Hanoi

24/03
The night went rather quickly despite the worry of getting kicked out everytime the train pulled in a station...
We have also made some plans with the british guys for the arrival at the station. It is 4.10am when we arrive and there are not many options to get a hotel opened at this time. So the 6 of us decide to share a taxi to get better chances and limit the risk of getting ripped off by one of the famous city scams. Soooo we find a taxi for the 6 of us and tell the driver to take us to one of the recommended hotel...but, bingo!!! the hotel we've picked up is 'closed' but he knows different places we can go to...We end up in a hotel which looks nice at first. The first thing we do is check the reputation of the hotel...We end up staying there for only three hours until the nice places open and we go somewhere else after a bit more sleep.
We check in a guesthouse tucked in a typical and authentic Hanoian alleyway in the Old Quarter. The Thu Giang is held by a lovely family, keen to help, fun and charming...We get our room and shortly after we're in the common room (that is the reception area) making friends with the clients. A french couple is a regular client, a Vietnamese guy, Ji, is a long term resident of the guesthouse, Mark and Kim, two Americans, one living in Beijing who have been here before, and the other one on vacation...This feels good and make us feel home-ey!!!
We go for lunch in a fantastic little corner shop eating a delicious Bunh Bo...This is the starts of a delicious palatable journey in Hanoi! We then go for a walk around the old quarter, visiting some of the city highlights, like the lake Ho Hoan Kiem and different historical streets. Each street is named after the trade or corporation that use to share the old quarter. One is the silk road, another the tin box road, the next the altar street or another one the stone carver...Ater spending some time there, we book some tickets for the Water Puppets show which has been created in the 11th century by farmers. The show is divided in 12 scenes relating either agricultural activities or re-enacting ancient legends. The music is being played live and is absolutely sublime. The puppets are beautifully and skilfully moved on the top of the water, sailing like little swans and ducklings, playing with the element. We're having a fantastic time and sad when the lights ending the show come. But the puppeteers present themselves, dressed up in traditional costumes...and waist-deep in the water. I find this gives even more beauty to the show. We get told that they will be presenting the show in Beaubourg in Paris next month...keep your eyes opened!!!
After the show we finish the walk and go back to the guesthouse. We meet up with the guys and go for dinner. We have quite a few drinks and come back very late...

25/03
This is an active morning. We book our tickets for the Halong Bay tour tomorrow. We made some plans yesterday to go and visit the Ho Chi Minh Mosoleum and complex. Very interesting, not necessarily the man himself but more for the experience around it. The progression within the mosoleum is very strict, people from all over the country and more line up very well dressed (there are some restriction regarding the dress code) to pay their respect to Uncle Ho. We cannot talk or even whisper, cross arms, or put our hands in our pockets. Most importantly it is forbidden to take pictures or stop in front of the glass box. It is a very strange, and quite amazing to see the devotion of the people for their ancient leader. i am also amazed by the entire complex itself and the size of it. It is nealry pharaonic! It is also rahter ironic when you know that Ho Chi Minh wanted a cremation!! We also visit the Presidential Palace that used to be the palace of the general governor under the french occupation, the humble house on stilts where Ho Chi Minh stayed instead of the colossl colonial building. We then manage to visit the Ho Chi Minh Museum. The building hosts an important collection of personal effects of the president, and retracing his life, from a simple man who went to France to write as a journalist, to the founder and thinker in the history of communism. Strangely enough and depite an understandable political bias, the propaganda is kept to a minimum. When we end the visit rain is pouring down on the way back. We then go for lunch, we have nems and Bunh Cha, a delectable speciality based on pork in a soup with noodles and vegetables. We love it. Ji knows all the best places to go to. Ines, a Swedish girl, joins us and we exchange on trips and countries.
In the afternoon, we take some time to nap, read an write. We go for dinner with the gang to have another great dish, the Cha Ca, a secret fish based reciepe served in only one restaurant which gave its name to the street around 150 years ago...Wow...We pack. Tomorrow we'll check if the Halong Bay is really the 7th marvel of the world!

26/03
We wake up around 7am this morning and get ready to depart to the Halong Bay. The bus comes and picks us up and we drive for 3 hours to get to Halong Harbour where we catch our boat. It is a little scary when we arrive as thousands of boats wait for their share of the business. Halong is indeed a very busy a successful tourist attraction and all sorts of boat providing all sorts of entertainment for all sorts of natonalities...Our boat is, luckily enough, kind of small and we will be only 16 passengers on board overnight... We sail off. We start exchanging with our fellow passengers and get to hang out with a lovely american couple who live between Portland and Mexico. Throughout the conversation we find many common grounds between us and the conversation flows, like the bay underneath the boat stern...We spend a lovely afternoon between chats, relaxing moements on the deck and I enjoy taking many pictures of this really unique landscape. Our first halt in the bay is to sea some world heritage classified caves, a bit like the Disneyland of the stalagtites and stalagmites, tackily flooded with colour lights. The guide keeps making funny comments, trying to compare the cave formations to in turns a monkey, a jellyfish, an italian ice cream and Romeo and Juliet on her balcony...Back on the boat and moments later,w e stop and embark a little duo kayak for a paddle in the bay, in the middle of a floating village. It is a small town, made of shacks floating on barrels or bamboos or whatever floats...It is interesting...At 6.30pm, dinner is served and we have one of these pre-made dinner which tastes like nothing...We even get french fries...very authentic! Outside allthe junks have gathered in a rather large area. It is a little town on the sea with all the little lights around within the rocks. After more interesting deep conversations, we go to bed. It's 10.30pm, and we are in our little cabin, lovely if not a bit dated but which retains a certain charm from another age. I enjoy myself dreaming of being Captain Franz or Jack Sparrow...or thinking of the famous chinese sea pirates ships which may emerge from any corner or islets...It is quite magical, one of the most famous landscape of Asia, 2000 rocks emerging from the sea in the mist, the view is everchanging, the atmosphere is singular.

27/03
We wake up early around 7am to have breakfast. The night has been ok if not a little cold. We gather on the upper deck of the boat, outside after the morning rain to enjoy the sailing back to the Halong harbour. It is very quiet and even the junk engine seems to respect it. The water is flat and sleek as a mirror. The mist is thicker than last night. The impression is still very peaceful. Few sea eagles glide and duck to grab fish. The Halong bay is beautiful despite 200 boats around us. Really atomspheric due to the dense fog. Off the boat all the different tours and group gather in one of the tourist restaurant (500 hundred of us!) for a terrible meal. We try to go for a walk the time our bus comes back but there is nothing reachable on foot. So we decide to sadly wait there like everyone else. We say good bye to Doug and Judy. who are going west to Haiphong. The bus arrives to take us back to Hanoi but Val starts feeling a bit sick. This is the start of a long painful 3 hour journey for her. The legroom is inexistant and the aircon is not working...and the sun is now shining brightly...on Val's laps. We finally get to Hanoi and meet again with the friendly family and people from the guesthouse. Val is staying in tonight, a bowl of rice and a movie. I go with Mark, Ji and Kim to get a seafood hotpot in one of the local restaurant. It is very good and extremely fresh but I miss my little lady... Back to the room, we chat and go to bed...

28/03
We stay in bed in the morning, we do not really feel like getting up. Val is not great still so we stay in for a bit and have a light breakie in the reception area. We chat to the guesthouse girls here and Mark and Kim are up for a snake lunch. So I hire a motorbike which I am really looking forward to...Vietnam is meant to be one of the craziest place to drive and I am really up to the challenge (I'm 15, right!). I kiss goodbye and (sadly) leave behind my other half for an adventure on the Hanoian streets wearing a mountain bike helmet! We drive throught the busy city, honking at every corner, bikes are cutting the way everywhere and in everyway but it is quite fun...Just need to stay alert really and wait to hear if a horn goes at the back...We take the Long Bien bridge built by Eiffel, bommbed many times by the US army during the war but which has always stood. There is a rail track that runs in the middle and was a main artery for bringing all the amunitions in the country from China through the North. Once on the other side, we quickly stop for a glass of sugar cane juice to refresh ourselves. The road are quite dusty and it is hot today, unlike the previous days where we were a bit cold actually! We finally arrive at the snake village, Le Mat, where we find a restaurant serving what we came for: a King Cobra! We choose the beast in a little cage and once happy with our future meal the guy takes it out and proudly shows us our meal...by holding it by the tail and waving it in front of us!!! This creature is one of the most dangerous snake on the planet and it is just dangling 1 metre from us. I had no choice but step back, rather impressed (and uneasy - I love snakes so much!!) already and then drops it on the floor!!! The snake has its famous cheecks right opened and it is really impressive now...The animal is however really beautiful and majestic. I do feel quite bad to be here and witness this: the guy is now killing the animal to get it prepared for the ritual that is eating it. Drinking the blood, eating the heart whilst still 'beating' etc... We then have lunch around smla but numerous excellent dishes made out of the cobra. The experience is quite unique and I am really happy to have come here...
After lunch we head back to Hanoi and I catch up with Val. She stayed home and chilled out watching a movie and reading. We head out again on the motorbike to visit the West Lake, well-known to the local as the youngster couples go there and seat on a bench and kiss...Vietnam is a busy and crouded country, and privacy is a luxury. It is vey touching and the lake and ride around it is quite nice. We come back to the hotel and start walking to take our dinner with our favourite bunch. This is a fish soup for me and sticky rice with crabcakes for Val. Another succulent meal and, on the way back, we stop to have Banh Cuoc on my request. They are little rice springrolls. I feel hungry of Vietnam tonight!!! We then go for a drink at our local corner vietnamese cafe where we exchange until late at night. It's time for bed afer another rather full but exciting day...

29/03
A lazy day today starting with a lie in. After breakfast we go for a walk around the local streets to suck up a bit more of the hanoian atmosphere. We go back to our little kitchen to have Bun Bo, and decide to go and try to find some books. Val has finished hers and wants to find an exchange book store where she can get a new one. It's nearby the lake and makes the walk very nice. But the shop has moved! So we decide to try and find it, but it's at the complete opposite of town. No problem for us, we love walking. After few detours we find the shop and stop on the way back for a drink at the 'Cafe 11', perched at the top of a very interesting house overlooking the lake with an amazing view, the front being a random souvenir shop stall. Inside is a really intersting architecture of recessing platforms and staggered storeys. One of them is entirely dedicated to the family shrine in a pure chinese style. We then meet up again with our fellow guests at the hotel to have dinner and a quick drink in a horrible Irish pub! Time for bed.

30/03
We spend the morning buying some last minute shopping, going to the Insian Embassy to sort out the visa: imnpossible to do it here, it takes too many days, we will have to do it in Vientiane...walking around town again to sort things out, get a parcel box, go to the post office...it is already lunchtime and we meet up with Ines, Mark and Ji to go for lunch, we end up in a lovely place, eating fresh hand made springrolls then go for a lemon juice at Pho Co Cafe (Cafe 11), We then walk to the market to see the bird cages, it is messy down there, many birds, puppies, cats in cage, some turtles too. Ines and Val try to haggle for some lovely wood cages but the guy only wants to seel them used cages, full of bird poo...amusing...We then go for a stroll the two of us, start packing our rucksacks, sort out few things and it is already dinner time!!!
Last dinner for Ines who leave for the Phillipines tonight so we go to have...a pizza and some wine, a change from Vietnamese food!!!
We laugh, chat, talk about destination, more and more we hope to go to Tibet after Nepal...it seems feasible...if the borders reopens....We say goodbye and then have a last drink with Mark on the terrace, then off to bed quite late. We had some nice encounters here, met nice interesting well travelled people, we hope to stay in touch. It felt good being part of a friendly gang and gather together few times a day outside in th alleyway. The streets here are the center of social life. People gather in them, sitting on small plastic chairs and tables, we do the same. Frequently, Vietnamese people cook small meals and share them immediately on the sidewalk. Groups of friends drink beer and play cards and majong (chinese chess) at all times of the day. Life begins and ends early here. Most people are awake by 6am and asleep by 10pm, often we are the last people up in the streets!!! I like the fact that there is a strong sense of community and unity.

31/03
We spend the day getting organised for Laos, going to the post sending parcels back home, our bags keep getting bigger so we ruthlessly sort out things, very few clothes left...the bear minimum really...we walk around the old town, around the lake, it is grey today, we feel a bit sad to leave here, we spend some time in the house, chat to fellow travellers, to Li and Giang. The guesthouse has been like a real home for all those days, a very family-friendly atmosphere, we are going to miss our fellow buddies and the lovely family here....We reflect on this city, we really like it....
Hanoi brims with commerce. The ground floor of almost every building is an open-air shop. Much of the merchandise looks identical in quality and price. The upper floors are presumably the residential property of the store owners. We both wonder how each store can stay in business, especially amongst a sea of similarly stocked venues!! Social relations and familial connections probably dictate where people shop. Even so, the economic viability of this system is a mystery to us. Sticky rice for lunch on bamboo leaves, Val cuddles the dog at the house, and tonight we are going out for our last meal here with Ji and Mark. We have what is called an 'ordinary dinner' which consists of several dishes, meat, fish, fried crabs, different veg. It's very nice and traditional. And the last drink comes, at our local cafe. We talk for a bit and we go to bed not too late as we'll be up early tomorrow for our next adventure: Laos!

Hoi An et Hue

18/03
We arrive after a hard night in the bus, we walk about town with our big bags to find an hotel, we book the Hoa Binh hotel, a simple hotel, a nice room but noisy, on the street, above the reception area. That will do for today, we go to rest, as Val is not too well and I'm also pretty tired despite a bit of sleep. We go for lunch, walk around the town, Hoi An s an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port. We walk around and the city has a distinct Chinese atmosphere with low, tile-roofed houses and narrow streets; it is truly beautiful...People also visit for the numerous art shops and tailors, who produce made-to-measure clothes for a fraction of the western price!!! We find one too as we needs to get some clothes made for our friends wedding in Sri Lanka, it is fun to find fabric, bargain like mad and think of models....now cross fingers, we will get some clothes on time and with a good fit!!! We go for dinner in the port, and it is great to chill out....

19/03
After breakfast, we go for a stroll in the market, the heat is hard to bear already so we sat by shopping around for caps and t-shirt!! I end up buying a bag crumpler and manage to upset the shopkeeper with my hard bargaining!!! We go to do some fitting at the tailor, few adjustements to make but the results are good already and so quick!!! We also go to another tailor to get some dresses made for Val, the girls there are smiley and friendly, it is refreshing....
The heat is hard so we sneak in the hotel close to ours for a swim and chilling out next to the pool, it is gerat to unwind here. Simple dinner then we walk around town, strolling through the lantern-lit streets is like walking into a fairytale. It is all the more picturesque since motor vehicles are banned from Hoi An's Old Quarter. There are so many lantern shops and unique lights in the streets, people here experiment with new shapes and materials, including lights made from hollow bamboo tubes, we both like it very much. We go to bed early as we have to wake up for 5 am as we are going on a tour...

20/03
After a very short night and a near catastrophe, we're on the mini-bus that going to take us to the My Son (pronounced me-sun) temples. It's 5.20am and we've nearly missed the van our alarm clock (or our ears) failing miserably. It does not take us more than 5 minutes to get ready, the puzzled and completely sleepy hotel portier waiting for us to get out of the room. What a mad rush...
It's a small group of 8 people. The site is considered here as the local Angkor, remains from the kingdom of Champa. We get very excited at this thought. Once at the temples, built by Cham emperors, we learn that not much is left of them. First time did a bit of work, then the American bombs finished off the job. A European archeologist even sent a letter to Nixon to end the endless bombing of the temples, at that time considered as a backline for the Viet Cong guerilla. It's a nice setting though and we peacefully walk around the little remains of what would have been an Hindu influenced splendor. The site is deserted as we're the first one in, way before the assaults of big tourist coaches. It is really worth it. In the background, the rising fog slowly unveils the 'Beautiful Mountain' (translation of My Son). It is beautiful indeed.
We gather again in the bus and go back to town. Today is sightseeing day and we buy the old town heritage building visit tickets. We visit some historical houses in the old town, dark woods everywhere, colonial houses, little temples,pagodas. All the houses were made of rare wood, decorated with lacquered boards and panels engraved with Chinese characters. Pillars were carved with ornamental designs. Hoi An emerged when Japanese and Chinese traders built a commercial district there in the 16th century and you can really feel the fusion of influences here, amazing. The original structure of some streets still remains almost intact today and you sometimes feel back in time. Tan Ky house has been owned by the same family for 7 generations, with little alterations to its original design. We then visit a couple of temples, the ceramic trade museum (the building being the attraction, not its content) and the traditional art and craft museum. It's around 1pm and everyone in Vietnam takes a big break around lunch time...but the shops are still open. It's rather fun tiptoeing in a shop in order not to wake up the shopkeeper (who by the way cannot try a forced sale on us as he's asleep!). We have some lunch rather late and go hide in our air-con'ed hotel room for a bit as it is now really hot. Dinner and off to bed. Tomorrow is an exciting day for me, I'm going to learn a bit of vietnamese cooking! Yummy!

21/03
This morning is also an early start for me. I've booked a cooking class at the Red Bridge, a well known restaurant in Hoi An. I really wanted to learn how to do good fresh spring rolls and a couple of other things...These are one of my little sin and I could eat hundreds of them. Val stays at the hotel but gets up early too. It's fitting-adjustments day for her at the tailor!
In the hot morning I go to Hai Cafe to meet up with the guide who takes us-we're a small group but very international- around the market to show us the fresh products we will use during the class and do some side business as any good guide/tout/tourism trade people all do! We then hop on a boat for a short sailing trip to the Red Bridge, located up the river in the rice paddies. We get to see fishermen skilfully and beautifully throwing the circular net in the air, some other collecting the very little shells (snails) we saw many time being sold by old ladies around town. It is a delicacy patiently savoured by the locals.
The cooking class is fun, the chef punctuating the tuition by little canny jokes. I get to meet two girls, one American, Brendy heading to Hong Kong and an Aussie on vacation. The class is fun and very interesting. Cooking our little dishes, we munch them in between two recipies. We then have a great 3 courses lunch with some fresh lemon juice. The location is beautiful, rice paddies one side, the herb garden on another, the local fishermen rowing boats on the river as a background. Time to get back and catch up with my beautiful wife around 1.30pm. She's also been very active this morning.
She went to the tailor for the fittings. As there was only a couple of things to do, the young shop assistant took her to the workshop a bit further out of town. She enjoyed the ride and chats with the witty girl who has big plans for the future. She just needs to work to finance it and wants to become a teacher. Val enjoyed meeting some girls, having an insight into the tailor trade, it was fun apparently. We talk while strolling around town, looking at the people, the kids playing on the pedestrian streets. We both notice that there are loads of kids running around throughout Vietnam. They are not ultra protected behind close doors. During our trip here we got to see many of them, free of movement, but the parents still very close but somehow withdrawn. No barrier, no tension like in Europe. Everybody seems to look after everyone else's progeniture. It is a fabulous feeling of freshness and naivity. We smile... We soon do a bit more shopping, and a pair of made-to-measure sandals later we're back at the hotel. We rest a bit before going out for dinner on the harbour, at the foodstalls. Mr Hi, table number 5, remember! table number 5!!!!! He keeps saying! We sadly pack, we liked this mustard coloured walls houses and little town a lot. Lights off, tomorrow we're back in Val's favourite bus!

22/03
Wake up early as we take the bus to Hue this morning. We go to get our free breakie in the posh sister hotel. We then get our bags and get on the bus. It is another one of the sleeper bus, more recent but the legroom is even shorter than the one we had to get to Hoi An. I am completely cramped and can't even stretch my legs. Luckily enough the journey is only 3.5 hours (for 130km!), Vietnam style. Which means once again ten stops in the middle of nowhere, a 30 mins lunch break at 10.30am which in reality is 1 hour. Anyway, we get to Hue, and as soon as the bus stops, a swarm of touts trying to sell their hotel get onboard. No real room to get off and take our bag. It is really hot today and it takes a few minutes and upset touts (I tend to be polite but reckless with them!) before we're off to our little pick of the day, Huang Hong, a little guesthouse, very cheap, but quiet, tucked in a cul-de-sac, where the air is stranglely enough quite fresh. A simple room with two double beds(!), a basic bathroom and a fan. What do you need, hey?! We go for a quick lunch and come back to the room to relax and to let the heat go down a little. It is actually around 38 degres and it is hard!!! We decide to go for a walk around 5pm to see the town but most of the old sites are inside the citadel, we stroll around, the city is busy and not so pelasant despite the lakes and river. Val feels weak tonight, dizzy and we decide to get a take away and eat in the room tonight....

23/03
We wake up early to sort out our trip to Hanoi and go and visit the citadel before the heat, it is supposed to be 38 degres today...again!! I go and find us some train tickets for this afternoon as we are not so keen on staying here for long, the city in itself has not hooked us. After a lovely breakfast on the terrace at the guesthouse, we walk to the citadel, along the Perfume river, a long walk, busy town, many scooters, the heat is already difficult to bear and we are both feeling tired ! We reach the Citadel, a city whithin the city, old ramparts, 10 km long wall where the majority of the people live...Nice to see that for once, the town even a cultural one doesn't belong to the tourists but is still a REAL town... The sights are beautiful, imperial enclosure, Chinese temples, palace, amazing pavilions, little lakes,a forbidden city for the emperor, the residences of the queen, few elephants in a garden etc etc... it feels very Chinese here again, this capital of the Nguyen Emperors. We forget the touts for 3 hours, walk around this secluded place, funny enough we catch up with a Malay guy I met during the cooking class...It is already noon and hot...we decide to head back to the guesthouse to get some food and go to the station. After a bad lunch, we check out, and let the lady from the guesthouse sort out some mortobikes for us. She ends up driving me, hard to say stable at the back of a scooter with a 20 kgs rucksack!!! We leave Hue with no regret, happy to have seen the sights, the lovely citadel but not convinced by the city, specially after magical Hoi An.
The sleeper train for Hanoi is supposed to leave at 3 pm, we wait, wait, few Westerners and many Vietnamese until 4 pm when the train appears...we discover we are not in the normal sleeper 2nd class as we wanted but in a posher coach!!!
Well actually there are no Vietnamese people here and the air con is not working...Great...after crap bus journey here comes the train journey!!!
We are both melting, asking the staff to sort out the air con, it keeps stopping...oh joy...Val talks to some English people in the luxury carriage, next to ours, it is soooo much cooler there...The staff members come to the next cabin and start smoking drinking beers and play loud music...it is getting a bit too much for Val, we paid more to avoid crazy night bus and it will take longer to reach Hanoi but we were hoping to sleep!!! Action is necessary here!!
We chat to the guy in charge of the luxury carriage and he offers us an upgrade, cash in hand of course and unofficial!!! We move to a luxury cabin, just for the two of us, a risk as we might get kicked out in the middle of the night as we have no real tickets...but will see....
Feels so much better...we go for a stroll in the train, chat to the 4 English guys next to us and finally relax...the night might be good in the end! We should reach Hanoi around 4-5 am.

Mui Ne

12/03
We leave HCM around 9am, hard to get up as we went out so late last night...We wait for a while for the bus that takes us to Mui Ne. We arrive around 1pm, a long trip, we see the country, the bus ride is crazy...vietnamese driving...but we go along with the flow, we then walk struggling with our bags to find a nice place on the beach, many of them but expensive...finally we discover a cheap little resort with nice wooden bungalows, quite basic but very near the beach, with hammocs on it and a nice vibe. Then as we check in, we discover it is full of kitesurfers!!!! Some pros come here to surf and stay for months...a fit atmosphere here!!! Boys and girls with amaxzing bodies around...The town itself just consists of one main road, with small hotels spaced some distance apart, punctuated by small restaurants and tiny souvenir shops. Nice enough but not much to do...it will be perfect for a little break.

13/03
Fab decides to learn kitesurfing and today is the start of his training, he spends most of the day on the beach learning to control the kite, on land instead of learning in the water, there are many kites here and it is nice to see them floating, flying...like butterflies in the sky...The beach here is shaping up to be the kiteboarding center of South East Asia, with waves and wind year-round!!
I am also impressed by the skills and style of the kiters, I notice many people doing the same as me, being distracted from their book and spending hours watching them....I go for a walk along the beach, an amazing 10kms of white sand beach with red dunes around. Fab comes back, he had fun but there is a lot to take in, we go for a walk, we see a really beautiful sunset, the colours are vivid here and the sky is red, burning, then pink, then mauve...amazing views...

14/03
Fab spends most of his day hoping for less wind to continue his kitesurfing training, I read, we go for lunch, we walk, then it is dinner time again...the day goes quickly, not doing much, dreaming, observing the pros in the water. We go for a stroll along the street and discover that Mui Ne is full of shops and restaurants, many for Russian tourists...funny, there are many Russians here on holidays, as they don't need a visa to get here and it is easy and cheap for them....It is lively but seems artificial, a little resort created for the tourists. The day goes like that, we chat with the lady in our resort, she has a little dog Coco, she loves him to bit, funny to watch her play with him, treats him like a baby...Again our impressions of Vietnamese people are very different from what we've heard, people are nice, smiling, direct, yes, but nothing more than the French!!!

15/03
Another quiet day again on the beach in Mui Ne, Fab continues his kitesurfing training, we walked in the morning, early before the waves arrive so we can swim. I spend my day, reading in the hammoc, watching the kitesurfers, the wind, the long beach. We chat with some French people here for the weekend, Mui Ne is a popular place for expats at the weekend, they come for the sports and the beach and it is only 4-5 hours from Saigon...convenient...Benjamin is working in Saigon and has some friends visiting, nice to chat, to talk about life in Vietnam as an expat, seems like a good experience to be living in Asia.

16/03
Our last day here as we have decided to move again ad go to Hoi An in the centre of the country, slowly making our way up to Hanoi...another day on the beach for me, hot day, wind, waves, walk, swim, reading in the hammoc, I start feelin restless and realise that I cannot be still for more than few days...funny this tension between sightseeing, discovering and chilling out...we both feel we should move on, see more, explore more and at the same time, we want to stay put...Weird...and still unresolved...
Fab is in the water, kitesurfing, I observe him, struggling with his board, succeeding with the wind, the kite, up, down, sometimes, he even starts to rise off the water, trying to steady the kite overhead with one hand while holding the board with his other and trying to wiggle his feet into the board's foot straps. Interesting!!!! At the end of the day, he manages to kite for a bit, he is happy of his achievements and full of adrenaline, it is a good sport, he likes it and wants to do some more...good good... last dinner in a cheap place on the beach, and off to bed, tomorrow morning we are up early...

17/03
Last morning on the beach before taking the bus for Hoi An at 1pm...we rise early, go for a walk, a swim, it is so nice to stroll on the sunny beach....it was nice to be here chilling out for few days, being quiet and resting...now another adventure starts...an 18 hours bus journey up to Hoi An....We say our goodbyes to Saiho and her dog, it was nice to be in this relaxed atmosphere and head to the bus with Mike a Canadian guy, kitesurfer who has been staying here too....one of the pros...he gave Fab some useful tips and is on his way to another beach before heading home...the first part of the journey is fine, 6 hours in the sleeping bus, until Nha Trang, another beach place, funny to be lying down during the day, the bus is quiet, few people, I listen to the iPod, Fab chats with Mike and it goes quickly, watching the country, staring out the window at rice-fields, and Mui Ne's sunshine fading behind us...The bus driver is mad again, crazy ride towards Nha Trang...We reach this city at 6.30pm, we have 1/2 hour break to eat, go to the loo then jump in another one this time for 12 hours to reach the centre of the country...HELL...We say goodbye to Mike, then find ourselves in a bus packed full of bunkbeds! The beds are very small, typically built on an ‘Asian’ size scale, the over-night trip is completely stuffed, making an uncomfortable night nearly unbearable. There is a mix of Vietnamese and travellers, we may be 30 people here, the drivers shout I feel very anxious and hate it...trying to stay positive as it is all part fo the experience but I already know it is going to be a sleepless night for me...Fab seems a bit more Ok despite the size of the bed...The bus makes a dozens of stops for all sorts of unknown reasons during the night...Picking up people and cargo in the middle of a dark night was the norm for the rest of the evening. Crammed people sleeping on the floor, bags around us, one driver close to Fab in a hammoc and...to finish: a girl pucks just behing us!!!!! HELL!!! Her friends try to clean it up but we wil have to put up with vomit smell for 12 hours...I feel slightly unsane and agitated!!!! I try to remember it’s just a test of patience and Buddhist calm!! No sleep of course, Fab manages to sleep few hours...Quite a funny scene at sunrise when I am able to survey the whole disorganised lots, but I am rewarded by an amazing sunrise close to Hoi an, rice fields, red sun rising slowly...it feels peaceful...so glad to arrive!!!

Ho Chi Minh City - Saigon

9/03
We spend the day in planes, a stopover in Singapore then arrive in Saigon-Ho Chi Minh around 7pm, we get our visa checked, and then get into a taxi to our hostel in the backpacker area. There are millions of cars and motorcycles in the streets, a noisy mad city, but the vibe is great...We are both tired by the day and amazed by the busyness and hectiness of this place...An hour later, we arrive at our little guesthouse in a small alleyway, Bich Duyen. A small windowless room awaits us, it is going to be our little home here for few days. We go out around the corner for a bowl of pho (rice noodle soup with meat) and are stunned by the city, it is full of people, 11 millions of human beings here....and tons of noise....after that quick meal, off to bed as we want to visit and to explore tomorrow...

10/03
We tour Ho Chi Minh today, the city is hot, hectic, millions of motos in the streets, a complete chaos but again a great vibe. We go and see the market, the Ben Thanh Market, shops, food, clothes, a real mix, we stroll around the busy people and have some lunch in one of the many food stalls, nice to sit so close to the ground and chill out despite the heat...a good colourful market, full of many things...
The warm weather is different from Bali but still so hot...After this break, we continue to explore the city, visit Notre-Dame cathedral, built by the French, the nice old colonial post office and walk to the Chinese quarter to see the Jade Emperor Pagoda, a nice Chinese temple, a colourful pagoda, filled with statues in papier-mache, woodcarving, many burning sticks of encens, people come here to pray, to give offerings but also to rest in the courtyard and escape the rumble of motorbikes and noise.
We also visit the war museum, all about the American war, we learn about the mines, the chemicals, napalm, the terrible agent orange, the mad US bombings amd massacres...a terrible war, traumatic for both sides but with terrible effects still visible here: areas being defoliated, children being born deformed and disabled...still now, a horrible cost for many future generations. The museum is a traumatic place with haunting pictures of massacre, disabled children, horrible tortures...it is hot and I feel dizzy, the shock of seeing this horror and the heat...I have to sit down and rest for a bit , drinking an entire bottle of water!!
Of course it is one-sided but still shows us the tragic legacy of this war...
We walk back past the Reunification Palace, again Ho Chi Minh is intense, busy as hell, the rumble of millions of motorbikes around us, a mad metropolis. Most inhabitants refer to it as 'Saigon', the pre-reunification name. Since the city fell to the North Vietnamese Communists in 1975, the city's name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City, after the heroic founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party.
We go for a rest then it is time for dinner around our area Pham Ngu Lao, there are many shops, hostels, cafes, it is very lively, we lose ourselves here but in a nice way, it feels peaceful despite the crazyness around us. Our first impressions are good, we were worried as so many travellers were put off by Vietnam, Vietnamese people are full on but nice, direct but not too pushy and we cannot feel this aggressivity we were told of... Yes, true, the constant sounds and smells of hectic Asian city life combined with the hazy, damp heat has an effect on us, an intense sensory overload but a good one somehow.

11/03
Today we book a tour with a small group to go and visit two things: the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels. The Cao Dai temple is part of a Vietnamese sect that seeks to create the perfect religion by fusing the secular and religious philosophies of both East and West. We drive for few hours before reaching the temple, very colourful, we see the noon prayer: few hundred people pray in white dress, there are amazing murals, with some pictures of eyes, their representation of God everywhere, lots of colours, sounds...we see some portraits of Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, a melting pot of religions...weird...it is nice to get out of Saigon and see around, vivid rice fields. We then reach Cu Chi after a quick lunch, we chat to the people in our group, an Aussie couple, a Brit girl, an Austrian guy and another from Singapore, all nice and friendly travellers.
Around Cu Chi, there has been intense bombing, destruction during the war. The tunnel network of Cu Chi is very famous, there were more than 250 kms of tunnel, they made comunication possible between the different Viet Cong controlled areas and allowed for surpise attacks against the Americans...this zone was heavily bombed, defoliated, gassed and devastated during the war...It was an amazing achievement considering it was dug by hand and during bloody conflicts. We visit some renovated parts of the tunnel, it has been enlarged to allow tourists in, we see the camouflaged kitchen with no smoke, the tunnels. I go in, so narrow but Fab feels a bit too claustrophobic to get inside...they are only 1.2 metres high...imagine what the real 90cm ones would have been...we imagine the VC guerilla living here and fighting and the American boys arriving in this heat and fighting them...
We go back to crazy Saigon and decide to go out all together as we all get along well. We meet up for dinner, have some drinks, end up sharing a table with some locals who treat us to some local delicacies: dried cuttlefish, salted fish, water snails, and so on...a funny little bar, wher we stay close to many scooters and motos, fells like being in a garage but in the heat and outside...weird but nice! A great jolly mood and festive night out....nice to be with many people to share about our lifes, our culture, a real melting pot tonight, stories about travels, other countries, experiences....laughter and drinks!!!