Week 3 (Hoi An)

Week 3

Hoi An
(24/10/2007 to 31/10/2007)


Once we had returned from Halong Bay to Hanoi we booked a "sleeper" bus to Hoi An. We left at 18:30 and after a very bumpy journey (due to the speed bumps on the motorway and the infamous method of Vietnamese driving) we arrived in Hoi An at 18:00 on Wed 24th. Hoi An is a lovely place although there seem to be a lot of tourists here. The food is delicious and there are a few local specialities that only one family knows the secret recipe to.






Hoi An is famous for its silk and other handicrafts. Jennie got fitted for a couple of dresses and we bought some handmade silk laterns.



The whole of Hoi An Old Town is an Unesco World Heritage Site and we did a tour of the old houses and museums. There is a lot of French, Chinese and Japanese culture mixed into this Vietnamese town.





We also took a day trip to My Son Holy Ruins which were originally built in the 4th century. The ruins used to be the Holy grounds of the Cham people.

The Vietnamese managed to lose these ruins twice but they are now fully open for tourism.

When we woke this morning we discovered that the river which is normally about 600m from our hotel was literally on our doorstep! We are leaving Hoi An today (weather permitting) and moving on to Dalat which is supposed to be cold (it's up in the Highlands) but very scenic.

Week 2 (Ayuthaya, Hanoi and Halong Bay)

Week 2

Ayuthaya

18/10/07 - 19/10/07

We took the overnight train from Chiang Mai to Ayuthaya, which is about 80 Kilometres north of Bangkok. This used to be the old capital of Thailand, it had some of the most amazing temples that were over 700 years old. Most of the buildings were in ruins after the Burmese invaded, they stole all the gold and knocked all the heads of the hundreds of buddahs, we also visted a temple which we were able to spend some time with the young monks.

We stayed in a hundred year old teak house, which was so beautiful right by the river. However, we did spot a dead bloated floating dog in the river which kind of put us off our breakfast!!

Hanoi

19/10/07 - 22/10/07

We caught a flight out to Hanoi in Vietnam from Bangkok, this only took an hour and a half. We met a women at the airport that kind of "took us under her wing". Her name was Dee, she was from New Zealand but has lived in Hanoi for two years, we also met an Australian traveler called Nerida. We all went into town as soon as we found a hotel, and managed to pick up other travelers along the way. There is a curfew in Hanoi, so at 12am all the shutters go down and if you want to go to a bar you knock and the security let you in, and if the police goes past the lights go off. It was pretty strange.

In Hanoi we spent most of our time with Dee and Nerida, we visited both of the big lakes as well as visiting museums, going to markets and enjoying a mixture of both the Vietnamese and French culture.

We are finding the food in Vietnam amazing and prefer it much more than Thailand, we found some really lovely backstreet restaurants with the help of Dee where we ate like kings and queens!. It was so busy though, the amount of mototbikes on the road was mad, after 3 days in Hanoi we felt it was time to move on.

Halong Bay

22/10/07 - 23/10/07

We booked a 2 day - 1 night boat trip to Halong bay, Nerida come along with us, we went out to the limestone karsts and isles.

We visited two caves, took a small fishing boat out to see some beautiful deserted coves, we visited a floating fishing village, went kayaking in all the coves where we found some monkeys. Then we went night swimming off the boat, the islands were quite misty at night and looked almost ghostly, especially as there were so many other boats which looked really old.

We ate on the boat and made some friends from Britain, they will be down in Saigon the same time as us, so we plan to meet up there. All in all it was a very nice 2 day retreat and felt ready to tackle Hoi An.

Week 1 (Bangkok and Chiang Mai)

Khao San Road

09/10/07

We arrived at Khao San Road at 5 in the morning, after a 12 hour delay at Heathrow. With no accommodation booked we wondered up and down the road, Rob batting off the "lady-boys" who were trying to pull him into a soi (alley). We eventually found a place called "Mom" which was 3GBP a night pp, we shared with a friend we met on the plane. It was basic but clean which is good compared to some places.

We spent the next 3 days in Bangkok eating pad Thai noodles (30p a plate), drinking Tiger Beers and driving around in Tuk Tuks, (3 wheeled taxis) through the thick smog and heat!

The Reclining Buddah

12/10/07

This picture does not do this buddah justice, it was such an amazing sight. We took a Tuk Tuk to see the grand palace and then onto the reclining buddah. We took way too many pictures, but both of the sites were so incredible you could not help but take as many as you could. That evening we caught an overnight train up to Chiang Mai. We travelled 12 hours to get there, we were lucky that the carriage was air conditioned, but it was still a pretty crazy experience, with guards walking up and down the carriages with guns strapped their sides, it felt like prison!

Chiang Mai Trek

14/10/07 - 15/10/07

We took a trek up to the mountains near Chiang Mai. We started at Shan Village where we had lunch with some of the local villagers. We then went elephant treking, which was bumpy to say the least, but so much fun. We had one of the greediest elephants, he walked about 100 metres and demanded a banana. After the trek was over we started our 4 hour trek. The trek held some of the most beautiful sites, so much greenery which was such a contrast to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok! We were dripping as it was so hot and humid, we have many sticky looking photos. The last bit of the trek was the worst. We had to climb the "Oh my God" mountain, as our tour guide "Crazy Jungle Jim" called it. At the end of the hike we were rewarded with a nice cold shower and then dinner cooked by a local hill tribe called the Lahu. We stayed with the hill tribe over night in bamboo huts and stayed up talking and singing round a camp fire. In the morning we carried on our hike and finished up the trip with some white water rafting and bamboo rafting which was great fun!!

Elephant Ride

Rob, Jennie and Francesco on our elephant

Chiang Mai City

16/10/07 - 17/10/07

After the trek we spent two more days in Chiang Mai city and saw as much of the city as we could. We went to a few local markets, we visited many temples and even took the opportunity to talk to a monk at an event called "Monk Chat".

Some of the highlights for us in Chiang Mai were visiting Wat Chedi Luang (pictured above) Most of the cities temples are about 200 years old and are very bright, with lots of glass mosaic tiles on them, this however was totally different and almost looked very out of place in the main city, it was build in 1441 and was absolutely huge. We thought it looked like it belonged in an Aztec village.

Chiang Mai City
16/10/07 - 17/10/07

We spent the whole day going from temple to temple, Jennie took some sketches down whilst Rob explored with his camera. This temple pictured here is one of the 130 similar ones in the centre of Chiang Mai!

After we felt a little templed out we visited some night markets. We went to a local flower market and then onto a night bazzar which was very touristy. After 12 hours on our feet we decided to head back to the hotel where we got some sleep ready for our long journey back south to Ayuthaya (The old capital of Thailand.)