A Farewell To Arms

Hanoi, Vietnam

Finally, a chance to actually do a decent update of the blog. I'm actually kind of disgruntled, because I had this entire thing typed out, images and video loaded and ready to post... and then the computer froze. After a few choice words, you can understand my frustration.

The girls are off shopping, and we're trying to hunt down Matt and Al via email. But on the plus side, I finally have free internet and the time to write a bit more about the places we've been and the things we've done.

Vietnam is a different country from Thailand, and probably my least favourite to have travelled through so far. It's mainly the people and the decor; the people aren't as friendly as the Thais, the place is a lot dirtier and the colours all seem drab and dull. The colours may be a result of the weather which for the last few days has been consistently cloudy, but the place just seems depressed in certain ways. It's an excellent country for history though; the things that have happened here over the past 100 years (and before) really do bring into focus how little actual history our own country has. No wonder they still call Australia a young nation! Vietnam has saving graces though, including it's amazing scenery. Check it out below.

The freakiest thing about Vietnam are those damn motorbikes and scooters zooming all over the place! It's like an alien invasion force has infiltrated the country and are amassing an army to destroy the world via the method of scooter-isation. Check out these two videos to understand the intergalactic dire straits we find ourselves in. Please excuse both the angle and the singing in the second video; I had that damn song stuck in my head all. freakin. day.






Guide to Crossing The Road In Vietnam
Cover your eyes, and step out into traffic. Walk at a consistent pace across the road. The bikes will try to not hit you. You hope. If you make it across, buy a baguette and thank your chosen diety that you survived. Repeat as necessary.

I've added a photo in this post for each city we've gone to, and also slipped a few photos into previous posts. Re-read the blog for some erudite literary prose and fanciful pictograms of a bygone era!

Here's the missing rundowns on the cities we've visited.

Nha Trang
Nha Trang was a lively party town, though it had nothing on the Thailand islands. There was always doof pumping from the Sailing Club down by the beach into the wee small hours, and we know this because the doof vibrated our room. Plus the drunken yobbos hollering up the street at godknowswhat kind of gave the game away. We avoided all that jazz, mainly because it's not our kind of scene.
Drew made friends with a lady from a bar we frequented, and she took him around for two days to show him Vietnam as only a local can. He loved the shit out of it. And no Danny, before you ask there weren't any "physical engagements" involved (or were there?!?! - D), but he did have to pay for petrol. But he really enjoyed the experience, especially zooming around the town on the back of a motorbike. He's a brave, brave man.
While Drew was off galavanting around the countryside, I took a daytrip boat tour of the Nha Trang bay area. It was generally an excuse for a great pissup on the water; island number one was snorkelling and swimming, island two was lunch and free booze, island three was watersports (I WENT PARASAILING WOOOOOOO!!!), and island four was an aquarium. The Australian contingent from our boat decided that the aquarium wasn't for us (we've got the Great Barrier Reef, nothing beats that!) so we stayed on the boat to get our drink on. Wandering up to the upper deck, lo and behold we found the Australian cohorts from all the other tourist boats at the dock! We threw an impromptu party up on the deck for about an hour and had a great time. Alli and Jess both agree with me; it was the best thing we've done so far in Vietnam, and highly recommended to anyone. Especially the Aussies, purely for the beer-related adventures!
That night we took the worst. bus. ride. ever. to Hoi An. Never again will we take a night bus, or a bus longer than 10 hours. It was a nightmare!

Hoi An
Look at that BEARD! It's glorious. We found a place called the Bananaleaf Cafe that not only had great staff, excellent food and a great view, but they also did $5.50 caipiroska buckets. *grin*
The city has a law preventing touts from working the streets, so Hoi An was possibly the most peaceful city we've been in if you exclude the ambitious shop owners trying to get your business (I have absolutely no idea what town Adam is talking about. We had one day of peace and then literally every 10 secs was "hey you want motorbike?" no "hey you want cyclo?" no! "hey, where you from? come see my shop" NO!! - D). It had a great relaxed feel, and it was here that we met the Americans Adam, Rebecca, and Alyce, and another two Aussies Matt and Al.
The lifeblood of the town is that every second store is a tailor or a shoemaker. Being the concerned individuals we are, we had to support the local economy by getting a few items made. We'll see them back in Oz in about 4 months after their perilous journey across the high seas on a cargo ship.
Sadly, Hoi An was also the location where I had the worst day of this entire trip. It started off with waking up at 8am with a hugely foggy head and going with Jess to organise train tickets from Hue to Hanoi. We got shat on with organising the tickets we wanted, the reception lady not comprehending what we were trying to get across, and generally getting fucked around. We ended up paying a lot more than we should have, and I mean a LOT more. Like AUD$30 more. But there comes a point while travelling when you just don't give a shit anymore. It's hard to understand unless you've been constantly subjected day after day after day to touts and pushy locals trying to sell you something and grating on your nerves, and always wondering whether you got ripped off on that item you just bought. Your brain will fry eventually, and mine fried that day at quite possibly the worst time.
But that's life, and these things happen. Every trip has at least one major screwup. In the end I had a cup of tea, calmed down, and we jumped on the bus to...

Hue
We only spent one night in Hue, which was slightly disappointing because there's a lot of history and culinary delights in the town. But the problems with the train shortened our time, so we ended up joining Alli, Jess, Matt, and Al for beers. We ended off our night in Hue on the girl's balcony under an awning, watching the rain fall down and wash away our worries, beer in hand and music softly playing. Good company, and a great view looking out over Hue. Karma says that every bad thing is balanced out with something good, and I firmly believe it.
The morning after, Drew braved the rain to get out and see the Citadel, an old fortress/palace that was apparently very nifty. But we had to go, so we jumped on the 3.20pm train to Hanoi, arriving at 7.30am this morning.

Hanoi
Hanoi is more western than even Saigon, and I'm fairly certain they don't want to admit it. The French influence is immediately apparent, from the fact they actually have bins on the side of the road to the old men wearing berets and all the bakeries and baguettes floating around town. We're heading out tonight to the Spotted Cow to tee up our Australia Day party for tomorrow; we've gathered a brigade of Australians to invade the pub and take over control of their sound system to play the Triple J Hottest 100. Aussie patriotism is alive and well in communist Hanoi! It's going to be a great day with some great people.

We've organised our visas and transport into Laos, and we're also looking at booking a 2 day/1 night tour of Halong Bay, sleeping on the boat and checking out the caves, the islands, swimming and drinking. If it's anything like Nha Trang, it's going to be fantastic.


Happy Australia Day to all of you, especially those of you that are going to Chris's party and engaging in what will be the best damn party in the Southern Hemisphere. We, of course, will be having the best damn party in the Northern Hemisphere! I bought a sew-on Australian flag today that I'll be putting dead centre on my blue chesty bonds singlet. I will wear my flag proudly.

Where will your flag be?

The big dugong is with us all in spirit. Have a great Aussie Day my little dusseldorf!