I decided to catch the train to Nha Trang as I wasn’t altogether excited at the prospect of another 12 hour bus trip (after the 26 hour one, I wouldn’t mind not doing any more, thank you very much!). Fortunately, the train wasn’t too much more expensive than the bus and I got an overnight one so I avoided another night’s accommodation expense :). I booked into The Perfume Grass Hotel, which was recommended to me by someone (not sure who, but I’d written it in my Lonely Planet). It had a great feel to the place, a very laid back, comfortable feel, with classy, locally-made furnishings. It wasn’t the cheapest place around, but for a few days, but at that stage, it wasn’t such a big deal – I was going home after all. I got one of the cheapest rooms, but in hindsight, it would have been better to pay even just a few dollars more and get a nicer room (they go from $10 to $30, $15 gets you AC, mini-bar, nicer trimmings and furnishings).

I spent a couple of days chilling out, relaxing, walking on the beach, eating fantastic curries and seafood from the restaurant downstairs, and generally lazing about.

Having gone to Nha Trang for the diving, I decided I should book myself in for a trip! However, during a heavy clubbing night the previous Saturday night, I had fallen over – I don’t remember it – I was told I had fallen over – the end result being that I had seriously hurt my coccyx. Thus, even walking fast or jogging pained me, so I didn’t want to rush into diving lest it be too painful and become a wasteful exercise. That was part of the reason I was lazing about, as well as not rushing to book my diving.

I finally felt good enough that I booked a day of diving for the Thursday. I went with Jeremy Stein’s Rainbow Divers, marked as the best diving crew in the area. It wasn’t too expensive, although having only done diving courses (Open Water and Advanced Open Water), the cost per dive was significantly more than previous dives. We went to two dive sites during the morning that were quite interesting, and I had my own Instructor-in-training, so we were able to just wander around at our own pace, looking at cool coral, fish, even an octopus! The second dive was significantly colder and noisier (with Party Boats cruising around overhead), but equally as pleasant to meander through.

I have to say I wasn’t blown away by the diving I did – the colours weren’t brilliant, probably due to the overcast weather, and I guess I was expecting more from the location (I hyped myself up a lot before I got there!). It was still worthwhile – after not diving for 8 months it was great to experience diving again :)

That night I went out partying with Justin (a guy I met on the dive boat) – from the Rainbow Club (yes - café associated with the dive shop) to the Sailing Club (‘the’ place to end up most nights in Nha Trang – a very trendy, lively bar/nightclub right on the beach, even having beach-chairs to chill out on).

The next day I went out with Jason and some girls he had dived with on the island hopping Boat Trip – with Boat Number 4!

These boat trips are notorious for being party boats, where much drinking, dancing and general havoc-wreaking occurs. This one was no different. The guys running the boat were absolute showmen, firing off jokes and laughs the whole time… We visited 4 different islands, had plenty of snorkelling time (we even snorkelled in one location that I had dived at the day before!), plenty of ‘lets jump off, or be pushed off the top of the boat’ time, had a huge feast-like lunch, before getting settled into the climax of the boat trip – the floating bar!

Our host singing away (Number Four Boy Band!)…

The floating bar was a home-made ring-style floating device, with our host sitting in the middle, pouring us warm mulberry wine while we floated around him (on inner tubes) with our feet dangling over the bar – Impressive look! (shame I didn’t get a pic) We played a drinking game, whereby if anyone said the word ‘no’, then they had to drink from the open bottle… As you might imagine, various interesting questions and conversations started up, each of us (especially our host) trying to trip each of us up!

By the time we got back on the boat, the case of wine was all gone, and we were all struggling to climb up the ladder…

After the drinking session, we went to the third island, where we were given a couple of hours free time. The beach on the island was covered with the tourists from a dozen other party boats, sunning themselves, relaxing, playing sport and engaging in paid water-sports. Having lost my inhibitions through a single utterance of the word ‘know’ during the floating bar event (not ‘no’, but it was claimed to be close enough to be worth a drink), I decided to go Jetskiing (for the first time) – which was absolutely awesome (just like a motorbike on water!).

Even more exciting than that was going parasailing! $15 and a matter of seconds after being on sand, I was shot up into the air, attached only to a parachute and a speedboat! It was a very short lived, but incredibly exciting event! I can’t wait to do it again, hopefully somewhere that they actually tow you around!

After the incredible (and incredibly touristy) time on the beach, we got back on the boat, headed for the last island (where the opportunity to get in one of the circular boats with a fisherperson was offered, but none of us were too excited about), before being dropped home…

What an awesome day!

That evening Justin and I had dinner with Jody and her friend (sorry, forgotten name!) before going out for some drinks and foosball (table football – I’ve been given a natural gift at this game…). The next day I caught a bus to Mui Ne, where the next party was about to begin…

But, teaching English would have been a means to an end, the end being finance – paying my way to stay there – not exactly what I was looking for. One reason I had chosen Saigon was that there seemed to be a reasonable amount of IT work available (based on the online ads I was seeing). Unfortunately, upon applying, most of them seemed to be seriously targeting Vietnamese only, or perhaps those who were willing to work for Vietnamese wage rates. This was really disappointing, and quite ironic that I could only get a salary of about $500-600 a month doing 40+ hours of qualified IT work, whereas any foreigner that could speak English could earn $1500 a month doing 20-25 hours a week! Clearly the benefit of being a foreigner doesn’t translate into IT work, doh!

So, after a couple of unsuccessful applications and interviews, I decided IT in Saigon wouldn’t be for me. It was around this time that I achieved my ‘crisis’ point in my personal life. I spent my days sitting in my guesthouse room, watching cable TV, barely bothering to go out for food then maybe going out for some social drinks with Brandon et al. After 3 days of this, I got really bored and shitty – duh. Having spent anxious nights in Cambodia concerned about my direction in life, this was the ultimate bottom of the pit for me. I remembered the satisfaction I gained from the first week of listening to an Anthony Robbins ‘motivational’ audio program (I don’t like to use the word ‘motivational’ because ‘motivational speakers’ have serious stigma associated with them in society), and started listening again.

This was THE turning point in my life.

To an external observer, it could be possible to have seen the next 3 weeks to be as self-centred, unsocial and boring as the previous three days (holed up in my room most of the day), but it was an incredibly concentrated period of personal development for me. I listened to three of Robbins’ audio programs in their entirety, including doing all the exercises (this ‘can’ take more time than the listening), I put the tools and techniques into use in my own life and I have now taken control of my life and its direction.

Anyone that hasn’t listened and is cynical should open their minds and try it. Anyone that HAS listened and didn’t gain anything from it – sorry to hear it!

I’ve learnt many techniques to master myself - my psychology and my emotions. From the way your physiology affects your mindset (and how to control both) to turning disempowering emotions into learning directions to learning new time planning techniques, everything I heard has made some kind of impact on the improved Dan.

If anyone’s interested in mastering their psychology, or even fine tuning that control if you’re happy where you are, I’d recommend looking into some of this stuff – and I’m more than happy to help guide you as to what to specifically listen to if you don’t feel you have the time/motivation to go through a full 10-30 day program!

Anyway, that’s enough of my rant about the program, as I’m sure not everyone reading will be as excited about it as I am :)

In net effect, I turned my life around. I started exercising my body and mind every day. I exercised my body 45 minutes (as part of an hour of psychological warm-up) every morning for more than 3 weeks straight (before making my way home – see later logs), and even if this was all I had done, it would have been a single beneficial act – getting my body going – switching on my mind as well.

I started to think about what it is I might want in life, WHO do I really want to be, WHERE do I want to be, WHAT do I want to be doing and HOW do I want to act.

For the first time in a many years I created visions for my life. From these came specific goals and results/outcomes I want to achieve. More importantly than the goals themselves, however, is ‘who’ I become in the process. It’s easy to think of people that achieve great things but are not happy or fulfilled, so it’s important to be grateful for what you have already, as well as aiming for greater things.

I decided that I’d had enough ‘drifting’, which is exactly what I had been doing in Asia – ‘paying my way’ to holidaying… There’s nothing wrong with drifting, I enjoyed myself, enjoyed the experience of different cultures and environments, I met some incredible people and had wonderful times. BUT, I wasn’t ‘getting anywhere’ in my life. I wasn’t aiming for anything, so how could I be getting anywhere?!

I decided that I wanted to get a real IT job, give it a real effort, as opposed to ‘avoiding’ the big bad real world of work. I spent many hours deciding what to do and where to go… Asia? UK? US? I came to the conclusion that in my present state of passion and motivation, I really wanted to make the most of all the resources available to me in order to achieve my short and medium term goals. Most of these resources are in Australia, many of them in Sydney (resources such as family/friends, as well as things like my motorbike, exercise equipment, IT equipment, housing, jobs, etc), so that became my decision – go to Sydney.

Once I had made this decision, I almost wanted to get on the next plane home, to get started on next part of my journey in life. However, I also wanted to enjoy and appreciate the region I was in while I was still there, so I planned to travel to the remaining Vietnamese cities that were musts, as well as planning to visit people in Cambodia before I left.

I continued the programs and learned more tools and techniques (the Rapid Planning Method has really good concepts behind it) while planning (and enjoying) my remaining time in SE Asia and my journey back to Sydney.

It was sad to say goodbye to Brandon, Tim, Ele, Karen, and all my other Saigon friends, but for me there was a great deal of excitement for the future.

Dalat is a really chilled out, quiet, mostly uneventful town – it’s been compared to places in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, and it’s not a bad comparison. It’s absolutely filled with Cafes and local-focussed shops. One reason it’s so relatively untouristed is that the area was - until even recently - illegal for non-Vietnamese to visit.

During the one full day we had there we rented a motorbike and drove out to some of the sights – The Valley of Love (a theme-park style grassy and tree-filled valley, named the Valley of Love by the numbers of local University Students that made it their make-out spot!) – unfortunately I didn’t have my camera and Kels’ one wasn’t working, as it was quite a scenic location (even with the theme-park stuff). We also went to Bao Dai’s Summer Palace (a holiday home for the recent ‘playboy’ emperor) which still maintains it’s 70s western feel.

One really interesting spot we visited was the Hang Nga Guesthouse and Gallery (aka the Crazy House). This piece of art (still under construction, but open to tourists, as well as guests wanting to stay in one of the rooms) is being built by an eccentric local artist Hang Nga, and as you can see by the pictures, it really is a crazy house (treehouse to some). I found it to have a magical atmosphere – I really enjoyed the detail of all the rooms and architectural design of the structures! If I were on a holiday with a partner, I’d probably spend the money and stay there a night or two… Each room has a different feel and different price, but considering the uniqueness, the prices aren’t extortionate ($15 upwards a night).

Another place of note was the Stop‘n’Go Café, a very ‘bohemian’ style café run by an old Vietnamese guy who paints and writes poems and is just generally pretty funky and cool. We really enjoyed the atmosphere of the café, Kelly especially so - we even bought a poem for Mum :).

In the afternoon we went all the way out toward the base of Lang Bian Mountain, where the Lat minorities live. We were taken on a short tour of a traditional Lat style home by a shop-seller, we walked up and down one of the main streets of the village and then bought some interesting Lat silk items.

That night we were invited (by a slightly ‘out there’ Cuban guy) to join in a Lat wedding party. Or we were told it was to be a Lat wedding party. It ended up being a well-organised performance of drinking, eating and dancing (mostly by the performers, although after a few of the local rice-wines, they made us dance with them, hehehe). It was quite interesting, seeing the Lat traditional outfits and dances, as well as more than enough rice wine (it was in a big communal ceramic bottle, drunk out of with big straws attached to plastic tubes – we were told to finish the bottle!) – guess what? We even got Kel to take a sip or two! (See the photo!) At the end of the night we were asked to pay a fairly large donation per person – which wouldn’t have been so bad if it WAS a wedding party as promised, but it kind of felt like a bit of a setup, so we gave what we thought it was worth.

Unfortunately the next day I was violently ill. I think it was due to some dodgy meat in the Lat kebabs, mixed with a fair amount of the rice wine. I managed to get on the bus in the morning and make it back to Saigon without incident…

I finally arrived – pretty tired and cranky – to a pretty perky Kels. We booked into Miss Loi’s Guesthouse, now a favoured Saigon spot.

During the time Kel was with me in Saigon we saw some of the tourist sights, such as the Reunification Palace (which I hadn’t seen before) – which was quite large and took at least 1-2 hours just for the tour. We also did the Post Office, the Cathedral, the Benh Thanh Markets and some other local ‘necessary’ visits. Kel was pretty tired from running around Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines so we didn’t push for going to many other cities or even running around too much in Saigon.

In the middle of the week that Kel was in Vietnam, we went to Dalat for a couple of nights – see the next log.

It was really cool having Kel there, being able to show her around some of SE Asia, which had been my life for the previous year. Its definitely not typical that I’ve been somewhere that she hasn’t!

Hoi An has become an historic town with private and public buildings preserved and prepared for tourists to visit. Situated on the river, the old part of town does have a ‘ye olde’ atmosphere, making wandering both relaxing and pleasant. Being a riverside town, like many others, there is a significant focus on seafood. The main market is right on the edge of the river and I was fortunate to watch the arrival of a fishing longboat back from a successful trip. Upon nearing the market, busy hands were fighting to get theirs on one of the crates of fresh produce – hustling and bustling – it seemed almost like “First in, best dressed” in that whoever got the crate got the sale!

In the market I first encountered the most well-known speciality of Hoi An. I was meandering around the food section of the market, reasonably hungry, saw some interesting looking noodles and sat down. I pointed at the food and the seller was away – noodles, lettuce, pork, various sauces, crouton-looking things, etc… This ended up in a pork-noodle-salad mixture which was quite liquid at the bottom. This is Cau Lao. This tastes INCREDIBLE. The mixture of textures – noodles, crouton-things (broken up from a large round pappadam thing made from rice), meat and lettuce, dunked in delicious juice… mmmm… Apparently what ‘makes’ Cau Lao is the noodles – water from some very specific spring is used to create a very off-white colour (don’t think about it), enhancing the noodles’ flavour. Whats more, Cau Lao can be found at most restaurants and is the cheapest thing on any menu (5-8000 vnd)! Other delicacies to be tried at Hoi An are the boiled prawn wonton-like dumplings – called White Rose as well as friend wontons.

I stayed at Thien Thanh Hotel – by far the best value I found in all of south east Asia. $7 a night (for one double bed) bought me 5 star luxury – opulent bathroom (including bath), soft towels, minibar, cable tv, even flower petals on the freshly made bed!!! This is clearly a high-standard hotel city, with great bargains during low-season. I definitely enjoyed staying here :)

Again I met up for some drinks with the guys I had seen in Halong Bay and Hue. After the bar closed at midnight, we were rounded up and put on a minibus to the Full Moon Bar – a few kilometres out of town. The entertaining continued on for a few more hours before it became a bit too quiet and we were too sleepy. The two other guys got on a moto-taxi, the last one in sight, while I was almost stranded… Almost, I say. I saw 2 bikes with some locals (who had been drinking and playing pool inside) sitting, ready to ride. I politely introduced myself and asked if they were heading into town. Yes. Great, could I get a lift? Sure thing. One bike had two people on it already, so I sat on the bike with only one rider. Upon sitting down, the rider turned and told me to sit on the other bike – the ‘other’ girl wanted me to sit behind her – fine by me! We took a western couple that seemed as stranded as I would have been and off we went. Upon getting into town the western couple left and the rest of us went for late-night pho :) I became friends with this little local group, who used to work at a family restaurant together (that had just closed down – thus plenty of free time).

The rest of my time in Hoi An was entirely devoted to hanging out with this cadre of really cool locals – I got the full local Vietnamese experience – a family luncheon with soups, fried chicken, baguettes and beer (and a whole bunch of mostly non-english speaking, very friendly Vietnamese); the Vietnamese café experience (sitting around for literally hours drinking iced coffee); Hanging out on the beach, eating seafood rice-soup, cracking into mussels; attempting one or two of the teeny-tiny little shell-worms (picked out using a device that looks like a large toothpick); Drinking and playing pool in the evening! – I had an awesome time with the guys, I had an experience that you cant ‘order’ and got in touch with the local side of Vietnam. I didn’t go into any more historic buildings or do any other touristy things – and I’m definitely not disappointed!

The ‘localising’ time I spent meant that the only relevant photo I took was a quick snap of the beach – the rest of them are just play photos, taken by some of the other guys messing around.

Hue is a really pretty, rich and interesting city that can easily be overlooked in the wonder of other cities of Vietnam. Its not a huge tourist destination, but the citadel, the Emperor tombs and the new-found ‘cultural development’ does draw some tour buses.

Hue (pronounced ‘hway’) sits on the Perfume River, the riverside of which has an arrangement of natural beauty in the form of gardens, artistic sculptures, walkways and pagodas.

I found the citadel walls, the moat, the gates, the flag tower and the remains of the Forbidden Purple City (where the Emperor kept his concubines) to be all extremely interesting to visit, great places to relax, walk around and soak up the atmosphere.

Flag Tower | Street to Gate | Gate and it’s bridge

Moat, now filled with some kind of lily/plant | Ngoc Mon Gate to palace | More moat

Thai Hoa Palace, behind it is where the Forbidden Purple City is/was | Roof structure of Thai Hoa Palace | Seriously Cool Hedging

The beautiful girls in beautiful, traditional Ao Dai

More of inside the citadel and around the Forbidden City

Check out some of the cool stuff the Emperor had!

After lunch with the guys I met in Halong Bay (we were on the same tourist path now…) I decided to walk the 4km to the Thien Mu Pagoda, which is an impressive tiered pagoda around which many anti-government protests occurred in the 60s.

Aesthetically pleasing canal I saw on the walk to Thien Mu Pagoda| Thien Mu Pagoda

There were some cool buddha-figurine-thingys – very detailed and expressive!

Beautiful things around the Pagoda

I was too wacked to go anywhere after my walk to and from the pagoda, so I missed out on the tombs, but from what I hear, they’re quite impressive!

What Hue has in culture, beauty and history, it lacks in modern ‘young’ entertainment – nowhere to be found interesting or open after midnight – typical of still being pretty far north (although technically in southern Vietnam). Worth a visit if you have the time!

After getting to Halong Boat Station (3-4 hours by bus), we had an organised group lunch at a local Chinese restaurant.

I met the four other people who were doing the same 2 day, 1 night trip that I was taking – a Dutchman and an Italian, both on holiday from their Japanese University studies as well as a Vietnamese couple apparently on their honeymoon. I say ‘apparently’ because it is a well-known trick for young couples to say they are on a honeymoon, or recently married, so that hoteliers and police don’t hassle them about staying in the same room together.

We were put on a ‘standard boat cruise’, simply purchased from a ticketing window (if you decide to DIY) at the entrance to the jetty system, so we were effectively herded onto a boat with a bunch of other tourists from various other tour groups. Fortunately it wasn’t too crowded, there were seats for all.

The first thing we realised was that we were glad we weren’t doing any snorkelling or kayaking, as it was COLD! Clearly another reason why we were there in the wrong season. The second thing we realised was just how many (mostly tourist) boats there were in the bay. Literally hundreds of them, going every which way, all over the place… It was astounding!

Hang Dau Go, the most popular tourist cave, was the first stop. I don’t remember ever seeing such touristed caves that are actually real caves. The caves themselves were reasonably impressive, notwithstanding the NEON lights of various colours that were lighting up the massive structures and coming out of random mini-caves… I did feel that the penguin-garbage-bins were possibly slightly out of place however. This cave is definitely a mass-tourist cave, the small bay filled with tourist boats coming, going and waiting for their payload, the caves also offering multi-linguistic tour-guides (at a price).

In the same bay, some of us also visited the second set of caves – Hang Thien Cung, which was similar but less visited, less made-up and more spacious.

The next destination was within a cluster of islands, a typical tourist stop, as we saw a turnover of about 3 boats in our 1 hour stay there. The boat anchored next to some others and we were offered (for an extra fee, of course!) a mini-boat tour of one of the local Coves ‘inside’ one of the islands. It was pretty impressive – we went in this little boat through a cave-like entrance into the middle of the island.

While moored, many fruit-sellers offered their wares from little row-boats – as you can see below, some of the sellers are surprisingly quite fashion-conscious!

The rest of the afternoon we spent inside the boat (it was too cold to sit outside) while it slowly made its way to Cat Ba town, on the opposite side of Cat Ba Island.

The five of us, plus a new tour guide took us to our hotel, where we were piled into two rooms. We went for a quick (but horrible) coffee on the waterfront before going back to the hotel for a similar dinner to our lunch. We drank some wine with the ‘newlyweds’, before going out for more drinks at ‘the local bar’. After happy hour had finished, we went to the nightclub that we passed on the way to the bar. It was quite large, and in peak season could hold quite a number of people. In low season it could hold just as many people, just that there weren’t that many people there… Including our group, there were a maximum of 13 people there during out stay. The music was good, the venue quite good, but the atmosphere was somewhat lacking. We then decided to check out the Seaview Bar, on the 8th floor of a hotel, which we had read about in the Lonely Planet, and had noticed on our way to coffee – unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there.

That was pretty much it for the night, and although not a lot was happening, our little group had fun.

The following day’s journey back to the mainland was pretty similar to the trip to Cat Bat. Cold, a little sleep and uncomfortable, and long.

I really enjoyed the trip - Halong Bay is a definite must-see and would be fantastic in a warmer season.

I guess it’s another moment of learning about myself – that I much prefer travelling with someone else if possible. Not that I didnt know that already :P

At least I got to see where Fanxipan Mountain is (The tallest mountain in Indochina), which might a cool 3-day ‘hard slog’ trek option for next time. I saw some Fanxipan’d Travellers – they looked absolutely beat. Perhaps there IS some adventurous hiking to be done :)

Oh yeah, I saw a mountain goat as well. That was cool.

The rest of the day was ‘well used’ at the internet again, finishing my book (Lord of the Rings Book 1) and just waiting for the bus to take me to the train in Lao Cai.

Overall, it was a worthwhile trip that I don’t regret, even if the way I did it wasn’t worth the money, planning or time that was taken, nor was it as satisfying as it could have been – at least I learned something… Not to book treks like that again. It’s worth visiting Sapa and the surrounding villages, the scenery can be awe-inspiring. If you are fit and eager, perhaps organise a Fanxipan Mountain trek once you get to Sapa (don’t book anything from Hanoi, except maybe the train – which is cheapest from the station itself), otherwise the local villages are accessible enough for ANYONE who wants to check it out. The hill-tribe villages are pretty similar to most in Indochina, so don’t expect radical differences if you’ve been hill-tribe-hopping before :)

Compared to the first day, rhe second day was significantly:
- More Challenging, yet shorter and finished quicker (left at 10am, finished before 1pm)
- Less Touristy
- Less Frequented in General
- More fulfilling
- More Adventurous
- More Hilly

From our homestay, we literally went over a couple of worthy mountains before arriving at ‘the road’, where we had lunch (again, cooked by Mr Dien, using the restaurant’s facilities – this is a very interesting arrangement, especially at a local restaurant, where each of the guides prepares the food for their group).

During the hike, which I would actually consider a hike – as opposed to the previous day’s walk – there were times at which I felt real pleasure at being able to stop and take in the scenery. It was really really cool. I looked over a valley, which was just as one might imagine it centuries or even millennia ago. Local Hmong people walking their donkeys up and down windy tracks, carrying water and foodstuffs, dressed to kill in their traditional outfits, others working the hillside, ready for the next crop (slogging away, still in their hot black outfits). The paths they trod barely wide enough for the donkeys, which amazingly managed to scale very steep hills and avoid scrambling down the same paths. The only sign of modern technology being the materials used to construct the bridge – even then I could imagine it being replaced by a similarly well constructed bamboo equivalent.

It reminded me of one of my favourite old computer games – Settler – the creation and construction of villages from basic land – it was very, very cool to see it in reality.

I felt strong during this part of the hike, remembered the days of Scouts, 3 day hikes, camping, the feeling of being in touch with nature, pushing on through incredible scenery.

We went through a Red Zao village, again being guided through the house, having the differences between Zao and Hmong pointed out to us. One really impressive thing they showed us was a really worn, old Taoist Manuscript. This thing looked like it should be in museum somewhere marked as being an ‘original copy’.

After lunch, a Jeep took us back to Sapa, or tried to. We were stopped for more than 45 minutes at one stage – where there was active construction work happening on the road we were driving on. That was pretty strange. Cars, bikes and trucks stopped and just waited for them to finish that section of demolition, then slowly filed through once it was cleared. At least I got the opportunity to get some photos of the valley around us.

Once we got back to Sapa, the other guys were herded off to get back to Hanoi (they were only doing 2 days, not 3). I had the rest of the day to myself, so, not having prepared for this time and having nothing ‘to do’, I went and caught up on my web browsing – shame I didn’t have my laptop or anything else I would normally have had with me.

The evening passed with a little local food and beer, followed by some reading (So glad I brought THAT at least, The 3 TV channels were all Vietnamese!).

Ever since doing the hilltribe trek in Laos, I had wanted to go to Sapa (North West Vietnam) to do some more. The Laos days were quite challenging and I was hoping for more of it.

Feeling pushed for time, I decided to organise a trek from Hanoi. I figured there wouldn’t be any delays with time in Sapa finding treks, as well as the likelihood that I’d meet people on an organised trek. I took the Lonely Planet’s advice and avoided the fast-food treks, going for one place that was more independent and recommended. Unfortunately, the trek was very expensive (I think they somehow got an extra $20 out of me with all the breaking of notes and changing the Dong deposit to dollar payment – still uncertain about that; plus, I’d already paid for my hotel room when we left that evening – doh!), there were only three of us (the other two a couple – they were quite nice people) and there was enough ‘spare time’ in Sapa that I WOULD have been much better off doing it on my own and organising any treks from there. Live and Learn!

We caught the evening overnight train from Hanoi, which was decent and comfortable enough, (they gave us some free water and horribly sweet buns – left untouched), which arrived at Lao Cai at some unearthly hour in the morning. We were bundled into a minibus which drove us the next hour to Sapa. It was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING! This I was NOT expecting from Vietnam (however, I was told to expect cold before I left for the trek). I mean, we were standing around when we got dropped off, and every breath was a huge puff of cloud. We were given the opportunity of a shower before a set-menu breakfast.

As you can see in the pic, once we got walking, we noticed that we couldn’t see anything due to the mist – we were all hoping it wouldn’t be this way for the entire trek.

Most of the initial leg of the journey was pretty touristy as we were still close to the town, so there were plenty of Black Hmongs trying to sell us their wares along the way and in the villages. “Hello, where are you from?”, “Australia”, “KangarooKoalaTwentyMillionPeople!” Our guide, Mr Dien, showed us through various Hmong homes, explained their traditions and even played one of their bamboo-pipe instruments!

As you can see in the following picture, this village is quite close to the main road being carved out of the other side of the valley, so it’s very accessible and therefore has all kinds of tourists wandering around.

To be honest, this wasn’t a very long or difficult day (supposed to be 7 hours). We left Sapa at 10, had long breaks, including a large lunch, arriving at our homestay at 3:30. So really only about 4 hours of walking. Perhaps one of the reasons for it was that we went some different routes because the ‘normal’ village we would have stayed at was having a ceremony and no foreigners were allowed anywhere near it.

The homestay village was also only a couple of hundred metres from the aforementioned road, which probably explained why it was the most developed homestay I’ve had! Large well-built houses, a reasonably sized loft for each of us with mattresses, heavy doonas, pillows and mosquito nets (mine even had a TV!). Not a typical picture of a homestay, but it WAS nice.

Perhaps I’ve been living in Cambodia, with far poorer people (knowledge, not just finance) for too long, but the Vietnamese are amazing! The infrastructure they create and the resourcefulness of the locals is quite astounding… From waterways made from bamboo, guiding water from the hills into water-driven rice mills to reasonably constructed concrete paths in some of the more prosperous villages, they make the most of what they have. They have thriving gardens and pigsties as well as drying vegetables (a lot of corn) so that when the rice runs out, they can still eat. This in direct contrast to many provincial Cambodians who still don’t know how to effectively manage a home-garden! These guys know how to farm and how to survive.

Our first evening was spent chatting with the locals (or rather, them looking at us, trying to sell us things, while we sat around talking and taking photos), then sitting in the kitchen watching Mr Dien and our host preparing dinner. We snacked on hand-made wedges, before 90 minutes of feast preparation. Being his birthday, and a generous soul, our host cooked up half a leg of smoked pork, beef, pork mince, tofu, tomatoes, lettuce, rice and various other veggies. EVERYTHING was fried or grilled, including the lettuce! It seemed like they were cooking for the entire village, but it was just US!

We really struggled to even get through half of it – there was just SO MUCH! The introduction, mastery and onslaught of local rice wine helped gain more appetite. Being the hosts birthday, we were obligated to finish the half-empty 2L bottle of the stuff, before he brought out another half-bottle, which also got demolished, before he brought out a large round tray of candy!

He also showed us how to use the tobacco pipe, which is basically a large bamboo bong. It’s the most efficient way of smoking the local tobacco, which a 1000 dong (6c) handful-sized bag can be consumed by a fair smoker in a week.

We all went to bed pretty early (thanks to the rice wine), although it seemed so much later than it was.

Legend goes that in the 15th century, the Emperor had a magical sword (to drive away those pesky Chinese). After the war, The Emperor was cruising the lake and came upon a giant golden tortoise, which snatched the sword from his grasp and took it to the bottom of the lake (presumably to eat it, don’t all golden Tortoises eat magical swords? – Editors Note). Thus the lake became Ho Hoan Kiem – the Lake of the Restored Sword – as it had been returned to its ‘divine owners.’

Ngoc Son temple, in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake | Cool Pathway around Ngoc Son Temple | The old East Gate

The lake makes a nice, albeit not ‘very’ lengthy walk, which is nice at 6am when you arrive back from a 3-day trek and the travel agent with your bags isn’t open, nor your destined hotel – more on that later :)

Hanoi, the current Capital (Emperor Ly Thai To had a dream, and proclaimed it to be lucky, so moved the capital there) has plenty to see and do. You can do a walking tour of the old quarter (as in the Lonely Planet - mostly covering all the different types of traditional shop and shop-areas), peruse plenty of museums and galleries as well as Pagodas and Temples, and last but by NO means least – Go visit Uncle Ho himself!! Yes, you can, if you get there early enough, get a glimpse of the Frozen Body of Ho Chi Minh in his Mausoleum. It was kinda weird but kinda cool at the same time. Its very formal, pushed through (you cant stop walking), guards everywhere, no talking, no bags, definitely no phones, nothing but respectable attire, etc. I thought it was cool, seeing as he’s almost considered a God to most Vietnamese, so I definitely recommend it.

The markets around Hanoi, similar to the rest of Vietnam are vibrant, colourful, surprisingly clean and presents an amazing feast for the nose and eyes. The amount of tofu there is incredible – the fried stuff VERY tasty :). Speaking of food, the north does have a certain difference in flavour… My major comparison is the pho, being my daily sustenance. In the north, I found the phos to be darker, heavier and little or no bean sprouts and greens to accompany them. Still clearly very tasty, but I’d have to favour the Saigon phos if you asked. There’s an area on the edge of town, which I didn’t have the time/opportunity to visit which is known for the dog meat they sell – its apparently good luck to eat it during the first half of the lunar month. I did see, in Sapa, dog meat for sale in the market, and that was more than enough for me. In each of the smaller towns, there’s usually at least one ore more specialties - the north, eg. Hue containing hundreds due to the Nguyen Emperor’s demands for variety.

Hanoi isn’t the cheapest place to stay in Vietnam – you end up really pressed to find single fan rooms for less than US$7, that being said, Saigon is only a dollar or two cheaper. Most of the smaller towns are better value, mostly because they are less frequently visited en-mass.

There is a definite difference between the people and culture of the north compared to the south. The southerners ARE more open and welcoming of different cultures, and often willing to exploit it for capitalistic gain. I don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing, as it gives relatively open reign to us westerners to do what we want to do – and it doesn’t seem to have ‘overtaken’ the local culture either which is good. In the north, however, things are a little more conservative, and restricted. For whatever reason, the nightlife in Hanoi sucked, even though I’m sure there were plenty of like-minded tourists and backpackers there. I went out on a Saturday night (9-10pm, and most places still close at midnight), and out of the nightclubs/bars/cafes I went past, one was filled with guys (and I found out later that its ‘that’ kind of bar), another filled with no-one, and the final one with just a few guys (and its NOT that kind of bar). Compare this to Saigon, and there’s simply no comparison. You can party hard and as long as you want in Saigon, albeit you may have to go to certain bars after 1-2am. Even in some of the smaller towns like Hoi An there was a definite party-zone, as well as an after-midnight venue.

In a similar vein to ‘nightlife’, I found that Hanoi wasn’t a very accommodating place for a single guy with no friends in town. The backpacker ‘area’ is pretty well spread out, more hotels than guesthouses, thus not that many communal areas or meeting places, etc. Then again, this was just my limited 3-day experience, but it was enough to make the decision to base myself in Saigon (plus I already had friends there).

All in all, a beautiful, rich, historical Capital with plenty to see, do and relax to – just don’t expect it to be a party town :)

I quickly met many of Brandon’s teaching friends and other local friends, and just like in Cambodia, most of them know very well how to party. Needless to go into the descriptions, but the weekend had already been planned to be a big one and I joined in the fun – Some of the locations including: Heart of Darkness, Bia Hoi (local beer), Lost in Saigon, Apocalypse Now, Sahara, Kim Bar, GO2, local houses and the strangest ‘late night room’ I’ve ever been to.

The ‘late night room’ is one of a bunch of single rooms in a 5 storey apartment building (most at the top), with lounges, a hefty sound system, drinks on order and a cubicle of a bathroom. The shades are drawn, the lights go almost out (or, as in one case, completely out with the addition of candles), the heavy beats and breaks inside and daylight breaks outside. A pretty cool place to hang out if you want to stay up after a big night. The cubicle, which I had to frequent, consists of literally that. There’s a hose, a bucket and a small hole (like the size of a coin). This is a shower, toilet, etc. I couldn’t believe it, not even a full drain, or squat toilet – just a hole! I didn’t have my camera with me, but one of my friends took a pic with his phone – I’ll have to try and get a copy of it…

Seeing as Kel would be arriving on the 20th and I wanted to see most of northern Vietnam before she got here, I flew straight to Hanoi (train/bus would take more than 48 hours) on Monday evening.

I didn’t do much there apart from hang out with friends, watch movies and resolve a few things with Lydia.

It was good to see everyone again, life not really any different for all the expats (nor would it be if I went there again soon!), the government situation still shite, the incredible goings-on of Cambodia still being incredible.

Fortunately this time wasn’t based or focussed on negative things, I was able to acknowledge to myself the uniqueness of Cambodia and able to leave with a good feeling towards its inhabitants.

I got my Vietnam Visa (with TWO months on it, SWEET!) and caught the early bus to Saigon (via lengthy wait at border) on the 3rd.