CHAU DOC

Thought we'd continue our river trips by taking a boat down the Mekong River from Phenom Penh to the Vietnamese border. Lovely relaxing trip and only a 20 min wait at the border whilst our passports were checked. Apparently this can sometimes take up to an hour, but we think that fact that it was Friday afternoon had something to do with the speed!

Arrived in a town called Chau Doc and it seemed very different to the towns we had visited in Cambodia. The roads were less dusty but the amount of scooters on the road had trebled! Apparently the knack to crossing roads in Vietnam is to walk very slowly and make sure you've made eye contact with the 15 scooter riders that are screeching toward you - so that they can try and avoid you!

Thought we'd join the fun on the roads by hiring a scooter the next day and taking a quick tour around the green paddie fields of the Mekong Delta. I gripped on for dear life as Tony adeptly dodged roadside food sellers, small animals, large animals and other road users to give us a great first day out in Vietnam. Thought we'd celebrate our survival and the move to the next life of our beloved cat (Mr Crumpet) by raising a glass of g&t at sunset at the posh Victoria hotel in town!

SAIGON

Caught a local minibus from Chau Doc and arrived in Saigon 6 hours later. Settled in to our hotel before heading out to explore. First thing that we noticed were ...... ummm ...... the mopeds!!!!! Millions of them, all ridden by spotty teenagers wearing really crap helmets called Hongda or Yamada and face masks. Took us a few hours to develop the correct technique for crossing the road which is to simply not look and walk slowly, if one were to look one would never cross the road.

Visited the dentist for a check up (very impressive surgery), had a picnic in the park and then visited the war museum which was the spitting image propoganda wise of Chinese mi-information. Unfortunately it appears that some tourists actually believe some of the ridiculous claims ......

Whilst in Saigon we arranged our Lao visas (very easy) and also visited the presidntial palace and took a day drip out to the Cu Chi tunnels and Cao Dai Temple. Fortunately, our guide was excellent (we don't normally take guided tours as we have found them to usually be rubbish). The tunnels were amazing .... much smaller than I had imagined and having spent some time alone in them I became quite claustophobic. To give an indication of size, I had to take my 1 cm thick camera off my belt to get into one of the entrances ... yes, it really was that narrow. The Temple was also very interesting (if a little weird) but I guess this should be expected for a religeon set up in the first couple of decades of the 20th Century.

Whilst enjoying a drink or two on a balcony bar we saw a kid come running down the street screaming out in Vietnamese .... we thought a riot was about to start as everyone frantically started to clear the pavements moving tables, chairs, baskets, goods, mopeds etc into their stores / restaurants .... turns out that the police every now and then (usually when short of cash) have a crack down on people using the pavements. All a bit bizarre really as the pavements are NEVER empty and can't actually be walked on!

DALAT

Dalat is simply beautiful ..... such a joy to experience cool air and a general laid back feeling that exemplifies Dalat. Found a really friendly hotel run by a family who could not speak English but whose smiles said all that needed saying. Our room looked out over the lake which was lovely (who needs Lonely Planet?).

Walked around the lake stopping at the Dalat Flower Gardens before stopping to enjoy a bottle (well two actually) of Dalat red wine on the lake. Whilst in Dalat we explored the town, visited Vietnams oldest Rail station (1938 I think), walked to the Cable car station to take a cable car across to the reservoir, enjoyed a few excellent meals at V Cafe (recommended if you visit Dalat) and generally just enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere which reminded us a lot of South America.

Next day we explored the town a little walked

NHA TRANG

Making our way up the coast, our next stop was Nha Trang, a beach town resort. Sods law, when we arrived, it was very 'un-sunbathing weather' and after we'd had a respite of over a month and a half, the rain finally found us!! A bit of a novelty huddled in a cafe drinking copious amounts of the lovely strong Vietnamese coffee watching the rain pour down!

Tony also took the opportunity to have his hair cut here - lets just say the American GI 'scalped' look is the one that the hairdresser was going for! Not one of his best looks!!

Suffice to say, we decided only to stay one night and then caught an over night bus to HoiAn, a 12 hour bus journey away.

HOI AN

Although the rain follwed us up to HoiAn, we both found it a very picturesque town to wander round - damp shoes or no damp shoes! Hoi An had been spared from major damage during the Vietnam war and there were stunning examples of Chinese and French colonial buildings still standing.

As can be expected, it was incredibly touristy and Hoi An is also the mecca for tailors shops - apparently there are over 400 in the town! I took the plunge and had 3 blouses made for a good price.

Found a lovely little restaurant by the river and ate a couple of times there; Tony was also befriended by a really cute young kitten who seemed to charm her way round everyone in the resturant for either food or a tickle!

DANANG

Woohoo! The sun returned for our quick trip to Danang - Vietnam's fourth largest city - and only 30km from HoiAn.

Just had a day to wander round the Museum of Cham sculpture and then down to 'China Beach' - the well known American R&R stop during the Vietnam war. Not the tourist time of year as the beach was deserted with stormy waves crashing in, but still a beautiful spot.

Around SE Asia we've been dining in cafes and resturants that have been created to support good causes and we found another one in Danang to support. This was a cafe that employs and trains young deaf Vietnamese in the skills needed to run a restaurant. We had an amazing breakfast there (ok it wasnt the typical Vietnamese breakfast!) but a huge American style with pancakes as big as your head! Mmmm.......

HUE

Arrived at Hue by train (from Danang) which was a pleasant way to travel with superb scenery along the coast. Ignored the ubiquitous taxi, xe om and hotel touts and wandered into town. Settled into a hotel and went out to eat PIZZA!!!!

Hue is an interesting city which was heavily bombed by both the French (in 1954) and later by the Americans / South Vietnamese. The citadel walls, however, remain intact and a number of the palace buildings inside have been restored which means that it required several hours to explore.

Whilst in Hue we took a tour to the DMZ zone which was the boundary between North and South Vietnam and was the most heavily fought over area (fairly obviously). The tour was long (6:30 am to 6;00pm) but interesting despite the fact that most of the sights were simply overgrown fields or hills .... it was hard to imaging the horrors that took place here 3 decades ago. The tunnels of Vinh Moc were very different to those at Cu Chi due to the fact that they were designed to be lived in rather than an aid to infiltration / escape / protection from bombs. they were very much larger and could be walked through if you ducked your head.

The rain caught up with us again but it was still nice to wander the streets. Oooh .... forgot to mention that we had a fantastic curry in Hue .... one of the best that we have eaten outside of India and Nepal.

Left for Hanoi on an overnight sleeper bus.

HANOI

Arrived in Hanoi in the morning having travelled by overnight bus (which was awful ..... the journey from Hue to Hanoi is notorious and deservedly so). Were dropped at a bus station outside the city and were besieged by the usual taxi / xe om touts ... quietly ignored them and headed to a cafe for a coffee to plan our next move. We seemed to be on a major route into the city so decided to pick a bus heading in the right direction and jump on. Found a bus stop and what seemed to be a pretty good destination for us (500 meters from the old quarter) .. jumped on and paid the princely sum of 12p to get into the city.

Having passed the rows of Chit Tho (dog meat sellers) we exited the bus and made our way into the old quarter to choose an hotel. Left Emma in a cafe and headed into the rain to find an hotel, unfortunately I neglected to make a note of where I had left Emma and promptly spent the next two hours searching for the cafe!!!! However, we found a nice hotel and bargained down to $28.

Hanoi is yet another mad city in a mad continent ..... 5 million inhabitants with 3.5 million scooters, all driven by homicidal maniacs with an inability to look behiond themselves when moving from lane to lane, turning a corner, moving off, etc. Still, Emma and I have developed the technique of closing our eyes, ignoring the horns and simply walking to where we want to get to.

Having explored the old quarter we visited Uncle Ho in his mausoleum, visited the Opera House to see a cultural performance which was both spellbindingly wonderful and hysterical in turns. The highlight was the presentation to some VERY elderly musicians (we are talking at least 95 years old) of some merit award ..... the spectacle of a blind gentleman being held up by two aides trying to grapple with a HUGE bouquet and a 2 foot framed certificate was a sight to behold. Did the usual sites ..... the Temple of Literature, etc and are heading to the Water Pupopet theatre tomorrow.

Emma discovered the Chocolate buffet in the Hanoi Sofitel so we are planning an afternoon visit there to indulge our taste buds!

HALONG BAY

For only the third time in over a year we opted to 'do' an organised tour ... this time to Halong Bay with Handspan Adventures ........ we were so glad that we did as they were efficient, informative and good value for money.

We were picked up from their office at 08:30 and headed to Halong Bay to board our junk with which we were pleasantly suprised .... the whole boat was well maintained and we had a very comfortable cabin.

Having sailed into the bay amidst the glorious limestoine karsts we dropped anchor and enjoyed a pleasant lunch with our fellow guests (the boat had only 9 guests against its capacity of 20). The mix of guests was 4 Canadian, 3 Americans and Emma and I. Everyone was fascinating and had travelled all over the world (literally).

Halong Bay had an ethereal quality to it which was only marred by the 100's of other tourist junks. Still, it was a magical experience and one which Emma and I hope to repeat in better weather in order for us to explore the area in kayaks.