Hoi An to Hue to Hanoi.....

We arrived at Hoi An early in the morning and had 2 full days there. Hoi An is famous for it's tailors and they are everywhere, you can get anything made really cheaply. I had myself 2 dresses, some trousers and a pair of shoes made and Rich had 2 pairs of shoes and a hat made. He had to have a hat made as he couldn't find one big enough to go over his crazy hair! Our shoes were a little disappointing as the quality was not as good as those on display. Rich was pleased with his hat (even though he looks like a tit in it, tee hee!) and was pleased with my clothes, until Rich pointed out that my beige shirt dress with orange stitching makes me look like I work in Sainsburys!!! And he was right, bugger! Maybe it's a sign!!

We spent a lot of time just wandering around the city, we visited a few museums and some ruins! It's a really quaint little place, with narrow streets and not much traffic. It was so hot and humid though, probably the most humid it's been so far, it was such an effort just to walk around! There's a big market, loads of tailors and lots of nice restaurants and at one of these restuarants we had ourselves a little cooking course. We learnt how to make various spring rolls (Vietnamese spring rolls are soo good), green papaya salad and and a fish dish, and then we ate it....yummy!



A 3 hour bus ride and we were in Hue. We had a day and a half here and in that time we had a tour around the citadel in the city which was very impressive and a boat trip to visit a pagoda and the kings tomb, which was also pretty impressive. Our guide was really good and we learnt a lot about the places we visited, it was also nice to be out on a boat getting a breeze as it was very hot n' shitty again.



And after Hue, we took another overnight train to Hanoi, our last stop in Vietnam. We had about 5 days there before our flight to Hong Kong on the 2nd September. Our first day was spent wandering around the city, it's just as hectic as Saigon in the motorbike front. While we've become used to crossing the road in a suicidal manner, I'll be glad when we don't have to, it's just so stressful! That evening we visited water puppet show, which was interesting! At dinner that night Rich didn't eat anything and we went home early as he was feeling ill, Bob and Angie hadn't gone out to dinner as Angie had been sick earlier...irk! Rich was feeling bad all night and was sick every couple of hours throughout the night. Not good.

The following day we were supposed to be going on a day trip to Halong Bay but Rich was still feeling ill and so didn't go. I stayed behind with him too just in case he needed any sort of medical attention. We pretty much didnt' do anything all day, apart from watch a couple of films on TV, It was raining really hard all day so I didn't bother going out! Halang Bay was really nice by all accounts, Angie went but was sick while she was there!

The day after we were due to go to Coc Phuong National Park. Rich was still feeling bad so didn't go, he was feeling a bit better and was managing to eat and so I did go. It was a really nice day, even though it took 3 hours to get there! We visited a rescue centre for endangered primates, a prehistoric cave and then spent a few hours trekking through the jungle, which was hard work in the heat, but really nice to be away from the city into the peace of the jungle!

Rich was feeling much better by the evening and so we went out for our farewell dinner with the gang. The tour through Vietnam was really good and we enjoyed the group of people we were with and had a lot of fun with them, it was pretty hectic but we crammed a lot in and saw as much as we could. I like Vietnam a lot and would definitely go back there, the people are friendly and the food is good, the weather is hot n' shitty but you get used to it, just like you get used to crossing the road and being hassled to buy stuff every 5 minutes!!



We did a bit of shopping with everyone the following day and had lunch before saying farewell :-( to Bob and Angie, and Ben and Jane as they were flying home.

We spent our last night with Jady and met up with Jean also, we sat drinking local beer at 2000 dong (about 5p) a glass on a street corner, great stuff, can't believe our guide didn't tell us about this! Forget to tell you about the currenty, the Vietnamese Dong, there are 15,800 VND to the US$, brilliant, we were millionnaires!! After the outdoor bar we went to a club and had a boogie and got ourselves a motorbike taxie home, luckily at 2 am there's barely any traffic about!!

So Vietnam all over with, we said au revoir to Jady who had a few more days there and left for the airport, with a bit of a curly head!!