OUR BLOG

We arrived here in Hue on Thursday after being on a train for about 24 hours which was pretty much the usual train ride except I got given a baby, luckily, not to keep though… When we first got on the train there was a lady and I assume her baby in our carriage. He was wearing so many layers that he couldn’t move and he looked so cute! Once she removed his number of jackets she handed him to me and then got off the train. Just like that. I laughed at first and then got a bit nervous as I noticed she was walking towards the exit on the platform… She came back shortly after and I was glad to hand her baby back to her. Apart from that we slept, read and watched a movie during our journey.

It’s our first time here in Hue and it feels like such an ancient city which probably explains why visiting the Imperial City is one of the top things to do here. We went to see it yesterday. For such an overcast day it was nice to be able to see so much colour in one place. We’ve both been to a number of ancient cities throughout Asia but we still like to go and see them if we can. They are always so different even if on the exterior they just look the same.

I think I’ve mentioned it before but we aren’t really tour people. It’s not just the cost associated with them, we’ve worked out that it’s being on someone else’s time that we don’t like. We don’t like being told when we have to be somewhere, what we have to stop to take a photo of or what we have to look at. We also don’t like being dragged around for hours when we could have finished earlier. In saying all of that though we booked ourselves to go on a tour. Mind you we didn’t really read what it was we simply read the main attraction and thought it would be interesting – the DMZ.

We thought the DMZ would be interesting, however we didn’t quite realise how far away it was from the city. A couple hours later we arrived in Khe Sanh where we walked through the small museum there. I don’t know if museum is quite the right word as it was more a humble reminder of what happened there during the Vietnam War. It’s also slightly confusing and points to the fact both America and Vietnam claim victory from the battle in Khe Sanh, but how can both claim victory? Simply from the way both countries teach the younger generations about their versions. It seems so wrong but I guess when you think about it, this type of things happens everywhere. While in Khe Sanh I couldn’t help but remember that classic Cold Chisel song. After that it was stuck in my head for hours.

On the bus ride back we stopped at the Vĩnh Mốc tunnels to see how the locals survived and lived during the war. I quickly found out that I don’t like dark underground spaces and was glad to get out of there as quickly as possible. Mark found this quite amusing especially when we were just standing around underground doing nothing. I was amazed though at how our guide was able to wear small heels as she guided us through the levels of underground spaces.

We just got back to our hotel from a day walking around and are waiting to catch yet another train to Nha Trang. We met some locals today who invited us to their house for beers. We thought they could speak English but they couldn’t and we don’t speak Vietnamese so I sat with a laptop on my lap and typed conversations into Google translate. After an hour there we were starving so began our walk back and on the way we stopped into a pub to eat which was due to show the Australian Open live so we hung around and watched Djokovic beat Murray quite convincingly. I also watched Mark get hustled by a waitress at pool. He won both games but I have the slight feeling she let him win.

Our train trip from Hanoi to Sa Pa was nice and relaxing as we had our own cabin which meant we had both of the bottom bunks which in turn meant I didn’t have to climb to the top bunk and hit my head several hundred times. After arriving in Loa Cai we got on a minibus for the drive to Sa Pa. We got the very back corner of the mini bus and after half an hour of polite small talk with a Dutch couple I had to bow my head and close my eyes before the winding roads got the better of me.

It was freezing outside. I could tell because it was snowing and because I couldn’t feel my feet as we walked the 1.5km to our hotel. Once we reached our hotel I was so happy because it looked so cute and so almost-European. I imagined that when I walked in I would be hit by the heat and I would be able to put my feet up to thaw and drink some tea while I finished re-reading The Kite Runner. I wasn’t hit with heat as I walked in the door. Instead I was hit with more cold and a bright round light. The hotel workers gave us some tea which was such a welcome relief as we waited the 4 hours until we got given a room. As we sat on a cold couch I worked out what the bright round light was. It was a heater (I later came to love those heaters) that reminded me of the heat lamp lights you can put in your bathroom that emit heat while on.

3.5 hours later (we got our room earlier…) we ran up the stairs to our room which I imagined would surely be warm. It wasn’t warm. It was just as cold as downstairs and I very quickly figured out that as lovely as the balcony would be in summer, it wasn’t so great when it was snowing and there was a 2cm gap between the bottom of the door and floor. I think this was the source of the cold.

I don’t do too well in the cold if I’m not prepared for it. I’ve learnt that some people can just adapt, they chuck on a beanie and are on their way. I’m not one of those people. I need thermals, thick socks, down jackets (yes I need 2), a beanie, gloves and snow boots. If I have all of this I will happily embrace the low temperatures. If I don’t, which I didn’t in Sa Pa, I will try to avoid the coldest temperatures as much as possible. We weren’t expecting such cold temperatures on this trip, we didn’t pack for them, but I get the impression a lot of people weren’t – we met a few people who had to go out and buy some warmer clothes just like we did. I’m not exactly sure why it was so cold but we saw on the news that Hong Kong experienced their coldest day in 60 days. There must have definitely been something in the wind…

Our first 2 days in Sa Pa were so uneventful I won’t say much more than we watched a lot of movies, waited out numerous power outages and occasionally ventured outside, mainly just to get food.

And on the third day the clouds opened up, the sun shone through, the ice melted and we left our hotel. It was beautiful outside and some people might say we didn’t embrace our first days there but I’m glad we didn’t try to do too much, we would have had foggy memories of sights we tried to see but couldn’t through all of the fog and clouds. Instead, on the third day we got a driver to take us up the mountain side where we then climbed up to the waterfalls and breathed in the fresh air and smelt the crispness of the greenery. I find water so fascinating and I especially love the sound of waterfalls. We stood for quite a while listening and watching the water cascade down and despite the loudness of the water it was peaceful.

On the way down from the waterfall we thought we would take the second path other than the one we used to get up there. After walking for a bit (I was leading at this stage and I kind of feel like this only happened because I was leading) we came to the end of the path, it didn’t just stop, we could see the path continue on up ahead but between us and the rest of the path were fallen trees and part of the river that was just there. We walked back up the path and across the river there was a local telling us we had to jump across. We know he was telling us to jump because he kept running and jumping on his side of the river and pointing. We gave him the thumbs up, smiled and nodded and he continued on his way. Mark found the point he thought would be best to cross at. Why didn’t we just turn around and walk back? Well where’s the fun in that? So we easily passed the middle of the river without getting wet and then there was a gap without anything for us to step onto. I thought we should just jump it but Mark kept telling me it wasn’t safe because it was so slippery and taking into account how clumsy I can be we shouldn’t risk it. I should have just jumped when I first thought of it because when Mark eventually jumped across I knew I could have easily made it. Before Mark and I were together I would have jumped without a second thought and so I was annoyed when he moved a wooden log for me so I could walk across. Next time I’ll show him that I can keep up with him.

I’m so glad we ended our stay in Sa Pa the way we did. Today was perfect and on the drive back to Loa Cai this afternoon I pictured just how beautiful the area would be in full bloom. Maybe one day I’ll see it for myself but at the moment we are sitting in a restaurant across from the train station waiting for yet another train, this time to take us to Hue, via a train change in Hanoi.

Much love, B xxx

This is our first time in the north of Vietnam and we both love it as much as the south. We arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday night and instead of catching a cab to our hotel we got on the local bus which cost us less than AUD$1! Soon after getting on the bus a young Vietnamese guy got on and started talking to us straight away. He had just flown in from Ho Chi Minh where he had been doing qualification testing to be able to work on a cruise ship as a bartender. He had studied business and commerce at university but couldn’t find a job so started working as a bartender shortly after graduating and now he was hoping to work on a cruise ship to earn better money. He made the bus ride go a lot quicker than it would have as he was giving us information on Hanoi and places we should go.

Once we got off the bus and walked to our hotel we thought it would be nice to go have a beer and some food. It was all happening on the street. We saw a fight, a guy passed out on the street, a guy so drunk he couldn’t get into a cab and banh mi. We avoided everything but the banh mi (vietnamese bread roll) and sat down to eat and have a beer while we watched all of the other things we were avoiding.

Thursday we didn’t really do much but our usual, walking, eating and drinking. We had been pretty happy up to this point as neither of us had gotten sick so far on our trip (this for me was a major achievement) but while I was sitting at a road side restaurant eating a bowl of beef pho, Mark was gradually going downhill. One of the downfalls of staying at a hotel with a shared bathroom is that sometimes it can be really far from your room. In our case it’s downstairs and so when Mark thought he had thrown up everything already and went to bed I knew better (multiple cases of food poisoning will teach you to know better) and moved the bin next to him. Sure enough, 2 hours later he was bent over that bin throwing his guts up. Of course I didn’t like seeing him sick like that but I will admit I was happy it wasn’t me – it’s normally always me.

We took Friday morning and afternoon easy as Mark still wasn’t feeling the best but by dinner time he had his appetite back so we splurged and went to an Argentinian BBQ restaurant. 500gm of Australian Black Angus Beef steak, some beer, passionfruit mojitos and caramel vodka made our night. We made a pact that while away we would aim to eat 1 nice meal a month – I’m looking forward to next month.

That now brings us to today, and I think we are now officially in our relaxed mode. After a decent 10 hour sleep we eventually got up and did a whole lot of nothing but walking. One of my favourite things to do when I’m overseas is to just walk around and look at everything. We have been able to do that so much here in Hanoi and it’s so nice and calming, even if it is Melbourne-worthy cold and we didn’t pack appropriately! We went through the old Hanoi prison earlier one which was quite interesting and will go out again tonight to explore some more.

It’s been nice having a few days in one city, no need to constantly pack or think about the time. We have a full day here again tomorrow and then are on a train to Sa Pa.

xx