So This Is It Saigon: Vietnam

Accommodation: Kim Ngan Guesthouse, $12 a night private ensuite

Bus: Same Travel Pass, 27 hours

Places to Visit:

• Cu Chi Tunnels
• My Tho & Ben Tre Delta
• Reunification Palace
• War Remnants Museum
  

Then came the crazy 28 hour bus ride down to Ho Chi minh (Saigon). It was a definite, that I was not going to sleep for a while after New Years. Ahh how I miss sleep. We stopped off at every major city along the way, so enough time to pee at a restaurant in every place. Nha Trang was the only city where I managed to catch a beautiful beach on an early morning rise. It was pretty quiet still, and the water swayed around the sand and the green mountains. It made the journey worthwhile, well almost.

Reaching in the night meant I had to wait for the morning to venture out. Although I did manage to walk about and get lost within 10 minutes leaving my hotel, duh. The hotel was awesome, so I had to move on my last night to another room, but it didn't stop the sweet grandmother owner to give me free drinks all day! So I headed to My Tho and Ben Tre the next day, two islands on the Mekong delta. It was day to be dragged around like a sheep, which was fantastic as we went to a coconut factory, ate some yummy candy, had some pure honey tea at the Bee farm, and I even held a python eek!! And then took a leisurely canal ride through the tropics, absolutely fabulous, can't complain.

The next day I shot an AK47, a military rifle...as you do in Vietnam. Damn loud contraptions...then to end the day I went to the War Remnants Museum- a reminder why not to shoot an AK47. It was a stomach hurling experience, taking photos of only the appropriate displays; just to give you an idea why not to stock this in your camera- there were real-life deformed human foetuses in jars on display, to show the affects of chemical bombs. Yep, yikes.

HBO Hue: Vietnam

Vietnam (Country Guide)

Accommodation: Hongthien Hotel, $10 a night private ensuite, hongthienhotel.com


Bus: Travel Pass, $25 throughout Vietnam, 5 stops, 13 hours


Places to Visit:

• Forbidden City
• Tomb of Tu Duc
• Thien Mu Pagoda
• Thuan An Beach
• DMZ 

It was luxury, arriving at a hotel, with my own bed, mini fridge, bathroom and HBO cable TV. I was doomed to never go out. The night times consisted of movie marathons, however utterly rubbish the film was. The day times were a little more productive...making my way to the Demilitarised Zones. Going through the underground tunnels and Ho chi Minh trail- consisted of rather interesting underground tunnels, where the tiny Vietnamese lived for 6 years in miniature spaces. It only barely managed to fit my height, so explains how antlike it was (yes yes I know I am vertically challenged.) Then to see the remains of American bombs and fighter jets, was happy to get some insight but the guide was totally unintelligible, her English was pretty bad and forgot to pronounce many of her consonants ie. the tunnels became 'Tunna.''

What else from Hue? The cyclo driver who said he would give a free ride one night, at the end opened out his hand and asked for 50 dong (about $1.70) its not much but he actually tried to dip his hand into my purse! A polite slap on the wrist set him right. Then I was befriended by a waitress who said that she wanted to go to the beach with me as it was her day off, and she wanted a fun girly day out. She then fed me at her house in the village out of Hue, it was a tin hut with one room for 6 people and her dog was evil, but it was a day of appreciation for the local life and the food was fab. The next day I did something out of the ordinary. I behaved and my mother would be proud...I took a Vietnamese cooking lesson! It was pretty awesome, going out to the markets, buying local ingredients and then testing out our culinary skills. The menu was fried and fresh spring rolls, beef noodle soup and Banh Xeo , a traditional Vietnamese pancake with shrimps, pork and veg all wrapped up. Yummy.


That's where I met my adopted mothers. I met these two lovely women in the cooking class, they were from New Zealand and were sisters in law. Being my mum's age they took care of me like their little cub or puppy (if you prefer.) They invited me to their hotel's dinner event, quite swanky, where they were staying and we watched live entertainment. It was traditional dancing and singing, and amazing instruments, topped off with kareoke of course. It was spectacular! The food was all you can eat, and literally there were bbq, Japanese, Chinese, continental food, rows and rows of desserts...I stocked up on my food intake for sure for the next few days. So New Years was tame that's for sure and the complete opposite of Christmas.

Humdrum Hanoi: Vietnam

Accommodation: Drift Backpackers Hostel, $5.50 per night dorm room
thedriftbackpackershostel.com

Flight: (I chickened out on the infamous bus ride)  A steep $140 one way, 1 hour- www.tcd-travel.com

Places to Visit: 

• Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum & Museum
• Women's Museum
• Temple of Literature
• Hoan Kiem Lake

Lets get started on the mayhem of Vietnam...

Went to the airport and found several girls also making their voyage to Hanoi. The check-in system being rather confusing, we rallied together to get our boarding passes. Even sharing a taxi to one of the girl's hostel, I then took a moto/ xe om to my guesthouse. Now the streets of Hanoi are, to put it nicely, a rif raf of millions of motorcycles and plenty of cars trying to outrun eachother all at the same time. So riding on the back of motorcycle, I was frightened for dear life. I think I must have made a dent in the driver's shoulders trying to hold on.


Then came my accommodation. I went down an alleyway in the most chaotic part of town, to find Thu Giang Guesthouse. I was greeted by a young woman, only to be told 'My aunt's guesthouse is around the corner, you will be staying there.' Okay, in S E Asia, this is normality, but never a good sign. Down another alleyway, in front of a road made to kill all life forms possible, I entered a a large, dilapidated concrete building. At the top was my private room with my so-called shower. This being the worst fitted plumbing in history, I was pretty sure that the 90 year old 'aunt' may have tried a makeshift job on it. As I turned the knob to obtain my lovely shower, the entire thing came off into my hand. Hmmm....interesting I thought.


There and then I decided, no matter how many beds I may have to climb, and how decent I would have to behave, I was going to stay at a backpackers hostel, so I drove back to the origin, and booked myself into there for the entirety of my stay in Hanoi. Now, this hostel happened to be a slightly more cleaner version of SpicyLaos yet the partying was the same. However getting too old in my days, meant I was a good girl...promise. But at 3000 dong a pop/ 10p for a beer, its pretty hard to resist: see cheap and alcohol are 2 words that should be miles apart from each other.

Christmas eve was not the usual style, first going to the Womens Museum (haha surprise surprise) which was out of this world- Women being an integral part of the Vietnam war, it was a homage to all the women who fought and died during the struggle. And then dinner with my new plane friend and her mates, already based in Hanoi. The night ended with the yummiest mulled wine, passing out (almost) on her bed and fitting three people on the back of a motorbike home. Christmas on the other hand was a whole other kettle of fish.

Walking around the treacherous alleys of Hanoi, was not that easy. But we managed, and ended the night with the craziest hostel party in the world. There were buckets of alcohol, including Sambuca, fluorescent paint on every living creature there and even mild stripping-courtesy of the Pikey brits. Decent went out the window.

So of course the obvious thing to do the next morning was to pay our respects to the big man himself, Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum...creepy. God he would be spinning in his grave, if he was in one. He lay lifeless (clearly) but was fragile, pale and thin. They designed it to make you shiver next his tomb aka. A/C blasting from all directions, pin drop silence, and having to walk in a line to get a glimpse of him for 2 seconds. Scary stuff, but he was cute like your granddad nonetheless. The next day was a 13 hour bus ride to Hue, Central Vietnam.