Happy New Year!

Happy tet everybody from Vietnam!

A lot has happened since our last post, so lets start from the beginning.

We arrived in Saigon a week last Sunday. mulac got through customs fine but because I now had two visas (one right one wrong) the vietnamese seemed to think some dodgy business was going on and stuck me in a little waiting room with the other visa-troubled people. honestly, I was bricking myself because a guy was going round to everyone going "how many dollars have you got? 50? yeah that's how much a visa costs to get into this country!" he actually charged a guy who said a he had thousand bucks 600 dollars for a visa! what a joke! luckily I finally found someone who spoke a little english and good french, and managed to explain myself using a bit of both. that kind of scamming was a good introduction to vietnam - everyone here, particularly in the two big cities, will do anything for some western cash.

we got to our hotel, which was more of a toilet cubicle with beds, dumped our bags, and went for some dinner at pho24 - great pho, cheers Ed. for those that don't know, its basically a noodle soup with meat - pho bo is the best - and you get loads of spices on a side plate that you can add. being a bit of a dick i obviously always add in too much chilli and start crying in the restaurant, but its a great dish all the same.

food here is, in general, seriously tasty. the only exception we found is on our first night in saigon when, pissed and on the way back from go2 bar we bought these suspect big white dumplings that had some kind of meat in them... and eyeballs. not nice.

on our second day in saigon we went to see the american war remnants museum - harrowing - got a blind massage - painful and awkward - and booked our bus ticket to dalat.

the mountain town of dalat ace, not so much for the town, which is nothing special, but on the second day we got a motorbike tour around the countryside, saw some pagodas, waterfalls, all that stuff, it was great. we also drunk some proper vietnamese coffee which blows the milky shite in england out the water - our guide actually reckoned vietnam was second only to brazil in terms of coffee quality, not sure about that but it was great all the same. we also tried some local rice wine, mulac hated it but i loved it, it's like the warmth and strength of whiskey but with a nicer taste. i've bought a bottle and i'm saving it for back home, maybe louche or something.

from there we got another bus to nha trang, vietnams premier beach resort which we thought was pretty average apart from a bar on the beach called the sailing club which we had a great night at sitting round a fire and meeting some kiwis. not much else to say about nha trang really, it was hot, but then it was hot everywhere in the south, and it felt like you could have been anywhere in the world, which was at first a relief but quickly became boring.

from there we got a 12 hour night bus to hoi an -pretty painful but we met some good people from france and germany, and we when we got to hoi an the next morning ended up sharing a room with all of them. we also met our two mates in hoi nan we'd been practically chasing up the country, and all of us together had a pretty special two days. hoi an is incredible, an old market town with a beautiful river that runs down the middle of it, full of creaking old buildings and, a short bikes ride out the town, a quieter, prettier beach than in nha trang. we spent our time drinking beers on the beach, playing football, eating good food at the street restaurants, and on the first night, celebrated tet (vietnamese lunar new year) with the locals. we should have some photos up to demonstrate soon, but basically, it involved setting off hundreds of candles down the river and some decent fireworks. a top night, top town, real shame to leave.

particularly as our next stop was hue, which was, by all accounts, rubbish. we went to the forbidden city; couldn't be bothered to see the tombs. it rained non-stop, there was no-one there, rubbish. the hotel we stayed in was ok.

after that it was a matter of a 15 hour bus to hanoi, we managed to get to get a sleeper bus to hanoi. now, i was pretty excited about these buses with beds on them, having visions of night buses in harry potter. i couldn't have been more wrong. i'm basically half a foot too tall for everything in vietnam and since we were the last hotel the bus went to to pick up up,. we were left with the shortest beds on the bus - hellish! i ended up sitting on the stairs all night, counting down the hours.

nevermind. we're in hanoi now, last night we went to see traditional water puppet theatre which was a scotsman summed up well, was gloriously crap. today we're going to book our tour to halong bay that i'm very excited about (even though its cold and wet in the north) and this evening we're going to snake village, which i'm going to take my video camera too - trust me it's going to make for a funny video, although mum you probably shouldn't watch it.

that's about it, sorry it took so long to post, keep in touch everybody x