jd's blogspot

sleep in and just wander around the old quarter of Hanoi. its full of tiny streets and alleyways, with people and motorbikes everywhere. they are poor, but i have become slightly immune to it all now. wander around looking for a tour agancy that will allow us to book a bus to Luang Prabang in Laos.  they all say no to the border we want to cross. so in hte end we have to book a ticket to vientiane and go across a border much further south than we wanted.  then just wander around the shoe market - yipee!! quite a few nice ones, but as a big footed westerenr, none of them come in my size!! they are made for asian feet!  take a wander around the lake - its quite nice and has a beautiful red wooden bridge across to a small temple. the heat is unbearable and am just sweating like mad. head down to the municipal water puppet theatre to see a show. its really cool. the stage is quite big and very decorative. the puppeteers are behind a screen, in the water and teh puppets are all on poles under the water. its really cool and very different. well worth teh E1.50 to get in!! after teh show, just head back to the hotel. although, its so hot, our air con isnt powerful enough so need to get a fan as well in order to control the sweating!!

11th July 2007

sleep in and mostly spend the day indoors - its 39C and the humidity is extreme. spend the day on the internet and relaxing in the least sweaty environment as possible. walk through the food market in the old quarter - its quite impressive. the food looks great and the colours and smells are amazing. 

12th july 2007

get a taxi across town to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum - its where Ho is on show!! so we have to go all over the place to get there - stupid taxi driver tries to rip me off saying that he doesnt have any change - well, i sit in the car until he goes and gets some, cos he owes me about 30,000 dong. I dont care if its only a pound, he is not getting it! to go and see Ho, we are not allowed to have our knees or shoulders on show, so in 39C of heat, we duely put on a long sleeved top and wrap a sarong around our legs and after handing over our phones and cameras we join a very long queue. finally get in to see himself, passing security with their enormous bayonettes, w go into a very cold room and walk in total silence (we are told to ssshh by one guard!!) and follow the crowd around his body. he looks like a waxwork to me!! but must behave with reverence and respect - -shuffle outside, where my glasses immediately fog up from the heat. peel off the additional layers and begin sweating immediately!!  get a taxi back to the hotel and get ripped off. his metre goes from 6,000 to 20,000 in 2 seconds flat!! stay indoors until its time to go for the bus to Laos. so the guy arrives to collect us and says that he can only take one at a time - which means its a motorbike!! so Emer goes first and he come sback for me. so, with my 16kg rucksack in between his legs, in between him and the steering, I climb on behind him with my daypack on my back and cling on for dear life!  dear god, I see teh back end of a mercedes  in a rather alarmingly fast and close up way!!  get the office after a very hair rainsing 5 minute bike ride!! now, we have been told that the bus is at 6pm and will take 16hrs - ok. then others start arriving saying that they were told the bus is at 7pm and will take 22hrs. welcome to asia - we are guestimating it will take about 24hrs to get to vientiane!! so then we all have to get into a taxi - so only 6 of us fit in with our luggage and 2 others have to go on a motorbike and a tuk tuk. get to the bus station and are shown to a relatively ok bus (now this is by vietnamese standards) and the guy says that the bus is at 8pm!! so we all hand around and no one else has turned up for the bus, so we are thinking we will all have enoungh room to spread out and potentially get some sleep. Suddenly, at 7.30pm a guy somes over and says "oh, we change buses - over here". Oh sweet jesus, an old banger appears and its already full of locals and boxes. the roof is piled high with all sorts of stuff and the back rows are piled to the ceiling with boxes. we are all standing there going you have got to be joking - no!! they suggest putting all the rucksacks on the roof, but we all object. so after some commotion and moving people and boxes (as there were only 4 seats and 8 of us!!) they pile our luggage up to the ceiling along the back. the bus is tiny and we are all squished in together. the bus takes off and due to the insane driving, the luggage falls on the people behind, so we have to move it all onto the floor!! its certainly a cost fit!! drive like a crazed lunatic for a few hours and hope the driver stops for the toilet. toilet stops are not scheduled - if the driver needs to go he will stop, otherwise dont drink anything!! so after 4.5hrs, he stops at the side of the road and in pitch dark go to the loo in a ditch!! back on ht ebus and take a sleeping tablet and hopefully will wake up at the laos border in a few hours!

up early and the bus collects us about 8 to go out to Halong Bay for a few days. takes about 4hrs to get to the port and then climb aboard a wooden boat. there are dozens of boats all jammed into the harbour, so we have to climb onto one boat and off the other side to get to our boat!!  its quite nice with a cool sundeck on the roof. so once we are all aboard, the tables are set for a sit down lunch. its about 12.30, so hopefully we will get fed soon and get moving. well, that doesnt happen - it appears that every other boat leaves ahead of us. we are left there until 2pm - excellent!! well, now its finally time for lunch and everyone is starving. however, to our delight the guy brings out 1 fish, 1 omlette, 1 dish of vegetables and a bowl of rice - and this is between 6 adults!! we are all thinking, surely this is per person and not for 6 to share - so we all have 1 grain of rice, a shred of omlette a slice of carrott and a tiny piece of fish - yum, Im stuffed!! anyway, move out into halong bay - its a unesco world heritage site and its absolutely amazing. its an area of karst/limestone islands all throughout the bay. apparently there are 1,900 in total. i would love to see it from the air, but dont think a vietnamese helicopter is such a good idea - i have seen their buses!! float on over to one of the many caves in the area. the place is absolutley packed with tourists, so lots of people pushing and shoving trying to see - excellent!! the cave is stunning and is really a massive cavern. however, teh coloured fluorescent lighting and the massive plastic penguin rubbish bins (flashbacks to the penguin incident!!!) make it look a bit like a film set! back on the baot after another precarious climb!! sail around halong bay for a while and take in the stunning scenery. its boiling hot on the sundeck, so take to staying indoors to try and cool down. get to a tiny jetty and the people who are not staying on the boat all get off. now, in order to get off  teh boat, we have to stand on a chair and then leap onto the dock, as the boat is about 1m lower then the dock!! so hop into a minivan, which is an overcrowded squeeze and head off to catba fo rthe night. arrive at the hotel and check in. there are 3 of us left and the guy tries to put us all in the same room - apparently the hotel is full!! dont think so mate - we all object saying that we paid for twin room. so after we all refuse to go anywhere, we finally get  it sirted. go up to the room and turn the tele on and actually find The Den on in vietnamese!! Well done RTE, you made it to Aisa!!! Socky and dustin are yapping away  - priceless!!  so we all head downstairs for dinner and we join the previous days group. they are all dying to leave and get the trip over with. their guide actually told them to fuck off when someone complained!! so dinner arrives and guess what - there isnt enough food for everyone!! there are 4 sideplates of food between six people!! so about 10 of us just head downtown and go out for a few drinks to relax.

8th July 2007

up at 7am and head down for breakfast. now most hotels let you check out at 12, well not here. at 7.30, the fuck off guide coems over to the table and demands that we leave and get on the bus immediately to go for our trek. we all object to this, as we were told we were going at 8.30 and most of us were ordered to go for breakfast so didnt have time for a shower, so need time to sort ourselves out. everyone is really hacked off and worse they make everyone check out at 7.30am. we are all saying no, they are making us go trekking in 35C heat and we want showers when we get back. so the guy is still yelling at us to get out - argh, dont shout at me. anyway, 6 of us get into the bus and head into town to pick up a few others. the minivan seats 11 people and they are trying to squeeze in 15!! its so squashed that the girl beside the door ends up having the door closed on her leg! the guy just doesnt care. so she is crying and her boyfriend gets really mad, and they just get out and walk away. so we end up yelling at the driver to stop and go back for them and get another van that we can all fit in. he doesnt like it, but does go back. we find them and they get motorbikes to follow us. everyone is really ticked off with everything thats happened. so we get to where we are going trekking. its quite hard due to the searing heat and everyone is dripping in sweat. the scenery is spectacular - the area is really beautiful. I dont make it to the top, as the heat and the lack of food has left me a bit lightheaded. so after the trek we go back to the hotel and are "allowed" to have a shower. its 11.30 and I really need to eat something, but lunch isnt until 12.30. so i order food off the menu in the hotel, which I am going to pay for. well, the guy comes over and says that I cant have anything as it will take about 2hrs, but he would be able to give me the seafood special! so i tell him, well thats convenient, that he cant cook anything, but could manage to get me the most expensive item on the entire menu and that it was total bullshit. now, one thing I have noticed, is that men here are not used to being challenged and especially not by women and they dont know how to deal with it, so they just walk off. which is seriously infuriating. well, i have decided that i am going to eat whether he likes it or not. so i go outside and buy a packet of instant noodles from one of the street stalls and go back in to his kitchen, fill it up with boiling water and eat it in his restaurant. he sees me and gives me filthy looks, but doesnt say anything to me. lunch arrives shortly afterwards and what a surprise - we get 4 sideplates of carrots, potatoes, apples and rice - between 7 people!! then to our delight, we are left hanging around until 3pm doing nothing. so we are just sitting on the doorstep of the hotel, as we were made leave. there are a load of sleezt guys leering and laughing at us all. they especially bother on dutch girl, who is tall and blonde and want to take pictures of her. everyine just wants to go and finally the bus arrives and takes us to the dock, as we are sleeping on the boat tonight. so we get to the dock at 3.30 and what do you know, we cant get on board until 5!! the dock is full of very angry people and the heat is not helping peoples moods! so most of us are lying and sitting on hte road, as there is nowhere else to go  and one of the drivers nearly drives over one girls legs. when people strated shouting at him, he just said whatever, she was in his way!  finally we get on board and we are all expecting to be sleeping in the boiler room!! but actually, the bedrooms are a pleasant surprise and are quite nice - we even have an ensuite with toilet paper!!  so we sail for about an hour and stop where we will be sleeping for the night. now, we are supposed to be going kayaking , but the guy says that it will be dark in a few mins, so no we cant go. argh, more angry people. we all object and say that we paid to kayak and that if they hadnt left us hanging around for 5hrs, we could have done it earlier. his response is well, tough you can swim for 20 mins! so, we all go swimming for a few mins. then some women float by and are selling beers etc. if you bring alcohol onto the boat you have to pay corkage, but its still cheaper than buying it on board. so get a few bottles and want to  put them in the fridge, so i go upstaris to pay. well, the guy starts roaring at me to pay 10,000 dong, so I say im not argueing over the price, that i am actually counting out the money. but he continues to scream at me, so i just throw th emoney at him. then he decides that i have a bad attitude and he wont take my money. so i say fine, and open it in front of him and drink it anyway. then the guy who has better english comes after me and say that i have to pay, and i tell him that i tried to pay but the guy wouldnt take it. so he asks him and comes back to me and says that i have a bad attitude. so i say well what about the way he spoke to me - no response. Argh, they really cant deal with outspoken women. cant wait to get out of here. anyway, dinner coems and, you guessed it, not enough food again and its practically thrown at us. so we all have a good bitching session before going to bed.

9th July 2007

rude awakening at 6.30, when one of teh guys bangs on the window and sticks his head in to see if we want to go kayaking. go for a kayak around some of teh islands. they really are beautiful and very impressive. there are a few small floating houses/village, so kayak over for a better look.  its not a way of like i would like, but i guess they dont know any better.  its stunning out here, but have to go back to the boat for some non-existent breakfast!! we are made get out of our rooms by 8am and they have switched off the electricity, so no lights and no fans in 37C heat!!  breakfast is teh last straw for most of us. we get 4 slices of bread each, a small amount of egg and 1 tiny section of watermelon each. one of the dutch girls objects and actually goes down to the kitchen to see where all the food is. well its all there! the prick that told me i had a bad attitude follws her , roars at her and nearly punches her. everyone says we need more food, and we get told well you have to pay. we already have, thats the whole point!! everyone is raging. I leave a note in their tip jar, saying that if they were nice to tourists they might actually get some tips!! he reads it and roars "who wrote this" . our original guide appears and everyone launches into hte list of complaints. bless him, its not his fault but he is the only one who doesnt shout and walk off.  get back to the port and everyone is glad to be off the boat. have a decent lunch and back on the bus for 4hrs to get back to ahnoi. 6 of us go into the office to complain about how bad it was.  the woman basically said we are lying and that because we didnt book a delux tour, that it was our own fault. after a long arguement, she says she will give us all $2 back!!  we each paid $45, which is a lot of money in vietnam, so just to spite the cow, we take it. well, it definately goes down as the worst tour i have ever been on.  check into our hotels and all go for dinner, as we a re starving.