ok it's has been a really long time since a wrote and so much has happened! i'm looking at endless pages of notes in despair! but here goes nothing - perhaps ill do it in two parts!
Last time i wrote i was in Hanoi - north Vietnam about to catch a train to Hue! well catch it we did and 11 hours and some very uncomfortable upright sleep later we were approaching hue. Sam is loved by all the locals here (they love his name and also that he is a westerner with black hair. he has had a LOT of positive comments about his good looks. quite a lot of the male variety - even as i'm stood right with him!! haha) so at 8am on the train the locals ply him with beer, white rice whiskey and lychees. he tried to imply it was too early for him to drink but they just laughed and forced it on him more. the language barrier and sams endless politeness mean he could not refuse and soon was drinking the whiskey and they turned to give him a 'cheers' every 2 minutes! it was the only english word they knew!!
arrived at our hotel in hue. we chose it because it had a pool and it was just 40 degrees C so hot. you actually cant drink enough water to counteract the perspiration!!hue had a festival on which was cool, lots going on and a cool backpacker street with a good vibe and nice food. visited the citadel and wandered around. nice place.
caught the train to danang which was one of the most scenic stretches in vietnam, this is definitely true. great views - the little i saw!! but not so great when you have to pay more than everyone else for your ticket (foreigner tax!), and get stuck in a seat with no windows so had to peak around to try and get glimpses. and that the ladies in front of us had their seats right back and the guy behind me kept pushing my seat forward - it felt a little like i was in a coffin!!then the air con cut out and everyone was close to passing out! so we were actually really glad to get off that train!!
also on arriving in danang it was the most disappointing place. really just a commuter town and airport hub. people are trying to hustle and rip you off so so much. you cant walk down the street without people following you, shouting at you and getting really angry when you ignore them! but you have to ignore them because once you even open your mouth and speak to say 'no thank you' it will take twice as long for them to leave you alone. i hate to be seen as an ignorant tourist as i love socialising with local people but sometimes you really are trapped. it is never unsafe in any way - i have not felt in danger at any point during this trip. they just want my money in any possible way! not to say this is everyone of course, we have met our fair share of gems among the locals but im trying to give a gist of how much hard work just walking down the street can be in some places. even our hotel 'manager'/scam artist was dodgy!
so - onto another place first thing the next day and we take a very crazy kamakaze bus to hoi an! literally brakes on buses/scooters/cars dont get used very often, just horns and accelerators!! scary! hoi an is pretty awesome as it goes!!! nice hotel with great pancakes and free bikes to ride to the beach (6km). The town is literally full of tailors and cafes and not a lot else but it was really quaint and nice to wander round for a few days. you can really see all the french influences in the building styles, same as laos. cycling to the beach on the kamakaze roads was pretty interesting to say the least, not so bad out of town but the junctions when there is no right side of the road to be on and no traffic lights or other road rules obeyed it's sketchy!! we had our first beach fix and despite it being cloudy all day sam and i both got burnt really badly! despite many layers of suncream too!!! also a lady who refused to give up trying to sell us trinkets. she came and sat with us on the sand, literally a foot from us and stayed for about 15 mins, about once every minute asking us to buy something and would not give up. the only way to respond is to not respond, so that was a pretty awkward 15 minutes of silence!!! the waves on china beach were pretty damn strong and this was at its supposed quietest time! enough to body board without the board but one wave in every three was enough to go right over your head and drag you around a bit so after a few lungfuls of seawater i gave up and left sam to it who was in his element, elegant as a dolphin!!
sam and i found a home away from home in hoi an at cafe 43, such amazing food, so so cheap and uno cards for major games in the evening over a very cheap beer. - 3,000 dong a glass - 10p. we also did a cooking class there and learnt to make our own spring rolls, chicken curry and pork and cabbage soup from scratch. we got to know the whole family working there and had so much fun with them all. such a nice family - really didn't want to say goodbye to them.
we then caught our very first sleeper bus to nha trang - fully laid down seats on the top deck of a bus -but it was a pretty rough ride......
i'm going to have to leave it there for tonight (all this happened over a week ago-im actually in siem reap, cambodia today and off to ko tao tomorrow. a little behind with sending news,)
will post the rest of vietnam and cambodia asap.
lots of love to all.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
hue - danang; 2 hours
danang - hoi an; 90 mins
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