Vietnam

We arrived in Saigon from our luxurious bus that continued intermittently leaking on us from first thing in the morning onwards. We made our way to a recommended hotel and booked up 2 nights. We walked around a little before getting hungry. 3 minutes and 2 blocks later we were in a restaurant. My first authentic Vietnamese meal was a disaster, the rice tasted like cardboard that a hobo has been living on and to make matters worse the rice was the only thing i recognised as a food and the other items were a workout for my gag reflex. Still hungｒｙ i settled for a mango smoothie from another establishment to last me until dinner time. The smoothie tasted distinctly of Asda ham and i enjoyed it as much as any 80 year old who gets their meals liquidised. We did a little shopping and bargaining at a nearby market, checked out some sights and headed back to grab dinner and a couple of drinks.

The next day we went to the war remnants museum to check out some old American artillery and some good old fashioned war propaganda. The museum is known for being very biased but rightfully so with all things considered. Everything depicted or written about has photographic evidence and U.S. Army officials from the time have been since tried and proven guilty for war crimes. We also went around the presidential palace and walked through some more of the city.

After dinner before watching some football i decided to sit in the park next to our hotel for 15 minutes or so. Within the first minute of me being there i had myself 8 English students sat all around me. All were students in various professions and used their free time to learn English the best way, by talking to a Glaswegian. I helped them for about 3 hours and would recommend this to anyone. It is less common in Saigon to come across the 'English student' scam than in Hanoi and it is perfectly easy to see if they are genuine in their interest.

The next morning we jumped on another luxurious bus for the 10 hour journey to Nha Trang, a popular beach town. I was excited for a couple of days relaxing on 6km of sand and sea. Our first day we got ourselves a couple of loungers and began the relaxation. This lasted around 45 seconds when our first saleswoman approached and ruined it. From this point onwards until we left early evening roughly 1 person every 1 minute bothered us with something. The worst was a young girl who kept coming back and saying 'i no lucky today, buy something'. If that wasn't bad enough after the 7th knockback she tried the interesting sales technique of telling us she would cut off our 'bananas' if we didn't buy something. I asked her if she sold bananas because i really wanted one. She left us alone.

After not doing much on our last day and glad to see the end of Nha Trang we headed to the train station to catch a sleeper train to Hue. Delayed as usual we waited at the station and i helped some more students with their English. The sleeper train at night was nothing special but when i woke in the morning i noticed out the window we were above the ocean. The train tracks run directly at the top of very steep drops straight to the ocean so this made the journey not only enjoyable but the most scenic i have ever been on. In the spirit of sunny Asia however, it became overcast and began to rain.

Eventually after 3 hours of cruising at a smooth walking pace we arrived in Hue. I really enjoyed Hue as it is small but filled with lots to see and do and plenty to keep yourself occupied with bars and restaurants and shops. The people were also much less annoying as they accept 1 'no thank you' and stop asking you for various services. After asking in a few places and finding them all sold out we eventually bought tickets for a night bus to Hanoi. This was the worst sleeper bus so far. Regardless of the road condition, bumps, rail crossings, corners whatever the journey could throw at the driver he managed to keep his speed sky high. The other thing sky high (and not in a psychedelic sense) was me because the bumps were so extreme i was literally flying out of my bed and had to hold on all night, Driver 1 Adam 0.

Hanoi is manic. Motorbike mania, street tout haven and no room to walk on the pavement which is completely useless as all the motorbike and scooter drivers go on the pavement and ride up and down when they want. We had to wait in our hotel lobby for a few hours before we could check in so i had an authentic street breakfast when a guy in the street recommended it and asked me to join him. I later found out he was the hotel owner and was a pretty cool guy. He wore the shiniest shoes i have ever seen.

After getting checked in we started with the Temple of Literature, this was nice but by this point i was getting a little used to the wonders that are Asian Temples. For lunch we went to a restaurant called Koto. It is a non-profit restaurant that concentrates its money and efforts into street kids. All the cooks, waiters and waitresses were at some point troubled youth but by the way we were served Koto is definitely doing its job-well worth the money. Nothing says Vietnam like a burger and chips.

The next day we bought a tour to Halong Bay. 3 hours there, then onto a boat and into the bay. The limestone caves and rocks were awe inspiring but there are tourist boats everywhere on the water so it takes away from the experience but i can't complain as i was on such a boat. On the boat we shared a proper seafood feast with a Filipino couple from Dubai. After lunch we were taken inside one of the caves which again has been partially ruined by the multi-coloured light effects that shine all over the rocks making it look like a themed disco, the theme being rocks. After 4 hours of gliding around the water it was time to head back.

We started off our last day in Hanoi by queing for about half an hour to get in to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum to see the preserved body in a sarcophagus. I felt a little stupid doing this as there is a massive queue from outside that all moves at a slow pace and doesn't stop just to get inside and catch a quick glimpse of a dead mans preserved corpse. Especially seeing as how it was his dying wishes to be cremated so that he would not be treated as a martyr, respect is not common in Asia. After this we went round the Ho Chi Minh museum then went back to the hotel. After lunch and a walk around the biggest lake right in the center of Hanoi we cooled down with a few beers and checked out a few stalls and shops including a couple of genuine old war propaganda poster shops.

Our night train from Hanoi to Nanning, China was the most luxurious yet. Time for our biggest country, home to a history that includes repelling countless Mongol invasions and eventual Genghis and Kublai Khan rule and dynasties like the Ming and Qing. It is also over populated and highly polluted, our time here should be interesting...