Vietnam Part II

After some days in lovely Hoi An we spoilt ourselves with a jetstar flight to Hanoi.

On our arrival at the airport we were very cautious and we booked a pick up from the airport in

advance. Yeeessss, this was the best way to avoid the so called Airport Taxi Mafia in Hanoi...

Hanoi was a positive surprise for us. Apart from the big amount of motor bikes we found it quite more charming than Saigon, even with a little lake in the Old City Quarter.

Hanoi is the perfect base to plan the two obligated tours to Sapa and Halong Bay. Both

destinations are beautiful. Sapa is a little village in the mountains in the Northern Part of Vietnam and a 12 hours train ride away from Hanoi. It is a perfect place for some nice and easy trekking.The landscape is stunning, it is surrounded by thousands of lush green rice fields

and little villages with different tribes.Every tribe has its special tradition clothes which makes the scenery even more colorful and vivid.Of course we booked a three days trekking tour in this beautiful, peaceful place of Vietnam. And our sweat was compensated with nice views and unforgettable moments looking at the playing children or watching the every day life of the villages. Our accomodation were home stays in the villages, which was nice and exciting, because in the middle of the night we were woken up by a nice little rat trying to get through our mosquito net.

So the next tour was of course -Halong Bay was very relaxing. Our sailing boat was one of the posh ones.I insisted to book a expensive and safe one after the horrible accident in February in

Halong Bay where several tourists had to die because of the lack of safety minimum standards. But it was the money worth. We got plenty of really nice food and our cabin had even a shower with freshwater :), one of the activities that was part of the trip was the "amazing cave" we thought it might be just another tourist trap but it was breathtaking it can only described by the pictures we took. Coming to the end of our trip in Vietnam we both struck by raw beauty of the country, however a word of warning we felt that it was also the most difficult country to travel in south east Asia.

Vietnam Part I

After the serenity of Siem Reap it was time to 'up sticks' and head east to Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).First impressions after 10 mins in HCMC where "jesus we need to be on our guard here". It was a record for been scammed in a new country- we got hit with a crazy taxi meter immediatly when we got off the bus from Cambodia. With oppresive heat, humidity, noise, pollution and I mean millons.. MILLIONS of motorbikes, I can honestly say I was not designed for
these sort of conditions so its better I dont give my opinon on this city as it wouldnt be very objective!. However their certainly is marked tendancey for locals to really screw tourists more than any other country we have visited to this point or perhaps its like that with everyone..who knows??. The sooner you except this, the sooner you will start too enjoy Vietnam for its been hyped for.
After the Madness of HCMC. it was nice to stumble upon Mui Ni almost sleepy beach resort or maybe it was just not peak season. Their was a lot more to this region once we sratched the surface(we even had a mini revolution of sorts unfold before our eyes..its
a story best told over a pint of temple Brau).
But as all good things must come to an end we traveled north to Hoi An. We had the usaual pattern of hassle and scams you come to expect i.e fighting with the bus company for forcing me
to sleep on the floor of the bus for 14 hours and then threating to throw me off the bus in the middle of the night for not complying to their wishes. Anyways back to Hoi An - an interseting place we were also here for the full moon so their was some nice festivals! It also wins the awards for the quirkiest hotel was have stayed in so far.