Tombing - Not Tubing - 13th November 2009

Finally a touch of culture on our travels – Hue up until 1945 was the capital of Vietnam and home to the Emperor’s Palace. We went on a day trip to see the Citadel which was the old city and the emperors palace and then to see the tombs of the dead emperors. There was some stunning architecture and the photos will be up in flickr soon. It ended up with a ‘dragon’ boat ride up the river.

While on the trip I actually met a guy called Alex who worked in the Railway which is the pub at the end of my road – we even knew some of the same people – it is a small world after all!

A: Having decided to move on the next day it was time to confirm the bus ticket before the morning – what a run around that turned out to be! The hotel said our ticket needed to be confirmed by the tour operator and gave me directions to go there. When I went in they said the ticket we had (just a slip of paper – stupido!) wasn’t theirs and to basically go away. I went back to the hotel to try to contact the tour office in Halong Bay or Hanoi and started to check out trains as a last resort. On my way back to the pub (where Liam was all the while!) I met the couple we had followed and they told us to go to this other place they had been to and sort it out there. The woman in the office was not 100% but said she’d check with Hanoi and to come back at 8am in the morning for the proper ticket. When we arrived (with bags and all) there was yet more hassle and it was only when I was able to show them on a map the two offices we’d been to (in both Halong Bay and Hanoi) that they finally gave in and gave us the official ticket. Thank god I’d met that couple the night before or else we would have had to pay twice! LESSON LEARNED: any future tickets if not on official paper should most definitely be accompanied by a business card to contact the place of purchase!

Hue - 12th November 2009

Arrived in Hue early in the morning and we hitched a ride with the couple who were on our bus who had booked a room and had a free transfer, we ended up with a lovely room. Walked around Hue for the day but it was far too hot for us so we ended back at the room dripping with sweat and completely knackered. Nice town but you get hassled an awful lot the bicycle tuk tuk drivers do not take no for an answer and cycle slowly beside you talking to you trying to get you to take a ride – at one stage we had a bicycle tuk tuk following us and a guy on a motorbike following us up the road trying to pick us up. Had a lovely meal that night and went to bed early.

Return to Hanoi - 11th November 2009

With a Hangover after the night before we awoke on the boat to a SCORCHING day – just our luck as we had a 4 hour bus ride back to Hanoi and then a 12 hour bus ride to Hue. We got back to Hanoi, a place I did not want to return to and went straight to an Irish pub for something to eat before the second bus – met an Irish lad who had been in Hanoi for four years (just to highlight the danger of Hanoi roads and why I nearly had several heart attacks over Aileen crossing the road - he had been in 17 motor bike accidents since being there!), met a nice guy from Ballincollig who had just arrived and then ran into 3 people we spent a couple of days tubing with – so in the end we did not want to leave Hanoi!

But the bus was booked and we headed off – the sleeper bus does exactly what it says on the tin – and is the best way to travel – everyone has their own bed and the 12 hours just flew by. Met another lovely couple and played cards to wind down the some of the time. We tried to bring on some beers for the journey – but the driver confiscated them - I even tried to bribe him but to no avail - but he was fine with us after and he did let us take them off the bus and drink them at the first stop - and continued to laugh at me at every stop thereafter as my hangover grew.

Halong Bay - 10th & 11th November 2009

Halong bay was absolutely gorgeous - a really lovely place where we went to a cave first and then Kayaking. Cave was quite impressive - the guide was picking out shapes of the stalagmites and stalactites (10 bonus points if you can tell me which is the one which hangs down and which is the one on the floor) at first it was dragons and tigers but by the end he was clutching at straws and naming shapes of the shadows that were clearly not similar to the shape he was saying – but hilarious to us. The pics on Flickr do not quite capture the scenery, which include a floating village, but it was a really lovely day and a nice boat trip. Got a lovely bunch of people on the boat and had good fun relaxing during the day - after dinner and a few beers the guides brought out the Karaoke machine – BIG MISTAKE – as we were fairly sober at the start we did not join in but let the French contingent take up the Karaoke reins (they did this sober – which was a bit odd to me!). After a game of cards in which the loser had to sing the madness began, two Canadian sisters lost first and massacred a Bon Jovi tune. Then another girl lost and went up, but by this stage we were getting drunk and so we took to the stage – I chose “the wheels on the bus go round and round” and it went down a storm! (There is some video evidence but I will try to destroy this when Aileen is asleep so it never makes the light of day) After this everyone got involved and Aileen went down a storm with “Quando, Quand, Quando” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAhIvzD4xGU ) It descended a bit after this and led to us driving the rest of the boat to the top deck. The crew had to turn it off shortly after as I think we wrecked their heads but to be fair – I thought our version of “can’t touch this” – by MC Hammer was exceptional.

2 months in, the count so far.......

4 countries down

100’s of friends made (because of tubing)

Not much book reading (because of tubing)

1 trip to hospital (because of tubing)