Hoi An - a small, tiny even, town in the mid parts of Vietnam. A dangerous little town where you first arrive with no intentions of buying anything, but leave with what looks like the beginning of a whole new wardrobe. The only thing stopping me from having even more clothes tailored is that I honestly don't have any space in my backpack. Charming little town, Hoi An. With extremely sociable locals, even by Vietnamese standards, delicious specialities, and hundreds and hundreds of tailor shops, with everything and anything you can imagine. (Amongst many other, relatively more reasonable clothing items, I bought 2 jackets. That's right, not one, but TWO jackets! In JUNE!!)
Oh, btw, Halong Bay was amazing. Simply incredible. We went kayaking around the cliffhills and small islands, walked around amazing caves, met lots of people.. Which brings me to a funny series of events. We met 3 French people on the boat, and ever since, they have been appearing to follow us everywhere. We've met them continously here in Hoi An. Where ever we eat, they suddenly show up, where ever we go, they soon follow. This morning I found out they are now even staying at out hotel. They insisted jokingly that they are not following us, but they are. The second time we met them, one of the girls had broken her arm! The third time, the guy had hurt his leg badly from falling from a motorbike. They were just laughing, not able to do anything else, and said we could go home and tell our friends about the unlucky French people who kept being in accidents and hurting themselves. That's what happens when you follow people around, I guess. The last thing I said to them was "See you in Saigon!". And we probably will.
Regarding the blog title, I found that my English visa card wasn't working. Dispite having money on the account, I couldn't withdraw any money what so ever. I phoned and phoned my bank with no luck, and finally I had to wait in a telephone queue for 20 odd minutes (it's bloody expensive making international calls from Vietnam!) I was told that they had "blocked" it (AGAIN, this is the 3rd time it happens in less than 2 months) because it had been used in suspicious situations (In other words, I had been using it more than 2-3 times a month... Seriously.. in this day and age?! Of course I buy things on the internet, I'm out travelling in Asia for 2 months, of course I book flight tickets, of course I try to withdraw money from ATM's in Vietnam...). After an apology (like that's gonna make up being broke with 2 months of being stuck in South East Asia ahead of you) he said that he had made sure now that I wouldn't have any problems with my card for 30 days, but after that, he couldn't guarantee the card wouldn't be noticed by their security system and blocked again. So basically, I've got money for another 30 days... I guess it'll have to do - for now. But they do it one more time, and I'm chaning my bank first thing when I get back to England. And oh btw, the bank I'm talking about is Lloyds TSB, spread the word!
Today, we are going back to Da Nang, because we're taking the train from there tomorrow to go to Saigon. It's a long journey from Da Nang to Saigon, around 18 hours or so.
Till next time!
Thursday 30 July 2009
Thursday 23 July 2009
Hanoi
I had this beautiful, detailed rubbish for story in my head, but I lost it, like all the liquid in my body, so I guess I'll skip to the short version:
After a very long journey, 3 flights, 4 countries and 42 sleepless hours later, we finally reaced Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. We spent 14 godforsaken hours at Bangkok International Airport, and I can't say it was the most exciting day of my life, but I take comfort in the fact that it could've been worse. I once spent a night at Stansted Airport (in the middle of the winter!), and let's just say I'm glad Bangkok's airport isn't as small as Stansted. Or worse still: Vasteras.
The flight from Bangkok to Hanoi was delayed a further 2 hours, which was just what we needed. And I kept thinking that if we didn't catch the swine flu there, we probably never would. As of yet, we still display no symptoms of such a flu (or any kind of flu for that matter).
Earlier that day, whilst still in Bangkok, I spent half a day's budget (slight overexaggeration) phoning the hotel in Hanoi to arrange for an airport pickup, as we would now arrive in Hanoi in the middle of the night. When we arrived, a taxi driver was waiting for me with a sign with my name on it. Needless to say, I felt overly cool.
Hanoi is a relatively quiet and calm capital. Relatively because after all, it is a big city in South East Asia, but I've seen worse. A LOT worse.
So by now, we've walked the narrow alley's of the Old Quarters of Hanoi up and down and know them like the back of our hands. We've bought conical rice hats (which I'm decisively unwilling to wear because of all the small insects and lice crawling in and between the tightly bundled straws). We've even seen the (boring) traditional Vietnamese water puppet show, which is said to be at its best here in Hanoi.
I do like Vietnam so far. The people are extremely friendly. One of the friendliest (and genuine) you can find in the East (it goes without saying that Easterners are friendlier than people in the West, despite their intrusive habits of wanting to sell you all sorts of crap for a special price, just for you!)
I would post some pictures, but a majority of my patience was lost uploading pics on facebook on a barely cooperative computer, so I'll ask you to just look at the pics on facebook, or alternatively, wait about two months till I get home and upload the pics then.
After a very long journey, 3 flights, 4 countries and 42 sleepless hours later, we finally reaced Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. We spent 14 godforsaken hours at Bangkok International Airport, and I can't say it was the most exciting day of my life, but I take comfort in the fact that it could've been worse. I once spent a night at Stansted Airport (in the middle of the winter!), and let's just say I'm glad Bangkok's airport isn't as small as Stansted. Or worse still: Vasteras.
The flight from Bangkok to Hanoi was delayed a further 2 hours, which was just what we needed. And I kept thinking that if we didn't catch the swine flu there, we probably never would. As of yet, we still display no symptoms of such a flu (or any kind of flu for that matter).
Earlier that day, whilst still in Bangkok, I spent half a day's budget (slight overexaggeration) phoning the hotel in Hanoi to arrange for an airport pickup, as we would now arrive in Hanoi in the middle of the night. When we arrived, a taxi driver was waiting for me with a sign with my name on it. Needless to say, I felt overly cool.
Hanoi is a relatively quiet and calm capital. Relatively because after all, it is a big city in South East Asia, but I've seen worse. A LOT worse.
So by now, we've walked the narrow alley's of the Old Quarters of Hanoi up and down and know them like the back of our hands. We've bought conical rice hats (which I'm decisively unwilling to wear because of all the small insects and lice crawling in and between the tightly bundled straws). We've even seen the (boring) traditional Vietnamese water puppet show, which is said to be at its best here in Hanoi.
I do like Vietnam so far. The people are extremely friendly. One of the friendliest (and genuine) you can find in the East (it goes without saying that Easterners are friendlier than people in the West, despite their intrusive habits of wanting to sell you all sorts of crap for a special price, just for you!)
I would post some pictures, but a majority of my patience was lost uploading pics on facebook on a barely cooperative computer, so I'll ask you to just look at the pics on facebook, or alternatively, wait about two months till I get home and upload the pics then.
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