Happy New Vietnam!

Here's to our first blog of 2011 :-)

We've taken a while to write it because we had a wonderful 3 week holiday with Jo's family, but we're back on the traveler scene now and raring to go again! We hope you all saw the New Year in well, we were in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. After arriving in Bangkok (from Bangladesh), we took the 46 hour overland route to Hanoi (via north Thailand and central Laos). This involved two sleeper buses, one of which is referred to by locals as the "fun bus" and really put our 'no flying unless necessary' policy to the test!

First impressions of Vietnam were that it is a very busy place with so many motorbikes!!! The typical image of locals with conical hats on push bikes has well and truely been replaced with everyone from 9 years up riding motorbikes at breakneck speed!

Hanoi was an amazing place to spend New Years Eve. The (communist!) government put on a huge open air music festival with live DJ's and dancers. We celebrated with a British couple we met on the bus and danced to the music surrounded by locals waving glowsticks from their motorbikes (they really are an extension of legs). Our night ended in a fab bar called 'Half man, Half noodle' :-)

Our time in Hanoi was spent mostly at food markets. These markets are not for the faint hearted or any vegetarian as the Vietnamese eat practically anything that swims, walks or flys. Most delicacy's are sold live so we saw huge containers of flapping fish, frogs and snakes, with the odd one escaping and turtles sticking their necks through nets!

With this in mind, we were very careful when we went to any food stall or restaurant. Luckily we found out that one establishment specialised in Eels before we put our order in! Generally however, once we had determined what was on offer, nearly every meal turned out to be amazing. This does not apply to our cheapest meal yet though, which at the total of  20p each, included intestines (we found this out afterwards)!!! Well you've got to try these things :-)

Still in Hanoi, we visited the local theatre to watch a traditional water puppet show. The puppeteers stand in water behind a screen and the puppets really look like they're dancing on water. It's an ancient art form that's being kept alive by tourists.

Moving on, we made the bus and boat trip to Cat Ba Island where we hired a motorbike to explore the beautiful scenery of small limestone Islets and rural farmland. We visited 'Hosptal Cave', a cave comprising of 17 rooms that were used during the the Vietnamese war. Inside there was even a cinema, table tennis room and swimming pool (no longer in use)! Back on the bike we stopped off at a beach and came across 2 young fishermen cooking their fresh catch over an open fire. Being invited to join them, we cooked fish in a really special setting :-)

Wanting to see the Islets up close, we took a boat trip and kayaked around the lagoons to see the numerous floating villages. Many locals live on rafts, making their living from the water. Their houses all come with fish farms underneath and the shacks they live in are equipped with TV's, chickens and dogs. Just like the film 'Waterworld"!

Putting our feet firmly back on dry land, we then headed for the far north of Vietnam, Bac Ha. Now we know the UK has seen some cold weather recently, but with only summer clothes in our bags and no heating at all in the Guesthouse, 5 degrees felt absolutely freezing! The only way to get through the night was to wear all our clothes and cutch up to old drinking bottles filled with hot water from the shower! The cold misty weather added to the atmosphere though and made the H'mong Villages seem mystical. The H'mong tribes women are known for their colourful traditional dress, and the Sunday market was a melting pot of colours with everything from Buffaloes to plastic wellies for sale!

In need of warmer climates, we took the sleeper train a long way south to Qui Nho'n and then a bus to Vinh Long (via Ho Chi Minh City - formerly Saigon). We spent our time wandering around Mekong river islands exploring the local life. We observed such a sense of community with everyone out of their homes talking to each other. Heading further into the Mekong Delta, we stopped at Can Tho to visit the floating markets. Getting up at 5am we saw these markets up close in a little rowing boat. Each 'selling' boat offers a particular fruit or vegetable and if a local wants to buy it they row up close or have it thrown their way across the water (see the cabbage mid-air on the right), great fun :-) 

The Mekong Delta was a great spot for getting out to see rural life and stretches of lush green padi fields. We were lucky to sample some of the local rice wine in Chau Doc after being invited into a families house (it would be deemed rude not to accept, so we had shot after shot of it)!!!

Despite rampant development, Vietnam is still a beautiful country and we especially enjoyed the food, markets and what remains of rural life. Here are some of the sights and moments that we will never forget......

The Red flags of Vietnam still fly high on most streets (especially in the North)

Jo enjoying a slap-up meal (still only 2 pounds each!) on NYE :-)

Street food was definitely a highlight, and varied from semi-restaurants like this ...

... to stalls literally on the road!

Noodle soup (Bo Pho) is definitely the national dish up north (usually with beef)

But check out the menu above!

Even boiled kittens were sometimes on offer (only joking)!!!

The sheer volume of motorbikes in Hanoi was something to behold!

But the locals still find time to relax by Hoan Kien lake :-)

Food is constantly being carted from place to place!

And the markets sell just about anything you could ever dream of.

Including dried fish ...

Live fish ...

Intestines ...

And to Jo's horror, live frogs!!!

The water puppet show was great fun

and Halong Bay was beautiful :-)

The floating villages were typically much larger than this, but you get the idea ...

We met some friendly locals after a tour of Hospital Cave

And Jo even donned a conical hat for a touristy photo :-)

The misty hills of Bac Ha (north west) were really atmospheric

And the Sunday market was the best we've ever been to :-)

The H'mong tribes women were so colourful!

But watching the buffaloes being sold was a scary experience!

Moving south we caught a long train to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) - a metropolis on the move!

Baguettes are sold everywhere in the the south, a legacy of the French ...

And there seemed to be a somewhat slower pace of life in the Mekong Delta :-)

With people playing cards ...

And wearing pajamas in public!

And why not if you get home delivery services like this!

Wondering through basket-weaving communities surrounding Vinh Long was a definite highlight

And seeing how they transport the baskets brought back fond memories of India!

We loved the randomness of some of what we saw!

Here's Jo wearing the 'lovely' jewellery made by our boat-lady from palm leaves :-)

Although not as obvious as other countries we've been to, we did find a spiritual (mainly Buddhist) side to Vietnam

And we saw that practising Tai Chi and working the padi fields at the same time is a mucky business!

All in all, we had some great times in Vietnam. It took a while to break away from the tourist trail and witness real local life, but when we did, it was definitely worth the effort. Although the people were not as immediately friendly as in other countries we've visited, this is probably because tourists are no longer a novelty here and many of the locals have been hardened by horrendous wars and various invading countries!

Religion seems to play less of a role in everyday life, but this may have something to do with the traditionally Communist Government! It's a country developing quickly, and although this is not always a good thing, we certainly saw less poverty than anywhere else we've been to so far. We often heard the term 'socailly responsible capitalism' being banded about, so things are changing!

Our next blog will cover our time in Thailand (which started early December and continued after Vietnam). We've just arrived in Cambodia to volunteer for a month and have even bought a laptop so no excuses for a late installment next time :-)

As ever, we miss family and friends, but are very excited about our time in Cambodia and have a feeling Laos will be very special indeed. It's getting really hot again now, so we'll be shade seekers rather than sun seekers from now on! Lots of love to you all, bye for now, Jo and Sam xx