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Vietnam
This is an edited version of our travel log. This eighth page is about Vietnam.
November 26, 2005, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
Haven't done anything here yet, but someone might care that we're here.
November 28, 2005, Ho Chi Min City
Different name but still Saigon. Gemma seems to think the last post of hers counts and its my turn to post something next. We'll see about that.
Now its her turn to post something. 
November 28, 2005 , Still Saigon
Si is such a bad husband, he never does what I tell him. After this long you think he would learn 
Today we wandered round a bit. We decided to walk to the Reunification Palace, but got a bit lost on the way. I knew we were close so we decided to get a couple of cyclos. We agreed on 15,000 dong (60p) and set off. The guy knew where Birmingham was, which is more than most Europeans we meet, and the football results of Villa and Blues from Saturday, which was a lot more than I knew (or cared). He seemed nice. So we get to the destination about 5 minutes ride away and they start demanding 50,000 dong, saying we couldn't understand the difference between 15 and 50! The guy refused to accept the 15k offered, so we said he wasn't getting any in that case. He soon took it after that. At this point an Aussie girl was passing who said exactly the same thing happened to her. Si now wants to walk everywhere.
The Palace was very odd- this was the place the Republic of Vietnam (the south) surrendered to the north in 1975- after the Communists drove a tank through the gates and parked it on the front lawn.
The guidebook described it as like the lair of a James Bond villain, which is cleverer than I could come up with. The casino with wood panelled walls and white leather was particularly nice. Also got to see a great bit of Communist party propaganda on the anti-American war as they call it. Factually it was correct, but the various descriptions of the US (invaders, infidel, corrupters, betrayers) kind of gave away whose side they film makers were on. Made more surreal as it was narrated by an American.
We have enjoyed our couple of days here- it is a similar feeling to when we left Peru for Chile- i.e. after Cambodia it feels like going back to civilisation. I really enjoyed Cambodia, but the lack of tarmaced roads and/or chickens (with or without bird flu) running wild in the streets of every city was a bit odd.
Off on a 2 day cruise of the Mekong Delta tomorrow so will write about that maybe on Weds night.
November 30, 2005, Mekong Delta
Yesterday we took a bus for a few hours away from Saigon and boarded a little boat on a small river/canal and set off. We stopped to see some typical Vietnamese houses and a production factory making popcorn out of rice (pop-rice). We stopped in a really peaceful place for lunch and had some nice food and beer sitting under the trees. After lunch we lay in some hammocks for a while and then took some bikes and cycled around for a bit, nearly getting lost with all the bridges.
Afternoon was more sailing down little canals, before they started to get wider and wider and we eventually had to cross the Lower Mekong itself,
which was probably about 2.3km wide at least and pretty choppy, which was a little scary in a tiny boat. We stopped for the night in a fairly big town just off the main river channel.
We went out in the evening with the other people on the tour; someone ordered snake in the restaurant, which was actually quite tasty.
Today started fairly early, leaving the hotel and walking to the docks to get on the boat again. We started through some fairly big channels again, before visiting a working floating market. This was really strange as there were permanent houseboats with TV aerials and some with electricity/phone lines
stretching onto the shore, and some that were small open canoes piled with vegetables. There were also a few refreshment boats cruising around selling snacks and drinks to the people on the boats. It did feel fairly authentic as almost all the boats were selling food and not tacky souvenirs for tourists.
In the afternoon we visited a rice processing factory and took another walk around a small village on the delta where all the little kids were really excited to see foreigners and waved and shouted “HELLO” repeatedly.
December 1, 2005, Na Trang
Spent all today on a bus. 
We have moved up the coast a bit on our marathon bus journey from Saigon to Hanoi. We are spending tonight and tomorrow here and then getting a night bus to Hoi An tomorrow so we can get some clothes made there.
Maybe write more tomorrow.
This was a typical boring traveling day, but we haven’t really had many of those since South America, so can’t really complain. Spent day getting here and then stayed the night, wandered round a commercialized seaside resort town out of season, on a gray cold day, spent loads of time on the internet and then ate in an ‘Italian’ restaurant. Saw a massive rat on the beach.
December 5, 2005, Hoi An
Having a good time here. It is a pretty little town, lots of old colonial buildings and nice restaurants.
Shopping for clothes is lots of fun, but I think rather than set myself a cash limit I should have set a weight limit!! Have got everything from one shop, the lady there is very patient with my rubbish fashion designing skills.
We came to Hoi An for the sole reason of getting clothes made. We’ve certainly managed that! It was lots of fun going to get measured, picking the material, trying to show some restraint in what we bought. The clothes I have feel really tight after six months of wearing sleeveless tops etc.
Hoi An itself is a nice little town, reminding me a bit of Paraty in Brazil. It used to be an important port, so there are lots of merchant houses about 200 years old. We looked round one which was very interesting; the descendants of the family who originally built it still live there. All the wood carving was very impressive, as was the wood inlaid with mother of pearl that is used a lot in Vietnam.
The town is also very good for food. 1st night we went to a riverside restaurant, right on the river bank, and Si had a huge crab. Unfortunately the river overflowed after all the rain, and with it being tidal, so we had to leave more quickly than otherwise! Also had very good spring rolls and soups.
It is a very nice, relaxing town, and I liked the rain.
December 8, 2005, Hue
I am really mad right now, this computer has some stupid pop-up blocker that freezes then crashes itself whenever you click on a link that opens a new window. Stupid machines.
We are now in a town called Hue. We left Hoi An before we spent any more money have clothes made. I lost count of the number of things that Gemma had made; I got a couple of suits and some other things, including a corduroy (spellchecker?) jacket, that I haven't taken off since I picked it up as it is so cold here. We were both convinced that the temperature must be nearly in single figures, but it turns out that it only drops to about 16-17oC at night. Maybe we are getting used to the heat.
We did enjoy our time in Hoi An, it was a good place to spend time not really doing a lot apart from getting clothes made and sitting. We are going to spend a day or so here, before we head up to Hanoi. We are going to try and see a bay near there, which has some impressive cliffs and whatnot and maybe do some more kayaking, before we fly back to Bangkok to meet Gemma's mum.
Actually I'm not sure we've mentioned that on here before. Pat and Ryan are flying out to Thailand next weekend to spend Christmas with us and then my parents and Ruth are arriving on Christmas day and coming to meet us on the island where we are spending Christmas.
We had some sad news this week, that my granddad has passed away. It was nice to hear that he had enjoyed reading this nonsense and the postcards and phone calls we've made to him while we've been travelling. I know a lot of people met, and will remember him from the wedding and he'll be sadly missed. A true English gent.
December 9, 2005, Hue
It has been raining since we arrived last night, but not torrential like Saigon, just miserable drizzle like home. I kind of like it, but it makes sightseeing a bit of a chore.
I visted part of the old citadel in the town, which is inside a double moat. It was the usual Asian temple/fancy house design. The whole city was bombed and destroyed during the American war, so a lot was just foundations, with rice growing in between. Walls that were left standing were quite weathered.
December 10, 2005, Hanoi
We decided we didn't like Hue very much, it was a bit of dead town and the weather was rubbish. Yesterday I was wearing a fleece, my jacket and a poncho over the top. So we got the night bus to Hanoi and arrived early this morning. We are now going to decide what to do here.
December 12, 2005, Hanoi - 7am
Will post about Hanoi and water puppets another day. In case anyone will miss us for the next 3 days, we are on a trip to Ha Long Bay to sleep on a boat and do some kayaking and hiking, which all seems a bit adventurous for me at this time of the morning.
December 11, 2005, Hanoi
Bus was fine, but for once they didn’t take us straight to a partner hotel because the streets in the old quarter are too narrow for coaches. We decided to stop for breakfast in a café (French colonial influence) and take it in turns to look for a hotel room. Si did much better than me, looking at about 15 hotels and haggled well too. Slept most of yesterday, and went out for a all-you-can-eat pizza buffet in the evening, which was a bit like home and a nice change after all the Vietnamese food which has the tendency to leave you a little hungry.
Next day we wandered round a lot of the old quarter, looking for a tour to Ha Long Bay. In the end bought one from the hotel, but it was good to see the area. It is so confusing, Si’s map reading was excellent; the streets look straight, but they aren’t, so you end up going in circles, or ending up approaching a cross roads from 90degrees to where you thought you would.
In the evening we went to see the famous Hanoi water puppet theatre – one of my favorite things in Vietnam. It was in a proper theatre, with a live band and singers. The lighting was good and the puppets did cool things like catch puppet foxes and do backflips!
December 12, 2005, Ha Long Bay
Spent the morning driving to Ha Long. Got onto the boat, which they call a junk for some reason. Surprisingly it looked just like the picture we were shown, and we had a really nice cabin. We set off across the bay, and started to see some of the famous rock formations. We had a really good fish & prawn lunch, with some beer as well.
The weather was quite nasty and cold, but sitting on the deck of the boat was so relaxing it didn’t matter.
We did a walk up to the top of a hill, which overlooked a lake. Then looked at come really impressive caves, which were huge. After a bit more sailing we stopped for the night to sleep on the boat. The guide, who was really shy, sang a lot of Vietnamese songs; he was a really good singer. He then made me dress up in a traditional Vietnamese costume which was lots of bright colours, I felt a bit silly.
December 12, 2005, Ha Long Bay
Today was a really long but enjoyable day. First thing was more sailing which was so nice as it was really quiet. We met a small boat and headed off on that for the walking trip. The walk took us over a few big hills, through forest/jungle, so we got
a very good look at what all the rock formations covered in trees actually look like close up. The strangest thing was there were no animals or birds at all that we could see. We did meet a guy who was “growing” dogs for food-apparently better than Vietnamese beef.
We had lunch (grilled seafood yet again!), but this time on a the beach of a tiny island, overlooking yet more impressive scenery.
From here we set off in the kayaks at a very quick pace. We argued as usual!! Paddled through a tiny opening into a perfectly circular lagoon with a really weird echo. Spent the evening in a hotel, and having more
fish and rice for tea (we were very hungry by this point!). Sneaked away to have some beers in the town as no one else on the tour was too interested.
The final day was just traveling back across the bay to the port, and then going back to Hanoi in minibus.
December 15, 2005, Hanoi
We spent tonight with a decent bottle of red wine toasting my granddad. 
We both had a good time in Hoa Long Bay, it was quite a spectacular setting with calm water and then large rock formations rising up out of the sea. It was quite a lot like Fiordland (Milford sound) in New Zealand but over a lot bigger area.
The junk we stayed on for the first night was really nice and a lot better than some of the hotels we've stayed in, in SE Asia. We did a few hours of kayaking, but with the weather and our lack of practice we didn't really want to do any more. We still managed to have our kayak row, where I realise I'm crap at it and blame it all on Gemma, (who is also crap) And we argue about who's fault it is that the kayak is about to hit some rocks. We still managed to have a good time doing it though and want to do some when we get back home (in the sea, not Moseley pond, obviously)
We have got to grips with Hanoi a bit more now, and have managed to find some more relaxed bits of it, in fact the crazy Asian bit of Hanoi is mainly confined to a few square blocks and outside of this it is quite a laid back place.
Tommorow (Friday) we fly to Bangkok and then we meet Pat and Ryan on Saturday. Might find some time to download our pictures and put some up here.