Bring on the Paddy Fields

Hello all,

After the lazy days spent in Nha Trang, I went to spend a few more in Hoi Ann. It was great to meet up with the girls again. We did lots of girlie things like going to the beach, having our toe nails painted, going for chocolate cake and coffee (no - I still don't drink coffee. Well, not really, I can drink the vietnamese stuff if its half half with condensed milk - then it tastes like coffee fudge!)

Also, we went shopping. Hoi Ann is THE place to have clothes made. Julia went a bit mental. I managed to restrain myself to a pair of stripey trousers, a silk pink/purple stripy shirt, a navy blue linen shirt and a black cotton blouse. It would have been soooo easy to buy loads more, but just impractical.

Hoi Ann has a lovely old town where the buildings are 200/300 years old. Lots of ornate assembly halls and beautiful yellowed brick buildings with dark, carved, wooden interiors. The doors have "eyes" to help protect the people who live there. A real mix of styles - Japanase, chinese and vietnamese. Hoi Ann is just a great place to cycle round and take in the atmosphere. THe old town is relaxing but touristy - lots of laterns, paintings and clothes for sale, but it makes the streets very colourful.

However, you only need to be cycling for a few minutes outside of this and you're amongst people living their normal day to day lives. Again, all generally very friendly. It's getting a little tiresome saying "hello" to what seems like hundreds of people every day, shaking hands etc (although still heart-warming). I definitly would NOT like to be a celebrity, although I'd still like to go to the Oscars and go out with Heath Ledger.

Just in case you're interested, my current top 5 men are Heath Ledger, Legolass, Jonny Depp, Jude Law and David Beckham. David is all over Vietnam. He's in razor ads, motor oil and something else. The photos are from about 10 years ago!

Also in Hoi Ann, I dragged myself out of bed at 4.45am to visit the Cham ruins. They would be Cham temples but the Americans bombed them to bits. A bit too late, someone pointed out that they are "word heritage" dating back to the 7th century. They are restoring one of the temples and you can still see some examples of the sculptures, elaborate carvings and traditional linga which they used in their ceremonys. There are still Cham living in Vietnam and they all go to the ruins on the 26th August for what must be a massive celebration.

Despite the state of the ruins, it was still a good morning as we watched the sunrise there. It was a small group and we were the only people there (7 of us), apart from some vietnamese workers. The tourist buses started to arrive in their hoards as we were leaving. Soon there would literally be hundreds of people there and the ruins aren't very big! Definitly worth getting up early for.

After Hoi Ann, we said goodbye to Tara + Ruth whilst Julia and I continued on up to Hue. That was a great day. We hired bikes and cycled round the old Emperor tombs which doubled as summer residences so are more like mini palaces. Had a interesting breakfast of yoghurt and creme caramal at a little vietnamese ice-cream shop. No English spoken! Turned out to be the day for it. Later Julia and I went swimming with some vietnamese boys in the river. They were trying to pretend that westerners came swimming with them every day, but we knew they were showing off!! Also had a lovely lunch as the local workers were all loading their plates up with food when we left a temple, and we were asked to join them. Some of the nicest food I've had. Vietnam is very good for food.

The night before, Julia and I tried eel with citronella at a floating restaurant. A vietnamese family were celebrating a birthday on the table next to us and insisted that we share a whiskey with them. Between our French, German and English, we can made do quite well although we're still managing to get into situations where we can't communicate at all!

The cities in Vietnam are unlike most cities in Asia. They are actually quite pretty with obvious thought put into the planning. Each city has its own feel - much more akin to European style cities, rather than mass urban living centres that Asia seems to create more readily. I liked Hue a lot.

After Hue, we went to this town in the middle of nowhere called Dong Hoi. A rather bleak not so friendly town, but a great place for visiting the cave Phong Na. They have 2 big caves and they were awesome. It's a 1 hour boat ride to the cave, and then you explore the first cave by boat. The second cave is up about 1 million steps, set into the carst limestone cliffs. I can't do the description justice. I've been to many caves but none quite like this. There were staligmites and tites 20/30m high, creating elaborate structures which, in some cases, were almost as wide. Cathedrals have to be based on these sort of caves. Just the feel and the look of them + the organ, like someone is trying to recreate nature. The caves were lit up, sometimes with natural lights and other times with these rather fantastical green, red and UV purple lights. Very odd! Outstandingly stunning. Unfortunately a nightmare to photograph so will have to try and keep the memory in my head.

That night we took the night train to Nimb Binh. No sleepers left so we were in soft seats. These would have been fine excpet they are definitly made for small, midget like Vietnamese people so I hardly slept at all. At least they give you food on the trains though, and for free! Who said nothing was for free in Vietnam?!

Today, Julia and I hired a motorbike and have been driving around the countryside. Lots of carst limestone scenery again. Theres a place you can go by rowboat with has loads of these hills dotted around the paddy fields. It took us hours to get there as we got hoplessly lost in the middle of nowhere. The locals didn't speak English and most seemed uncomfortable to speak to us at all, so would just tell us that Nimb Binh was in whatever direction we pointed. It took us ages to find our way back again! However, we did finally make it to the rowboat, and Julia got proposed to by one of the other rowboat drivers!! Much to the hilarity of all the vietnamese women. Here and in the cave, they receive few western tourists but thousands of vietnamese ones. They love touring their own country.

Right, so that's what I've been doing. Here's what I'm going to do. Julia and I are going on another motorbike tour for 5/6 days around the Northern moutains + national parks, staying at minority villages and doing a lot of trekking. Should be cool. Hopefully not too cool - my fleece is being used for the first time in over a year! Also hopefully not too wet. We'll just have to wait and see. Luckily we will have a guide with us, otherwise the trip could take 12 days instead of 6!

Hope everything is going great in your lives.

Lots of love
kx