Vietnam

So, no surprises here, but I also LOVED Vietnam.  It's a bit less chilled out than Laos (back to lots of horn hooting and nearly getting run over a lot) but it's really really lovely.

We arrived off the night bus into a nothing town called Vinh and were all a bit pleased to move on the next day up to Hanoi which is a great place.  We were staying in the old town which is a warren of narrow streets, filled to bursting with scooters, snarls of overhead wires, touristy and also non touristy shops etc.  We stayed in a hostel (which suited me down to the ground, but others were less impressed to say the least) and it was possibly the nicest hostel I've ever stayed in (and those that know me know I've stayed in a few!).  There was a great bar/restaurant on the ground floor, another lovely bar and hangout zone on the 5th and inbetween the rooms had aircon and hot showers.  And the food was great too.

Door at the Hanoi Hilton

Hanoi Hilton

The lake in Hanoi

One of the city gates, Hanoi

Think someone's got the scale a little wrong on this map
- not sure you could really swim from Vietnam to Oz!

After a day of wandering round the old town, the Hanoi Hilton (a jail where American POWs were held during the war, and interesting not least for the different take they have on the "American" war) and the lake we pootled off to Halong bay for an afternoon/night/morning.  The bay is absolutely stunning and we had a lovely time messing about in the water, kayaking and eating great food.

Halong Bay

We headed back to Hanoi for another night and then got another night bus down to Hue.  This time I was up the back with 4 others in a 5 bed bunk.  Luckily they were people from the trip rather than randoms, but the air conditioning was working and I slept much of the way so the journey wasn't too bad.  This being the night before my birthday the guys had put together a "Clare" package for my journey consisting of Pringles, Oreos, vodka, diet coke and a sweet book mark.

I stayed at the Hanoi hostel's sister hostel in Hue which ended up really well as I ran into the UK to Oz truck.  They're a group doing a very similar thing to us, but with a slightly different route.  We'd run into them briefly in Turkey as well.  It was really great to meet other people that understood the trip, but were new as well!  We spent quite a drunken evening sharing horror stories which was a lot of fun.  And kind Mark, the Kiwi that runs the Hanoi hostel had arranged for a birthday cake for me at the Hue hostel so that was really sweet too.  I even managed to leave the hostel long enough at one point to take a wander round the huge, and ruined citadel in town.

Citadel in Hue

Citadel, Hue

Citadel, Hue

Minor misspelling of my name, but not the worst!  My lovely birthday cake.

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to meeeeeeee,
Happy birthday to me

Ever onwards and we headed off for Hoi An, a little further south, and famous for its clothes shops.  You can just turn up, tell them what you want, pick a fabric, get measured and turn up the next day to pick up your new spangly clothes, and all at a reasonable price.  I thought I was being well behaved, just getting a suit dress made, but then I bought some ready made tank tops and a white dress, which meant I had to order up a white bikini to wear underneath.  And then, (and I'm blaming Jenn for this) I got a couple of lightweight skirts made on the last day.

Hoi An

Temple in Hoi An

Temple in Hoi An

Ooopsie.  Purchases in Hoi An
L-R Vietnam flag t-shirt, long tank top, bikini, tank top, white dress, 2 skirts, suit dress

Needing a holiday (because I've not spent enough time in the last couple of years relaxing), we found ourselves at a wee place called Jungle Beach where the highlight (other than being at the beach of course) was the cocktail competition Zoe & Susan set up whereby, in our tent teams, we had to design, name and present a bucket cocktail to the rest of the group.  Aoife, my tent buddy, who has been known as "Mrs Doyle" for the whole trip on account of being Irish, came up with the blinding idea of making a Craggy Island Nice Tea (based on a Long Island Ice Tea, but with Lipton teabags added) which she presented as Mrs Doyle herself.  Cracking!

Cocktail competition on the beach.  Aoife as Mrs Doyle with her "Craggy Island Nice Tea". 

A bit of nightswimming

Jungle beach

And so to our final stop in Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City aka HCMC aka Saigon.  The main sight there was the War Remnants museum which dealt with the Vietnam war aka the America war.  There was lots of American military hardware parked outside but the main exhibits were series of harrowing photographs both of war and of the effects of Agent Orange.  Full marks go to the American education system at this point as I overheard an American girl in her 20's standing in front of a picture of a victim of Agent Orange asking if "this was anything to do with the war?".

Ho Chi Minh bothering a small child

Cathedral, Ho Chi Minh

War Remnants museum, Ho Chi Minh/Saigon

Billboards, Ho Chi Minh