets and LED toys, observers with tiny children toddling into the thick of things and the occasional scooter speeding through. It was all an incredible sight and kept us entertained for several hours. We got tired from simply watching and left about 10.15pm but everyone was still going full throttle.

4th June - Halong Bay to Cat Ba

Woke on top deck to the same apparently unnecessary shouting and calling from the nearby boats that had shocked us awake for the last few very early mornings.

After a skimpy breakfast, we sailed the short distance to Cat Ba island for a nice 'hike in the national park' - otherwise known as a very steep walk up slippery, lethal rocks without any supervision and under strict time restraints. It was particularly tough after last nights shennanigans and was very hot and hard but there were lovely views of the national park from the top. It was very green and a bit misty though so we couldn't get any decent photos.

After a sweaty wait at the bus stop and a hair-raising bus journey where the buses only seemed to overtake on blind mountain bends, we were looking forward to checking in at the hotel and having a shower. No such luck as the schedule dictated we eat lunch in our dripping, dirty clothes before being shown our rooms. At least the food was marginally better that on the boat.


After a long-awaited and very lovely shower we got to go and explore Cat Ba island town. We wandered past the many karaoke bars nearby and made our way to the sea. It was a natural harbour so it was perfectly calm and wavefree and just full of boats. We took a walk around the tourist and proper market then went to take a look at the fishing bay.

We stopped to watch a truck loading a full trailer of ice onto boat, block by block and via kind of toboggan run. Further on we saw the actual ice factory and observed them set up an even longer version atched them set up longer version which ran from a hatch in the factory wall, over the road and directly onto a little boat that seemed to be a floating ice-crusher. We were totally tickled by watching this and wished that we had a camera with us.

We stopped for a Bia Hoi overlooking the harbour, watching a nearby group of boys playing football and having to use a boat to fish their ball out of the sea. We chatted and caught up some more before doing some further wandering. Another stop for Caphe Sua Da (a coffee which brews in a little tin contraption sitting over the cup and is sweetened with condensed milk), looking at floating seafood restaurants, fending off their reps and laughing at the kids scooting around the nearby square in electric cars.

We wandered until dark. It was very pretty and we enjoyed watching the hills get swallowed up by the night and the bright lights come on. We couldn't exactly remember what time we had to be back for dinner so headed to the hotel so we weren't late.

It turned out that we were late. Matt's watch had stopped and so we were served dinner by a very disgruntled owner and were clearly the envy of the next table who'd had to share the same amount of food between fewer people. We chatted to a guy who was teaching in China and on a Visa run and then headed back out to make the most of our stay.

With the aid of the red lights that now illuminated the line of provocatively dressed attractive young ladies sat outside, we deduced that karaoke was not as popular as we'd initially assumed. No-one seemed to take much notice and the most attention seemed to come from the canny young stall holdwers who'd set up shop with a prime view!

Down at the harbour it was really busy with Vietnamese families milling about and making the most of the children's activities including pottery painting (they looked like garden gnomes), more electric cars and hook-a-fish from paddling pools. The harbour was lit by the tacky coloured lights they seem so fond of and the big fountain was gushing and glittering.

We took in the sights for a while, including a massive jellyfish in the water, and played a very short game of frisbee with a hat that we found. It skimmed into one of the beautifully tended patches of greenery and was retrieved by a lady who appeared delighted that we let her keep it. Given the openess of their nit-picking, we had no intention of keeping it ourselves but she skipped alomg happily with it on her head.

3rd June - Halong Bay

We'd booked on a trip to Halong Bay to try and get back into the whole travelling experience and our bus came to collect us from the 'screamy' hotel at 8am. Matt was a bit nervous because the company on the bus was one that he'd read lots of bad things about but he didn't mention it because he did not want to bother me. Since one tale included a tourist having a knife pulled on him, this was probably wise.

The bus journey (bizarrely via big statue shop) to the bay was pretty nail-biting but not the scariest or most uncomfortable we were to experience in the next few days.

The boat was nicer than we expected but they would not let us check into our rooms so we weren't sure what was lurking under deck. We ate dinner around a big table as we floated around the bay and got to know some of the people who we would be sharing the next few days with.

Our first stop was Hang Sung Sot cave. It was big and had some impressive structures with coloured lights highlighting the key features. It made it look quite tacky but we didn't get to delay too long as we were shepherded around. We exited through the gift shop and had a giggle at some of the hilarious animal-shaped ornament type things decorated with fake pearls.

Next stop was a fishing village that we saw briefly as we floated past to where we could pay to go on a bamboo boat through a natural tunnel in the rock to see a lagoon. Matt and I didn't really fancy it and asked if we could go on the kayaks where we were. Apparently not. We were starting to see the importance of the itinerary.

Kayaking at the next stop was lovely and we squeezed the boats through into a nice little bay. There was a strict time limit of 20 mins so we didn't get any further but it was still really nice.

They anchored the boat in the bay so that we could go swimming. There were some really impressive jumps off the top of boat, including a few amazing backflips, but a combination of so many days without personal grooming and a fear of the sea kept me from joining in. Matt also decined and spent the time lounging on the top deck.

We were finally allowed the check into our rooms and they were really quite nice. After dinner and learning a fun new game called 'Jungle Speed', we headed back up to the top deck to watch some of our talented ship-mates play guitar and sing. They were actually really good but Matt reached his limit when 'Let it Be' was pulled out of the bag and so he headed to bed, leaving me to stay up late having fun.

Come bed time I found the room far too stuffy, the engine too noisy and the fact that the electricity kept going off and making the fan stop really annoying and so we headed up to the roof to spend a lovely night sleeping under the stars and actually being able to breathe.